Day 27: 20 Minute Dinner

I asked Kevin an important question tonight, "So...the name of my blog is "Use-It-Up February" What happens when February is over?"  His answer came in the form of another question. "Did we actually use everything up?  I doubt it.  If you like it, just keep going."  Hmmm...And the countdown to February's end begins. 

I'm not exactly sure if I will continue or jump back in with a new project for March, but I do know this little experiment has been a ton of fun, not to mention productive and a grocery saver.  I'm looking forward to posting all the final results later this week.

Tonight's "use-it-up" meal was a good one.  Two kinds of ravioli, creamed spinach, and garlic bread.  This is the kind of meal that I love, hot, tasty, and you can get it on the table in less than 20 minutes.  Here is the cast of characters.

Store brand toasted ravioli, and Costco squash ravioli that I love, love, love!  The toasted ravioli goes into a hot 425 degree oven for 12 minutes, and the squash ravioli gets started a little later with only 4-5 minutes of cooking time in boiling water. 

While that is going I started to heat the tomato sauce, and melt a little butter into a saute pan with garlic for the creamed spinach.  The garlic you see is my cheater version that comes already minced.  This is really handy to have on hand to add quickly to sautes or sauces. I took a picture because I thought the colors were even pretty on the stove top.

The spinach was about as lucky as a leafy green can get because it got wilted into the hot butter and garlic and then sprinkled with a little mozzarella.  I watched Guy Fieri or maybe Giatta add a little lemon to wilted spinach once, and I actually had lemon on had (thanks to the chicken casserole recipe) and tried it.  Amazing!  The brightness of the lemon adds a pop of flavor to the bitter spinach and mellows nicely against the garliciness. And I almost forgot to mention the garlic bread! (By the way this entire month I have gotten by with out buying bread of any kind.  We had no fewer than 4 packages of homemade rolls in the freezer from my Great Grandma Pearl.  I'm so grateful to have these on hand!) The garlic bread is just dinner rolls that have buttered with a little butter and garlic mixed together with a sprinkle of cheese on top.

Delicioso!(In my best Italian accent!)

What I used-up:

Spinach

Remaining mozzarella

Dinner Rolls