Veggie Tales: Popeye Donuts

Here at Chez Freshour, I'm on a quest to expand my children's vegetable awareness because, quite frankly, I'm a little tired of the seemingly endless rotation of carrots, peas, green beans, broccoli, carrots, peas, green beans...you get the idea. So when I came across this recipe while at the hospital yesterday with Carter, I shamelessly tore it out of the magazine and took it home. What is exciting about sitting in a waiting room for an hour and a half, is all the time you have to scan free magazines and ponder what to have for dinner. And wonder if you are going to be there for so long that a trip to the grocery store afterwards will be out of the question.

You could probably call these Spinach Balls, but around these parts, conspicuous vegetable typecasting earns us swift and blatant rejection. There's nothing like a clever marketing ploy to help move them from the plate into the mouth. Without further ado, I bring you:

Popeye Donuts

Ingredients:

2 (10-oz.) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed

4 eggs

1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese

1 lg. white onion, finely chopped (I grated mine thereby rendering it invisible.)

2 c. Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Stuffing mix

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

10 Tbsp. melted butter (Try to keep your mind centered on all the folic acid while drizzling this in.)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350. (Mine was already on because I was baking cookies. This because we are not above bribery when it comes to pushing new vegetables and we weren't exactly sure if the green donut idea was going to fly.) Squeeze the water out of the spinach through a colander in the sink until the spinach is just about dry. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then dump spinach and the rest of the ingredients in and mix well. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until the mixture holds together, about an hour. Shape roughly into 1-inch balls and bake on a lightly greased cookie sheet (I'm nothing if not lazy and avoided that whole greasing bit by lining my baking sheet with parchment paper.) until just browned and crispy, 30-35 minutes. Sprinkle with kosher salt while still hot prior to serving.

It's spinach for spinach haters. Not only did the kids give them two thumbs up, but they would be a slammin' summer appetizer or side. They were that good.