Baked Eggs Florentine (Low Carb)

One of my favorite vegetables is fresh spinach and I'm fortunate to live in a place where fresh organic produce is available year round.  But out of season fruits and veggies can be  expensive and you may live in a place where they are not available at all. The next best option is frozen produce and there's a lot you can do with frozen spinach.  It's messy to handle, so I had to figure out a way to make it easier. I start by taking a 10 oz (284 g) bag of organic spinach and I divide it evenly between three containers while it's still frozen. I use a digital food scale to determine size portions - it's more accurate than a measuring cup and it allows me to adjust the portion exactly. According to the package, a single serving of frozen spinach is 81 grams or 1 cup and a 10 oz bag will give you 3.5 servings. Using the scale allows me to measure out three equal portions, each weighing about 95 grams.

If you store them in the fridge, you can allow them to defrost without cooking. When you're ready to use it, all you need to do is drain the water. You can use a sieve, provided that the wholes are small enough, or you can strain it through unbleached cheesecloth. To cut down on waste, I rinse out the  cheesecloth when I'm finished using it and dry it so I can use it as many times as possible. Once the spinach is drained, you're ready to go.


Baked Eggs Florentine


Ingredients:


95 g chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/8 T butter
1 large egg
1 T heavy cream
1/8 tsp garlic powder
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper


Preparation:

*Preheat oven to 400 F.

*Grease a ramekin with butter.  To prepare the spinach, put it in a small bowl and add garlic powder and some  salt and pepper and blend. Lightly pack the spinach in the ramekin and make an indentation in the center - I use a measuring tablespoon.

*Crack the egg into a cup, making sure to keep the yolk whole. Gently pour on top of spinach and sprinkle with  salt and pepper, if desired. Cover evenly with heavy cream.

*Bake for 16 - 18 minutes, depending upon how well-done  you like your eggs. Remove from oven (carefully, it will be very hot!).

I know it looks lovely in the ramekin (sorry for the lousy picture quality, but trust me, it looks amazing!), but it will be too hot to consume it you leave it in there. Run a knife around the edges to separate it from the sides and using a fork, lift it out of the ramekin and place on a plate.

And enjoy!


Makes 1 serving and has 173.63 calories, 3.25 net carbs, 10.85 g fat, 1.5 g fiber and 9 g protein.

So This Is My First Entry...

Whoo hoo!  Somebody alert the press!  Seriously, welcome to my food blog. If I appear as if I don't know what I'm doing, well, that's because I don't. But I'm not going to let that stop me. So, bear with me - I hope to be of some help to others out there. Dieting is hard - don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Naturally thin people are naturally thin; they don't tend to have things like insulin resistance to contend with and often regard those of us to whom it is difficult as lazy and undisciplined. Those of us who are not naturally thin (which is to say, most of us, even though almost any kind of media will tell you otherwise) find ourselves struggling. People who have the additional burden of chronic illness struggle even more - I have fibromyalgia as well as insulin resistance and it has been difficult to make the necessary changes in my lifestyle. I'm a work in progress - I have not reached my target weight and I am still very out of shape due to severe exercise intolerance, but over the course of one year, I was able to lose 80 lb's by diet alone, have completely eliminated both aspartame and sucrolose (and many other things) from my diet and no longer need to take prescription medication for type II diabetes. Since I live alone I have modified the recipes  for one person servings ( or in the case of sweets, the lowest number possible so as not to tempt myself ). They are also modified for people who have limited mobility, chronic fatigue or are just plain exhausted from being terminally busy. This means meals that are not too labor intensive - the fewest amount of ingredients and the least amount of prep work, designed to make life easier while still being nutritious and appetizing.

Now, on to the food!