Spinacia oleracea

As I drove home from work today, I was thinking about how much I cook things with spinach in them. It may not look like that here on the blog since I don't blog every single little meal I eat, but like Popeye, I sure do love my spinach. Remember a few years ago when the stores pulled all the spinach off the shelf due to an ecoli outbreak? That was a real sad time for food in my house. Thus week's spinach dish was a Tuscan Bean Soup. It was such a filling meal and it only took 20 minutes to make! I do think I may have crossed over from Tuscany to Provence with the herbs I used to make it though, but it was delicious nonetheless. The key to keeping the spinach from getting all wilty and stringy was to cook it in some olive oil in a separate pan and then crack some black pepper on it and add it to the soup right before serving. As to the bread in that picture--it is the newest line of products from Udi's which is rapidly winning first place in my heart for the best gluten free products ever. This bread is whole grain GF bread. Fantastic. I even ate a grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast this morning, and another bowl of Tuscan Bean Soup for lunch...