Goodbye Gut: Third Place Takes the Cake

What any good contest needs is a little competition, and I found that to be especially true of the Goodbye Gut contest. We got more submissions than expected (a good thing) and it took longer than anticipated to cook through all those recipes (also fine by me!). Today's recipe will be the last featured recipe from those contest submissions. It comes from our friend Racheletto, who we told you about back in January when she was doing a project called G.U.L.P which involved eating a very restricted diet and donating her grocery money to charity!

She writes, "I love spinach and I have to admit that I don't really care for pork bacon (call it un-American if you must)." Her recipe, which "I've adapted it from a recipe I found here," she tells, calls for turkey bacon, but I used the real deal in mine (upping the fat content a little, but still keeping the recipe within healthy limits).



Bacon Spinach Cakes
--12 oz fresh baby spinach
--1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
--1/4 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese, plus a pinch more for garnish
--2 large eggs, beaten
--4 strips turkey bacon, crispy and chopped
--1 clove garlic, minced
--1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper

Equipment:
1. Regular muffin tin ("I've also used single serving size ramekins too with similar results," she says)
2. Food processor



Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 400*F.

2. In the food processor, pulse the spinach in three batches until finely chopped. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add cottage cheese, parmesan, bacon, eggs, garlic, and pepper.

3. Coat 9 of the 12 muffin tins (or the ramekins) with cooking spray. Divide the spinach mixture among the 9 cups evenly. They will be very full. [Editor's note: We, um, clearly aren't great at taking direction and filled all 12 of the muffin tins. Oops!]

4. Bake the spinach cakes until set, about 20 minutes (this could be as long as 30 if you use ramekins). Let stand in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges with a knife and turn out to serve, sprinkled with a bit more parmesan. (Alternatively, you could serve them in the ramekins).

Racheletto guided us to eat these "on top of a toasted English muffin with perhaps a tomato or egg on top, like a benedict! They're luscious and very cheesy, but still good for you too!" Yes ma'am. Definitely something nice and different for breakfast!

Dammit Jim, I'm a cook, not a doctor...
Time: 35 minutes
Serves: 9 spinach cakes
Calories: Turkey bacon, 82 calories per cake; Pork bacon, 113 calories per cake