Iron, Lion, Zion

This is an amazing source of iron (hence the Bob Marley rip-off post title!)
It was Marley's birthday on February 6th so we can think of this as a belated memorial meal or something. lol

The iron sources in this meal include the spinach, the sun-dried tomatoes, and the walnuts. OK, so the walnuts aren't a great source but they do have some! Besides, they have many other benefits ;) Plus, the vitamin C in the spinach, tomatoes, and lime juice helps with the absorption of the iron.

The cookbook I got this from said something along the lines of "Kids love this dish!" Um, yeah, maybe little hippy kids who actually eat spinach... how many of those do you know? Well, if you read my blog, you may know more than I am giving you credit for. ;)
If you can't convince your kids that spinach really is tasty, you can substitute in broccoli. That is, if you can convince your kids that broccoli is tasty! :)
I'm sure they were talking about the cute little pasta stars... I'm sure ALL kids love those! Heck, I'm 31 and I love cute little pasta shapes!
Oh! While I'm on shaped pasta... I saw this boxed mac and cheese (Annie's) the other day and the pasta was in the shape of peace signs. Had me written all over it! :)
See, I even took a photo of the dry pasta stars... 31 going on 5...


Serves 2 (could serve 4 as a side dish)

Ingredients:
2/3 cup dry stellini pasta (that's the tiny stars; you can sub in the alphabet letters if you can't find stars)
1-2 tbsp. of olive oil
1/4 cup onion, diced
1-2 large cloves of garlic (I used one huge one but I love garlic more than is considered normal so I'll add two next time)
1 portobello mushroom cap, sliced
2 cups spinach, washed, dried, and chopped up
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped up
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp. lime juice (or lemon juice)
1/2 tsp. lemon pepper seasoning (salt-free if you can find it)

Method:
1. Grill or broil the mushroom slices until tender. While the mushrooms are grilling, cook the pasta according to the package directions (about 8 minutes). Drain, toss with the lime juice and set aside. Let the mushrooms cool slightly and then dice them up.

2. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over low heat. Add the onion and then the garlic and let it cook very slowly so the garlic doesn't burn. Stir often! Once the garlic and onion are golden-brown, add the spinach and raise the heat to medium.

2. Cook until the spinach is wilted (1 minute or so). Stir in the pasta and mushroom pieces and cook until the mixture is warmed through. Toss in the lemon pepper seasoning, walnuts, and sun-dried tomatoes. Add additional lime juice as desired.

Serve immediately.

Reference:
This is based on the recipe Garlic Spinach Stellini Pasta from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook.
My changes:
I added in onion, the portobello mushroom, the walnuts, and the sun-dried tomatoes.

Thanks to the British Vegetarian Society for the information on iron.
Information Sheet - Iron
Information Sheet - Nuts and Seeds