Healthy “fast food” with Cookin’ Greens

Categories breakfast, brunch, quick and easy, recipes | by

I trust you have all recovered from the holiday excesses of the past weekend?  Being away from home, Neil and I only had one meal on Christmas Day (a full-on traditional Christmas dinner at The Sylvia Hotel) but I am certainly feeling (as I am sure many of you are) like the past few weeks have been non-stop party eats and drinks. So this post is rather timely for many of us, I would imagine!  Even though there’s still New Year’s Eve to navigate (and for us, a five-course dinner at The Willows Inn on Lummi Island), I am sure many of us are eating a little healthier this week in preparation for the continued party this coming weekend and also, looking ahead to getting a few more veggies and salads into our diets in 2012.  So this post is in the spirit of getting back on track!

Last month, Justice from Social Nature contacted me to see whether I would be interested in trying out a new line of frozen vegetables – Cookin’ Greens. I am not usually one to buy frozen vegetables but when I checked out the site, I was intrigued.  Cookin’ Greens are dark leafy greens which are flash frozen within 6 hours of being picked to ensure maximum freshness. They are pre-washed and pre-cut making them easy to use.

Currently offering a range of products including Designer’s Mix (spinach, collards, rapini, yellow beans and onions), chopped rapini, chopped spinach and chopped kale, there are more product lines, like collards and mustard greens, are currently in development.  I chose the Designer’s Mix to experiment with for this recipe, figuring it was a good test of whether these frozen veggies would really keep their shape (and flavour) – since it included such an eclectic mix.

Collards and rapini are veggies that often wind up in my organic box delivery, though I tend to never really know what to do with them and I certainly never have the wherewithal to freeze the large quantities I don’t know what to do with. So this mix is like a frozen “fast food” – ready in the same time it would take you (or less) to call for delivery pizza, or even heat up a frozen pizza, and infinitely healthier.  I loved that these were all identifiable in frozen form and that they kept their form when lightly sautéed with some garlic:

To be honest, I actually could have just eaten the sautéed veggies by themselves with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. But because we had company coming and I had promised them brunch, I made a lovely puffy this frittata.  I didn’t have the called-for red pepper since it was the day before we were leaving for holidays but it was tasty and perfect.  The ultimate fast comfort food that – bonus – is healthy for you.  With a package of Cookin’ Greens in your freezer and some eggs you have the makings of a fast, healthy breakfast or brunch – perfect for this time of year.  Ironically, this would also make an excellent post-NYE breakfast/ brunch. Nothing like feeling virtuous after a night of excess, right?

Whilst, obviously, fresh vegetables would be my first choice, Cookin’ Greens will become a staple in my freezer (and yes, I did get that chest freezer for Christmas I asked for!!) for their ease of use and taste.  For more recipes with Cookin’ Greens, visit the website.

Disclosure: I was provided with a coupon for a free package of Cookin’ Greens.  I was not compensated in any other way for writing this post. The decision to write about the product was my own and all opinions are 100% mine.

30 thoughts on “Healthy “fast food” with Cookin’ Greens”

  4. The fresh v frozen is an old argument and it’s quite interesting. Sometimes “fresh” vegetables are really not – they are simply not frozen. When you select some veges it’s impossible to know how long they’ve been available for sale so frozen is very often much “fresher” (so to speak) than “fresh” which, generally means, never been frozen. Sorry, that was long-winded.
    Anyway, your frittata looked great.

    Reply

  8. Great! I’m looking for some healthy recipes lol i swear I need to go on a massive cleanse after New Years lol I’ve been eating like a PIG ~ so i’m definitely gonna try this recipe I love eggs 🙂

    Happy New Year in advance!

    Reply

  11. This was very good.

    I too was very suspicious of the veggie story, so was intriguied to read the back-story.

    A shame they come all the way from America and aren’t local, but the process sounds impressive. Good to have these in a pinch, in the deep dark days of winter.

    And yes, blogophiles, I am sorry to say we purchased a small chest freezer for Christmas. How terribly domesticated middle-aged of us. Next week, Mardi gets her certificate for darning classes. 😉

    Reply

  12. Veggies do sound great. I tried to make a frittata this morning. Too tired after staying up until 3:00. It turned into scrambled eggs! 🙂 Happy 2012!

    Reply

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