Mini Spinach and Cottage Cheese Pies

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 lb spinach, washed, thorough dried and slice thinly
• 1 lb fat-free cottage cheese
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled (optional)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• tortilla (optional)

Directions

1. 1

   Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. 2

   Heat oil in heavy pot over medium high heat.

3. 3

   Saute onion and garlic until onion is starting to turn yellow, not quite brown.

4. 4

   Add spinach in batches and saute until wilted.

5. 5

   In bowl, beat cottage cheese, eggs, oregano, salt and pepper if using, together.

6. 6

   Add spinach mixture and mix thoroughly.

7. 7

   Spoon batter into muffin tin, fill 3/4 full - I use paper cupcake liners. This makes about 16 to 18 muffins. I just use my dozen cupcake pan, and then put the leftover mix into small ramekin cups.

8. 8

   Variation: grease the muffin tin, then cut flour tortillas (use a flattened out cupcake liner as a template) into rounds, carefully push the tortillas into greased muffin cups, fold over excess tortilla from the side. Fill 3/4 full with mixture.

9. 9

   Top each muffin with heaping teaspoon of crumbled feta.

10. 10

    Bake until top starts to brown, about 30 minutes (without tortilla) or increase time to about 35 to 40 minutes with tortilla.