Yummy Monday: Spinach and Chickpeas (+ baby food!)

This is a quick and delicious mash up of two super-healthy foods: spinach and chickpeas. (I know I've already done a chickpea recipe, but I did warn you that I love, love, love them!) I found the recipe in a vegan cookbook (totally don't remember the name) and made it a while ago and loved it. Then last week I wanted to make it again, but didn't have the recipe on me. I did what I could from memory, and it turned out a little differently but was still very tasty. Give it a try!

Oh, and at the end, I'll tell you what I did to let Adelaide have a little taste of the family meal too!

Spinach and Chickpeas

9ish ounces of spinach (I used regular spinach here, but baby spinach is better)
1-2 cans of chickpeas, depending on how much you like them!
1/2 cup of veggie broth
3-4 cloves (or more) garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil



Heat the olive oil and saute the crushed garlic for about a minute.



Add your chickpeas.



Add broth.



Let simmer for a couple of minutes. Use a potato masher or the back of a spoon to mash about half of the chickpeas.



Add spinach and wilt.



Look at the simple, healthy, messy goodness!



Plate it up! I cooked some brown rice topped with sauteed baby bella mushrooms to serve with it, plus a couple of yeast rolls. Not including waiting for the rice to cook all on its own in the rice cooker, I spent maybe 15 minutes from start to finish on this meal. Super quick and very delicious!




Baby Food Version

I saw this idea while blog hopping and loved it! Use a mason jar screwed in to the top of your blender instead of the big ole honkin' glass blender part for smaller servings of things! I am anticipating using this trick A LOT when I go back to work as morning smoothies are a definite breakfast option I turn to when I don't have time to sit down and eat (which I very well see as a part of my working mommy future)! Whip up a smoothie in a jar and boom! Take it to go! No dirtying up more dishes than you have to!



Anyhow, I just spooned a little bit of the Spinach and Chickpea mixture into the mason jar (just to try the idea out), pulsed the heck out of it, and this is what it turned into:



Then I actually did dirty up another dish because getting that little baby spoon down in the mason jar would've been a little difficult. But here it is, Adelaide-ready form:



Looks tasty, huh? I did try a bit and of course it tasted just like the grown up version. Adelaide wasn't a huge fan. I could see it in her face: Wha? Mama? What's this weird stuff? So I just spooned it into yet another, smaller, washed and reused baby food jar and stuck it in the freezer. I'll try again another day. And another and another if I have to!

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Interested in sharing a recipe? Shoot me an email - I'd love to feature you!