Let me show you How To Grow Your Own Spinach And Make A Super Popeye Spinach Quiche. It is also the perfect way to teach kids healthy eating habits.
Do you want a super easy vegetable to grow with kids so they can learn where food comes from? Spinach is so easy to grow, it grows fairly fast and it’s super versatile in meals. It’s an easy veggie to add that doesn’t have a strong flavor in food. It’s also pretty and green so it offers a lot of color to a dish.
How To Grow Your Own Spinach
Growing spinach with kids is simple. The seeds are medium sized, so they are easier for little hands to plant than super tiny seeds.
Plant spinach outside as soon as the soil can be worked. Spinach can take some light freezes, so don’t worry about waiting until it’s warm. In fact, if it’s too warm, spinach will bolt (put on seeds and become bitter) and you won’t get a good crop.
Fall is a great time to plant spinach because you can grow it though most of the winter if your area doesn’t get below freezing often, if it does, you can grow it in a cold frame.
Sow spinach seeds ½ inch deep and 6 inches apart. When I plant seeds with my kids, I tell them how many knuckles deep to plant them. Their little fingers have about ¼ inch between knuckles, so if it’s ¼ inch deep, I say one knuckle, if it’s ½ inch deep, I say two knuckles. This helps them know how deep to poke their hole.
Have kids poke a hole 2 knuckles deep (or one if they are older kids) and then drop a seed into the hole. Put a small amount of soil over the hole and pat it down about as hard as you would rub your eye. Not too hard.
Spinach takes a week or two to germinate. Two long skinny leaves will pop up out of the ground.
Watch your spinach plant and make sure you remove any buggies from it You can just pick them off and drop them in a bucket of soapy water so you won’t have to spray chemicals on your food.
Spinach is easy to grow in a pot or other container. It should be about 12 inches across to have enough room for the roots. You could put about 4 seeds in a 12 in pot.
Spinach can be harvested at any stage, but for milder flavor and more tender leaves, don’t let them get too big. When you’re ready to cook it or make it into salad, wash it really well by soaking it in a bowl of cool water and then rinsing it off.
Spinach is super nutritious. Many of the nutrients are blocked if you eat it raw so if you’d like to use it in smoothies or another raw preparation besides a salad, blanch it in boiling water for a minute or two and you’ll get the most nutrition from it. I just cook it and that makes it easy. We use it in egg dishes, casseroles, soups, pasta dishes and so much more.
We also dehydrate our extra spinach and make it into green powder. There are instructions on the blog. Then I sprinkle the green powder in the kid’s food throughout winter when there’s not a lot of fresh yummy goodness in season.
My kids love eggs with veggies in them, especially if they aren’t strong tasting veggies. We made a spinach quiche not too long about with spinach we grew in the garden. It was delicious.
Kids are more likely to eat something they helped prepare, so let them tear or cut up the spinach and throw it in the mix and stir it around. They’ll love it. When they grow it, they are even more likely to try it, so growing and eating is the perfect storm for a picky eater. Give it a try.
You can cook up the pie crust and bacon and get everything but the spinach chopped, then let the kids help you assemble it and mix it.
If you are interested, check out other super easy to make recipes with spinach, like my Super Green Spinach Avocado Basil Raw Pesto or Cherry Banana Spinach Smoothie recipes.
Super Popeye Spinach Quiche
Ingredients:
1 baked pie crust (I use pioneer woman’s recipe)
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/p-p-p-pie_crust_and_its_p-p-p-perfect/
3 slices of bacon, chopped and cooked
½ package mushrooms, sliced
½ small onion diced very finely
1 cup chopped spinach
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 eggs, beaten well
1 cup milk or cream (cream is better)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 tsp prepared yellow or brown mustard
Instructions:
Beat milk or cream and eggs together well. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into prepared pie crust and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until the center doesn’t jiggle when you shake it back and forth. Let cool at least 20 minutes before cutting.
This How To Grow Your Own Spinach And Make A Super Popeye Spinach Quiche is a guest post by Christina Kamp. For more information about growing food with kids, cooking with kids and recipes to cook, check out her website Little Sprouts Learning.
About The Author
My name is Christina Kamp and I blog at Little Sprouts Learning. A few years ago, I was tired, sick, and miserable. I started doing research and found out what was making me feel like crap all the time. Through that research, I realized kids need much more to thrive than I ever realized. I want to share what I’ve learned.
I also realized that ALL childcare providers and parents could thrive in raising children if they only knew how to live healthier. I started encouraging other providers and parents to make small changes so they could feel better.
People asked me the same things over and over again, so I realized if I had a resource for them, I could help more people. Healthy lifestyle habits, a good attitude and taking care of yourself is so important when you give to others all the time. I want to help you be your most awesome self.
