Lunch Ladies Creamy Italian Spinach

Submitted by SarahBeth

"When I was growing up, my mom worked full time as a teacher in the special needs program at our school, had a husband and two kids to look after, so my brother and I didn't get lunches packed from home a lot. We also went to private school (same one where my mom taught) so we spent 13 years each in the same place day after day and we really got to know the cafeteria staff well, which was a blessing and a curse, because they watched over us and if we didn't order the hot meal more than once a week, or had soda instead of milk at lunch mom knew and we were in trouble and don't even get me started about the candy bars, (they had been given express orders to not let us buy them!). Wednesday was spaghetti day and they served creamy Italian spinach and garlic bread with it! Everyone in the whole school loved that spinach some kids ate double orders of that and nothing else for lunch. It was a "secret" recipe so they wouldn't divulge it to anyone and we only got to have that creamy yummy goodness on Wednesday afternoons. When I was a junior and a senior in highschool, I had last lunch (with 4k-10th going before) and they always ran out of that spinach. My mom mentioned how I liked it so much and was so sad I didn't get there in time to have it anymore and lo and behold from that day on every Wednesday I was presented with a special bowl of spinach they had put aside just for me. They eventually gave the recipe to my mom, we scaled it way down and we don't have spaghetti in our house without it. So enjoy a trip to my elementary, middle and highschool cafeteria. Note the stage in the back ground and the basketball goals hanging from the ceiling. And I hope you enjoy this as much as I do."

 

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 6
• Yields: 1 side dish
• Serves: 4-6

ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and semi dried
• 4 slices bacon (leave out to make vegetarian)
• 1⁄2 cup sour cream
• 1⁄3 cup parmesan cheese, shredded (not the kind in the green jar that looks like powder, this won't work)
• 1⁄8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt

directions

1. With kitchen shears cut raw bacon into small pieces and fry until crispy but not burned, drain well on paper towels.
2. Place spinach in a large corning ware type bowl that is micro-wave safe.
3. Add bacon, sour cream, cheese and seasonings to the spinach stir well to combine.
4. Heat covered in a microwave oven for 3 minutes. Remove from microwave and stir well. Heat for additional 2 minutes.
5. OPTION: For a nicer presentation, after microwaving sprinkle parmesan cheese over top of the spinach and place in 350*F oven for about ten minutes or until cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

Reviews

[Karen Elizabeth]

Wish I'd gone to your school :lol: I used fresh spinach, a big bunch, and stuck to the recipe otherwise, and it worked out very well, we really enjoyed this simple but very tasty dish! I didn't actually use the microwave, just used the same pan I used to cook the bacon, but I do like that its microwave friendly and may well do it like that another time. I served this with pasta as suggested and I just LOVED it, thank you SarahBeth! Made for PRMR tag game.

 

[Misa]

I really, really liked this. I did add a little extra sour cream at the end because seems my spinach soaked it all up on the microwave. I'm definitely looking forward to making this again. Next time, I might try the stove top version Karen Elizabeth did to save an extra dish to wash. And then I want to try it in the oven. This is just good stuff. Thank you for sharing.

 

[invictus]

This is pretty darned good tho I think next time I will add additional sour cream on top to serve because for me it wasn't quite creamy enough.

 

[Lunchmeat]

This was easy, pretty and delicious! I had a 10 oz box of spinach so had to wing it on the measurements but it was still awesome. Will be making this again and again. I remember a lot of school lunch foods that I liked, but don't remember getting anything this good! Thank you for posting the recipe.

 

[redwine]

Those tricky Lunch Ladies, dressing up a maligned vegetable like Spinach and serving it with kid- friendly Spaghetti. Public School's Spinach was NEVER like this. Sarah Beth, you are right. This is DELICIOUS ! I can't wait to serve this one to company. Thanks for posting