Creamy Spinach and Ravioli Dinner 

This simple dinner recipe was a BIG HIT with my 10 year old son!  My 6 year old daughter loved it too, only without the spinach.  And, AND,  it may have taken me 20- 25 minutes to get this dinner on the table.  Not bad at all.

THIS IS ALL IT TAKES

• 1 (10 ounce) bag of frozen spinach, thawed
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped, reserve 1/4 cup
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1 family size package of fresh, ready to cook, four cheese ravioli
• shredded Parmesan cheese for topping
• 1 loaf of frozen heat and eat garlic bread

Preheat oven according to directions on garlic bread package.

Prep the garlic bread loaf on the cookie sheet. Prep spinach and onions, measure out the butter, flour, water and sour cream.  Fill a large pot with hot water for cooking the pasta and set on high heat. Use a medium sauce pan for making the cream sauce and a small fry pan to saute the onions and spinach.

Start by heating 2 tablespoons of oil in the small fry pan and adding all BUT the reserved 1/4 cup of onion, cook until softened. Add spinach, stir together and cook until heated through. Cover with a lid and remove from heat.

Is the pasta water boiling yet? Yes? Good. Add the ravioli to the boiling water and lower the heat to medium on the pasta pot, and give the raviolis a gentle stir occasionally to keep them from sticking together.  Pop the garlic loaf in the oven and set timer for 9 minutes.

Next, we make the cream sauce.  In the medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the 1/ 4 cup chopped onion and cook until softened.

Add the flour. Stirring continuously, cook the flour up to two minutes. Slowly stir in the 2 cups of broth until sauce is smooth and thickens a bit, 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat, gently whisk in sour cream until well blended. Remove saucepan completely from the heat source.  If everyone in your family loves spinach then add the cooked spinach mixture to the cream sauce now.  Otherwise, serve the spinach mixture on top of spinach lover's ravioli.

When the 9-minute buzzer goes off, the ravioli and the garlic bread are ready.  Drain off the water from the ravioli and set aside.  Remove the garlic bread from the oven and carefully divide hot bread into servings.

After the ravioli is drained, pour the cream sauce over the pasta and allow it to set. The sauce will thicken up and stick to the pasta...yummm.  Serve with or without spinach mixture and top with shredded Parmesan cheese.