Quiche

Left Spinach, right broccoli. Both with extra-sharp Cheddar Cheese

Quiche is a staple at our house. It is the meal to cook when you just can't think of anything else to cook. It is pretty easy to prepare, if you stick with the basic recipe. You can alter the vegetables, cheese and spices to suite your tastes.

Here is the basic recipe that I use starting with the crust:

Pie Crust
1 C. Whole Wheat White flour (I like King Arthur brand)
1 TSP. salt
7 TBSP. butter
3 TSP. iced water

Using a food processor blend the salt and flour on low, then add the butter 1 TBSP at a time. Once the butter is completely incorporated (it will look like crumbs) add the water 1 TSP at a time. Stop adding water as soon as the dough forms a ball (don't add anymore than the 3 TSP). Wrap the ball in plastic and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out on a floured board, place in pie dish and prick holes in the bottom with a fork. Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 5 - 7 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven and set aside.

Or you can use store bought crust, just read the ingredients first!

Basic Filling
Olive oil 
16 oz. frozen or 2 cups raw green bell pepper and onion mix (I usually get the frozen yellow, green and red bell peppers with onion mix).
16 oz. frozen or 2 cups raw vegetables if using raw spinach you need more like 6 cups (I used spinach and broccoli this time)
Nutmeg
Dill
6 oz. cheese (I used cheddar)
4 eggs
1 cup of milk or half & half
salt

Place approximately 2 TBSP of olive oil into a large frying pan. Saute the bell pepper/onion mix until it is completely defrosted and thoroughly hot, add the frozen or raw vegetables to the pan and cook until the frozen is completely defrosted and hot or until the raw has softened (do not overcook the raw spinach, it cooks very fast). Add 2 TSP of the nutmeg and 1 TSP of the dill (I didn't add the dill to the Broccoli Quiche) to the mixture and salt to taste. Set aside and prepare the egg mixture.

Whisk the 4 eggs, milk (or half & half), 1/2 TSP of nutmeg and 1/2 TSP of salt together.

Cut the cheese into cubes and place 1/2 of it onto the pie crust. Top the cheese with the vegetable mixture and place the rest of the cheese  cubes on top. Pour the egg mixture over the veggies and cheese and using a fork make sure that the egg mixture is evenly spread.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes or until the egg is completely set.

Video Directions

Birthday Party

You want to invite family & friends over to celebrate a birthday, graduation, engagement or any other special event. You want it to be festive and not only serve good food but great food, but you feel that your choices are limited. What do you serve when the foods expected at a party include soda, punch and cake? This is the dilemma I faced while planning a birthday celebration for my son recently. I wanted to make his party special, but I also wanted to serve good food which to me doesn't include sugar laden "treats". Here was the menu:

Pear Ginger Iced Tea
Tzatziki Dip and Pita Chips
Chicken Sausage (Pineapple, Italian and Sundried Tomato)
Elotes (Mexican Corn)
Greek Salad
Honey Cheesecake (mango/pineapple & plain)


I found the Pear Ginger Tea Bags at Trader Joe's, my daughter sweetened the brewed tea with honey.

Tzatziki Dip:
1 seedless cucumber (the long one with the ridges that is sometimes individually wrapped in a plastic sleeve)
1 16 oz. container Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup sour cream
1 clove of garlic (finely chopped or sieved through a garlic press)
1 TBSP of Dill
1 TBSP of finely chopped fresh mint
Juice of 1 large lemon (add more if you like it really tangy)

Grate the cucumber and place in a large bowl, add all of the other ingredients and whisk together. Cover and place it refrigerator for an hour to allow the flavors to blend.


Pita Chips
Whole Wheat Pita Bread
Olive Oil
Garlic powder
sea salt

Brush each pita with olive oil on both sides, sprinkle very lightly with garlic powder and crushed sea salt on one side, cut pitas into 8 wedges.  Toast in a 450 degree oven until crisp. Keep an eye on the pitas, you have to be careful with the whole wheat ones because they are already brown. You want toast them not burn them.

I purchased the Chicken Sausages from BJ's, they have a variety of flavors. I had never had the Pineapple before but it turned out to be my favorite.

Elote
These things were so good, stinky, but so good.

Fresh corn on the cob
mayonnaise
lime juice
butter

Cotija cheese (my husband found this at the Mexican market, your supermarket might carry it).
Chipotle chili powder
Skewers 

Roast the corn on the grill, while corn is roasting mix 1/2 cup of mayo with the juice of 1 lime. When corn is done push a skewer into 1 end and rub butter on the entire cob (I leave the stick of butter in the wrapper and just open one side of it to rub on the corn). Brush the corn with the mayo/lime mixture and roll in the Cotija cheese and finally sprinkle with a little of the chili powder. Everyone who tried it loved it (I had one guest who wouldn't touch it!).

Greek Salad
8 Marinated Artichoke hearts, quartered
2 yellow bell peppers, sliced
4 small tomatoes, quartered
1 can of large black olives, pitted
1 large cucumber, sliced
 4 TBSP vinegar (I used red-wine vinegar)
2 TBSP olive oil
1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese
baby lettuce mix

Mix the first 5 ingredients together, mix the oil and vinegar and pour over vegetables and toss. Top the salad with the feta. When serving place a portion of baby lettuce mix on the plate and top with the Greek Salad.


Honey Cheesecake

16 oz Cream cheese  
1/3 C. Honey 
2 eggs 
2 egg yolks 
1 C. Sour cream 
1 TBSP grated lemon peel 
2 TBSP cornstarch

Crust  
1 1/4 C. Almond flour 
1/2  C. Ground walnuts 
1 TSP. Ground cinnamon
1/3 C. Honey
1/4 C. Butter, softened

Place crust ingredients into a mixer and mix well. Using a spring form pan press the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Take your time it will be really soft and kind of sticky. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. While the crust is baking, mix the cream cheese and honey together and then add the next 4 ingredients, after everything is blended add the cornstarch and mix well. Pour onto the crust and bake for 50 minutes in a 325 degree oven. Chill for at least 4 hours (preferably overnight). 


I topped one of the cheese cakes with a fresh pineapple, mango and lime mixture. I chopped 1/4 of a fresh pineapple, the flesh of 1 mango and mixed in the juice of 1 lime.

Consolation Prize!

Mango Smoothie

Have you ever had one of those days?

One of those days that gets so aggravating that you want to buy a half gallon of ice cream (preferably chocolate with all sorts of chunks in it) and go somewhere quiet and eat it all yourself?

Well today, more specifically earlier this evening was it for me. I don't eat sugar nor do I eat artificial sweeteners so I would have had to make major compromises eating the ice cream.  I decided that I didn't want to do anything self-destructive, it wouldn't change anything and would actually make things worse.

So I made a Mango Smoothie instead, it doesn't look like much but it was wonderful. I took 1 ripe mango, 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1/2 cup of milk and 1 cup of ice and whipped it up in the blender. And I actually shared. 

Old habits die hard and one of my old habits was to use food for comfort, it works in the short term but then you are left with the original problem compounded by a new one.

Roasted Broccoli, Squash, Onions & Carrots

 I'll admit that I never really liked broccoli. I would eat it of course, I just never really liked it. That is before I started roasting it. I am in favor of making sure you have raw fruit and vegetables in your diet but there is something to be said about cooking food. And your cooking method can really make a difference.




 Roasted Broccoli

3 bunches of fresh broccoli
3 cloves of raw garlic, pressed
olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

The roasted broccoli was simple to prepare. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Rinse the broccoli. Cut the florets off of the broccoli stalks and place in a bowl, cut the tender part of the stalk into pieces and add to the florets.  Add pressed garlic and toss. Place in a roasting pan that has been sprayed with oil and drizzle olive oil over the broccoli. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and black pepper and roast for 25 minutes or until the edges get a little crispy and enjoy. I have also done this with frozen broccoli, you follow the same process and don't worry about defrosting it first. Be careful not to burn it, the pieces are smaller in the bag.  You can follow this method for a variety of vegetables, the only thing you may change is the seasonings and the length of time you roast.

I served this with Squash, Onions and Carrots.

1 - 32 oz bag of frozen yellow squash
3 large carrots
1 large yellow onion, sliced
1 TBSP virgin coconut oil
2 tsp cardamom
2 tsp sea salt
black pepper to taste

Slice the carrots and cook for 5 minutes in coconut oil, add onion slices and saute for 3 more minutes. Dump the bag of frozen squash on top, turn heat down and place lid on pan. Allow the squash to steam until completely defrosted. Take off the lid and turn up the heat to reduce the liquid in the pan. Add spices and cook until the squash starts to brown a little.

This meal served 4 with no leftovers.

Black Bean Chili with Polenta

Here is the a picture of the recipe featured in the cooking video. Here is the recipe:


Black Bean Chili

4 TBSP olive oil
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans black beans
1 16oz. package frozen bell pepper mix
2 tsp cumin
2 TBSP chili powder
1 tsp Chipolte chili pepper
2 TBSP garlic powder
1 tsp salt

Polenta

3 TBSP olive oil
2 cups of polenta (yellow corn grits)
2 cups of milk
4 cups of chicken broth
1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese (you can use parmesean or cheddar instead)

For directions, please see the video.

Resurrection Sunday Dinner

I don't post many meat recipes because I am really trying to encourage people to eat more vegetables, fruit and fish.  We generally don't need a lot of encouragement to eat meat. While I am not a vegetarian, I only eat red meat maybe once per month.

Well this past Sunday we had a real treat for dinner, lamb.

It was surprisingly easy to cook so I thought that would share the recipe.

1 Easy cut loin of lamb (this was great, because it is pre-cut, it made serving it after cooking a breeze.
1 lemon cut in half
several sprigs of fresh rosemary
several cloves of fresh garlic
salt
pepper.

You cook the lamb in a shallow roasting pan on a rack fat side up. But before cooking, flip the loin over and into each cut push a clove of garlic and a sprig of rosemary. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 of the lemon all over the meat on this side, then sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Turn the lamb over and and squeeze the other 1/2 of lemon all over the meat and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Place meat in oven and turn it to 325 degrees (don't pre-heat the oven first). Cook for 30 minutes per pound of meat for medium rare. Once cooked let the meat sit (rest) for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

I served this with green beans with potatoes, rice and lamb gravy. And for dessert we had
Whole Wheat Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with fresh whipped cream.

Here is the recipe for the cake:

2 TBSP Butter
2 tsp nutmeg
Fresh pineapple slices
1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup brown rice syrup or 1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup virgin coconut oil
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups of whole wheat flour

In a frying pan melt 2 TBSP of butter once melted place fresh pineapple slices on top of the butter and sprinkle with nutmeg, let this simmer. While the pineapple is simmering, place 1/2 cup of honey and 1/2 cup of brown rice syrup into a mixing bowl (I don't use sugar but you can use 1 cup of sugar if you do) add 2 eggs and beat together. Add 1/3 cup of virgin coconut oil and continue mixing as you add the milk. Mix the baking powder, salt and whole wheat flour together and add quickly to the liquid. As soon as the flour is mixed with the liquid turn off the mixer, do not beat! Mix it 1 more time by hand to make sure that there are no lumps, you want to mix the flour as little as possible. Too much mixing and the cake will be too tough to eat. Pour the batter on top of the pineapples and place into a 350 degree pre-heated oven. Bake until done, about 35 minutes. Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Note: This is not a very sweet cake, if you make it with the sugar instead of the honey and brown rice syrup it will be a little sweeter but not very. You can add sweetener to the cream when you make the whipped cream but I do not. By not making it very sweet everyone is satisfied with a piece and they do not feel compelled to keep eating it, sugar usually has the effect of making you eat too much dessert.

Eating Well When the Power is Out

You have probably heard that NC was hit with some pretty devastating storms. Our home was mildly damaged (we have to have the roof replaced) and we were without power for 4 days. Our home is totally electric so that means no water as well. This made life a little interesting but we are avid campers and had supplies to keep us going. We also have great friends who brought over a generator when they found out that we were without power after a day and a half, this kept us from losing everything in the fridge and freezer and it also allowed us to get our water running. We could not run the stove off of the generator so we used the grill and the camp stove. Here is a fish recipe that turned out great on the grill:

White Ruffy with Peppers

1 White Ruffy fillet (this would probably work with any white fish, white ruffy is what we had on hand).
1/2 cup Yellow, Red and Green Bell Peppers cut into strips (we used frozen, but fresh would work as well).
1 tsp. Olive oil
1/2 tsp. dill
1/4 tsp. sea salt
dash of red pepper
1/4 tsp. freshly milled black pepper
cooking spray

Start grill, when it is ready spray a sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray.  Place the White Ruffy fillet on the aluminum foil and drizzle the fish with the olive oil. Next sprinkle on the dill, salt and both peppers then top with the bell pepper slices. Fold the aluminum foil together on the top of the fish and then fold the sides. Grill for 10-15 minutes, do not overcook the fish!

We served this with some leftover whole wheat penne pasta: we melted 2 TBS of butter in a sauce pan, tossed in the leftover pasta and grated Parmesean cheese on top.