Foodie Friday: Two Quiche Recipes

I love quiche. It's one of those things I never had while growing up, but like guacamole has become a favorite in my adulthood. Here are two of my favorite quiches to make.

Hash Brown Quiche
This recipe is fairly hands on, but it's very easy to double. The quiche freezes and reheats very nicely.

About 12 ounces frozen hash browns
1/3 cup melted butter
2 cups of shredded cheese
1 cup of either diced ham, diced turkey, diced veggies, or a mix
1/2 cup cream (half & half)
2 eggs
1/4 t. seasoned salt

Grease 9" pie pan with butter or shortening. Pressed thawed hash browns between paper towels to remove moisture. Fit hash browns into greased pie pan, cutting and trimming to make a solid crust. Brush with melted butter—top edges, too.

Bake at 425 for 25 min.

Remove from oven and fill with layers of cheese and ham. Beat cream with eggs and seasoned salt. Pour over. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Insert knife near edges to test until it comes out clean.



Vegetable Quiche

These quiches freeze well and make easy breakfasts for during the week. Depending on the kind of cheese you use, these quiches can have as few as 85 calories each!

10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup diced onions
1/4 cup chopped bell peppers
3 large eggs
3/4 cup grated swiss cheese
1/2 cup half-and-half
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350
Cook spinach according to package directions drain excess liquid
Line a 12 cup muffin pan with foil baking cups. Brush each with oil using 1 Tbsp
In a skillet saute onions and peppers in remaining 1 Tbsp oil until tender
Whisk the eggs in a bowl, add the cheese ann half-and-half and salt and pepper. Stir.
Divide the mixture evenly among the muffin cups bake for 20 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean

Find more yummy recipes at The Grocery Cart Challenge.

Foodie Friday: Food Blogs

I have confessed to having a tiny little cooking magazine addiction. My recipe-a-day emails are handy, too. But some of my best recipes come from friends and family. My famous chicken and rice tacos (recipe at the end of this post) originally came from a high school friend of my mom's. THE FUDGE I make every Christmas has been handed down in my family for years.

The overflowing magazine racks in my house and the bulging recipe folder in my email program often get neglected as I tend to favor the "tried and true" recipes from "real" people. Food blogs, written by real parents with real kids, have brought to me some wonderful recipes here lately.

One of my favorites is Lynn's Kitchen Adventures. I stumbled upon this site through Rocks in My Dryer, and now I totally am hooked on Lynn's great recipes. The two I have tried in the last week or so have both been winners: nut clusters and granola bake.

I made the nut clusters very quickly for a last-minute party at my house. Everyone loved them. And, the granola bake was a fantastic way to warm up the house in the morning without having to turn on our heater... not to mention it smelled heavenly while it baked.

Another favorite is The Grocery Cart Challenge. I don't know how she does it, but this woman feeds her family of 6 on $60 a week. Gayle's Goulash reminds me of a dish my mom used to make fairly regularly when I was a kid. Gayle uses soy sauce and tomato sauce. My mom used ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. But everything else was pretty much the same.

Famous Chicken and Rice Tacos
They're famous because Welby and I lived off these through grad school.
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cans 15 oz cans tomato sauce
1 can Mexicorn
1 onion (optional)
1 can of diced green chiles
1 packet of taco seasoning
1.5 cups of instant rice

Heat a large pot to medium-high.
Add a little olive oil.
Cook chicken for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
If using onions, add them.
Cook until chicken is completely done and onions are tender.
Pour in the cans of tomato sauce, corn, green chiles, and taco seasoning.
Stir until seasoning is well blended.
Bring to a boil.
Add rice.
Cover and reduce heat.
Allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve over tortilla chips with cheddar cheese melted on top. Garnish with shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes.
**You can also serve inside flour tortillas as burritos.

Foodie Friday: A "Green" Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, I decided to attempt a "greener" event. I'd use more local and organic products. We also decided to scale back the dinner a bit. We'd have a turkey breast instead of a whole bird, two desserts instead of four, and each person chose one side to go with the bird.

Buzz, of course, selected cornbread dressing.
I wanted green beans.
Spark chose rolls.
Lily got macaroni (she loves noodles). (I added a generous amount of pureed carrots and sweet potatoes to the macaroni and cheese to make it a healthier dish for all of us, but also to add the traditional sweet potatoes to the menu!)

I also made some gravy from scratch, using the turkey drippings in the pan and a recipe from Real Simple as a guide.

I made a batch of brownies the night before, using The Sneaky Chef's quick fix for boxed brownies. Our other dessert was a pecan pie from Tootie.

So, here's the breakdown of our menu and how "green" or local it was:

Thanksgiving Dinner Menu
Free-Range Turkey Breast
Cornbread Dressing, made with almost 100% organic ingredients
Macaroni and Cheese, enhanced with locally grown sweet potatoes and carrots
Green Beans, packaged but prepared in our city
Yeast Rolls, made by a company in Alabama where Buzz and I are from
Brownies, enhanced with organic spinach and blueberries
Tootie Pecan Pie, a company that uses handpicked Texas pecans

At first, we were a bit nervous about changing the dressing, but Buzz said that yesterday's dressing is some of the best he's eaten, so here's the recipe:

Free-Range Dressing
1 whole chicken (preferably free-range), cut up
double batch of cornbread (made with as many organic, whole grain ingredients as possible)
1 medium organic onion, diced
organic dried sage (2-4 tablespoons, to taste)
sea salt
organic black pepper
milk (optional)

Put the chicken in a large pot. Cover with water. Boil the chicken until it's done.
When the chicken is done, remove the pieces with tongs.
Place a strainer over a bowl and pour the chicken broth into the bowl. The strainer will catch any little pieces of bone that might have boiled off the chicken.
Tear the chicken meat from the bones of all the pieces.

Crumble the cornbread into a large bowl.
Add the diced onion.
Add the pieces of chicken.
Pour in all of the chicken broth.
Add about 1-2 tablespoons of the dried sage. Add some salt and pepper.
Stir ingredients together. If the dressing seems a little dry, add milk until it's nice and moist. During baking, it will dry out some, so don't skimp too much.
Taste. Add more sage, salt, and/or pepper, if desired. Repeat until it tastes just like you like it.

This recipe makes enough for one 9x13 pan and one 8x8 or 9x9 pan. Fill both pans with dressing, cover with foil, and cook for about an hour.

Remove foil and cook for another 30-45 minutes or until top is golden.