Savory Spinach and Feta Strata

One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to get our grocery budget under control. We spend much more than we should on groceries, so I’m using a four part plan to try and keep the cost down this year: 1) use a cash envelope with our monthly grocery budget to avoid overspending (this is for the initial months – I don’t think its sustainable for the long haul); 2) make more things from scratch; 3) try to avoid so much food waste; and 4) eat less meat – use it more as a garnish than as a main component of the meal.

Since part of the plan involves eliminating food waste, and part of it involves cooking from scratch, this savory strata fits right in. My neighbors are part of a gleaning cooperative and almost every weekend they drop by extra food for us from the surplus that didn’t get divided up among the members. This past weekend the bounty included a loaf of rustic rosemary bread from Trader Joe’s, and since its gone a bit stale I brainstormed what to do with it and came up with a strata (which also uses up some of the extra eggs I ended up with due to a scheduling mix-up with our dairy delivery service). Just the usual disclaimer that this recipe was only tested once, tonight, so although it was delicious I can’t guarantee your results!

Savory Spinach and Feta Strata
1 loaf of rustic bread, cut into 1″ cubes
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 cup cooked ham, diced
12 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and with water squeezed out
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
3 cups milk
10 eggs
2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste

Sauté the onion and ham in olive oil in a pan over medium heat until the onion softens and just begins to brown. Add the spinach to the pan and cook for a few minutes more. Meanwhile, combine the milk, eggs, salt and pepper in a bowl and beat with a fork to combine.

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13″ pan and add the bread cubes. Next add the onion/ham/spinach mixture on top of the bread evenly, followed by the crumbled feta cheese. Pour the milk/egg mixture over everything in the pan and the refrigerate the strata for at least two hours.

When you’re ready to eat, heat the oven to 350 degrees and cook the strata for 45 minutes.

This made a huge amount, a party-sized amount of food. The next time I get a loaf of bread to use for a strata I’ll divide it into two pans and save one for later, since we’ve even got a ton of leftovers. And just as a note, the kids wouldn’t touch it, and they’re pretty good about trying new things.