Lazarakia for Low Sugar Grown-ups

Or, how to take a wonderful Greek dish and totally change it to fit your needs at hand. I am actually taking two Greek dishes and blending the ideas: Spanikopita and Lazarakia.

This is not my photo; please click here for the lovely original source.

Why? Because I'm not supposed to be eating sugar right now and I want something to make with the kids that I can eat too. We'll do one gigantic bread instead of many little ones. (Maybe we'll make a second one with marshmallows and strawberry preserves inside for the kiddos and Deacon.)

How? Easy, I'm going to use this recipe for a spinach filling for my dish. But instead of making Spanikopita, I'm going to fill a braided pastry,  probably using a Whole Grain Spelt Pizza Crust Dough. If you've never made a pastry braid, it is very easy and that linked video is only one minute long and will walk you right through it. This is supposed to be a respectful nod to the braided breads representing Lazarus all wrapped up in burial cloths. I may or may not try to shape a face for him.

I'll post pictures, Lord willing, once I make it, but I thought I'd go ahead and post the idea now in case anyone else might want to start thinking about it.

Or, don't make this for Lazarus Saturday. Make it any night this week.

If your house is anything like ours right now after five weeks of no dairy, no meat, no eggs, etc., you might have fallen into the rut of cooking the same thing over and over. I'm not talking about an intentionally planned diverse weekly menu that you repeat 7 times. No, I'm talking about bean burritos for lunch, beans and rice for supper, peanut butter and jelly for breakfast and then peanut butter and crackers for a snack. Surely your house has not gotten so bad as mine! We had a Lenten Retreat right on the heels of the Canon of St. Andrew this past weekend and were barely home. We ate well at the retreat, but once it was over and we walked back into our unattended kitchen....  Cooking well requires some planning.

Good news! You can plan to make this pie, even if you just purchase phyllo or puff pastry from the freezer section, along with some bags of chopped frozen greens. It's got the magic of caramelized onions and is sooooo good.