Dinner Party: Feta-Spinach Rollups

Toasty-warm stuffed crescent rolls

Let me start this off by saying I'm no holier-than-thou food purist.  I my aim for healthy food, shop at the local co-op occasionally, and I might sound like a total hippie when I mention my steel-cut oats with wheat germ and hemp seed, but I also like to take shortcuts when needed.  So this recipe uses reduced-fat crescent rolls from a tube because I'm WAY too lazy to figure out a healthier substitute and I'm sure it's a difficult recipe to make completely from scratch.  And I don't have time for all that when I'm planning a dinner for a friend and his parents, after work, with no time to prep the night before since we went out for dinner, and I've got a toddler running around as well. Plus this just sounded like an easy recipe and I wanted to try it. 

Ingredients lineup

Inspiration 

Claire Bidwell Smith Windy City Crescent Rolls

I skipped the beaten egg white brushed on top since that's just to give it a pretty, glossy sheen.  I also skipped the red pepper flakes since I didn't want to upset anybody's digestive tracts (older people, toddler, and someone with Crohn's disease). 

Ingredients

makes 16 rolls

• 4 oz crumbled feta cheese (I used tomato-basil flavor)
• 4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3 oz fresh baby spinach (about half of a pre-washed bag), chopped
• dash salt and pepper
• 2 tubes reduced-fat refrigerator crescent rolls, 8 ct

Spinach, feta, and mozzarella mingling

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the first four ingredients together and place down the center of the crescent triangle.  Roll up tight so the filling doesn't escape. 

Bake for 15 minutes.

Ready to roll!

Verdict

Good enough, but not impressive.

There were only two or three left out of the 16 I made, so I think they were pretty popular.

The filling was drier than I wanted since there was only cheese and spinach.  Maybe that's because I used the reduced-fat crescent rolls.  For the future wilt the spinach a bit and add some moisture, maybe with a bit of cottage cheese or plain Greek yogurt with some spices.  

Decently tasty and easy enough to make up ahead of time.  I think you could probably put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer and once they're frozen-solid, put them in a bag to pull out later. 

Ready for the hot oven.

I read comments about this recipe and others like it and you could add garlic and onion to the original recipe.

Some other variations

• leave out feta and make them spinach-artichoke
• bacon, chopped tomato, jarred roasted red pepper
• pesto and cheese
• chicken or ham with broccoli and cheese
• bacon, spinach, and tomato with cheddar