Spinach is my friend

I like raw spinach in salads mixed with other salad greens, but I much prefer it cooked, but not overcooked.  Overcooked spinach is awful and maybe why a lot of people think they don't like cooked spinach.  You can buy washed, ready to eat  spinach anywhere now and it's usually in huge plastic bins, or my preference, a bag of local, ready to eat spinach from Central Market.

If you take it out of the bag where it's been pressed to take up as little space as possible it looks like an enormous amount, but once properly cooked it will shrink down before your eyes.  The best way to prepare it is by heating a small amount (2 tsp) of olive oil in a large skillet, adding a few slices of garlic until it sizzles for a minute.  Remove the garlic, unless you want to eat it, which is fine.  The pan should be very hot--don't be afraid.  Add as much spinach as you want, pile it up high, and then using tongs start turning if over a few times.  When it's wilted, but still bright green and doesn't even look cooked all around, get it out of the pan.  Sprinkle a little freshly ground sea salt and pepper, a few red pepper flakes and enjoy!
I served it for dinner with polenta, roasted mushrooms, and chicken sausage.  This morning I will use my leftover spinach and mushrooms in an omelet made with 1 egg and 2 whites, with feta cheese and a small portion of brown rice.  I always have brown rice in my freezer, stored in sandwich size ziploc bags.  This is something I learned from my mother, who ate Japanese rice nearly every day.  When she lived alone she would cook rice and freeze it, which I thought was weird at the time since I had a big family and there were never enough leftovers to freeze much of anything.  But, it is a great way to always have fresh brown rice on hand and only takes 1 minute to heat up in the microwave.