Cleaning Out the Freezer Challenge-June 25th & Recipe

June 25th, Thursday, I was rooting around in the deep dark recesses of my Freezer and came up with a DOUBLE PLAY in the Cleaning Out the Freezer Challenge.

First I found these 2 forlorn breaded chicken cutlets. They are the long lost survivors from a rather large pack of cutlets that was consumed many months ago.
Just the perfect size package of chicken for tonight, as Hubby is the only one eating solid food today in this house.

But what to do with breaded chicken cutlets, what to do....
Oh, here's an opened bag of shredded mozzarella cheese!
That gives me an idea.....

And then I found & thawed out 2 large bags of spinach. I was going to prepare something grand with this until I opened it and saw that the spinach was itsy bitsy chopped pieces, really only good for adding to a creamed soup or such.
Note to self.....do NOT buy this brand of frozen spinach again.

So what to do with stringy, watery, itsy bitsy pieces of green mush???
...And make it pseudo-healthy & a side dish for the chicken that hubby will eat?

So I grabbed an egg, garlic powder, milk and parmesan cheese.

I had printed out a recipe eons ago for an 'Easy Spinach Souffle'. Now is as good a time as any to give it a whirl, right? You can find the recipe on the Allrecipes site HERE.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees(unless you want to make this in the microwave if you are short on time).

In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 egg, 1/3 c. milk, 1/3 c. parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon garlic and salt & pepper to taste. Fold in 2(10 ounces)packages of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained.
Put in casserole dish.
Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until lightly set.

Alternate baking method:If you are in a hurry, use a microwave safe casserole dish, cover with palstic wrap and cook on high for 3 minutes. Release the steam, recover and cook on high for another 3 mintues.



And here is what it looks like after baking.

I have to say that mine took 30-35 minutes to set up, not 20 mins. But then again, maybe I overbaked mine. At 20 min. it was still very loose.
Hubby said it could have used more cheese. Next time, I'm going to add some mozzarella too.

The chicken cutlets got a quick saute in some EVOO in a skillet and then some spaghetti sauce(from an opened jar in the fridge)and a handful of mozzarella on top. Cover with the lid and let melt for 5-10 mins.
Spoon up the spinach and mange!
Ok, so my food photography skills are somewhat lacking. I'll put it on my master list of things to conquer right after curing AIDS and disarming North Korea. 8-P

If you are a beginner or one of those cooks who is scared of souffle preparations, this recipe is a good one to try.
It's not a true souffle but it gives you the taste/feel of one without the work.

I've still got some of that bag of spinach left to use up in the next couple of days. I'll have to dig into the fridge and see what is lurking in there that I can possibly combine to make something fabulous to use this EX-Freezer item up.

Freezer-0
Sluggy-2

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