Spinach & Bacon Crustless Quiche

I love quiche. LOVE love it. I don't miss the crust one bit either.

Ingredients:

1 cup of cooked spinach, drained

1 lb bacon

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar

2 cups shredded mozzarella

1/2 cup grated parmesan

10 eggs

2 1/2 cups half & half

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. I bake mine in my Pampered Chef deep covered baker stoneware greased with olive oil.

Slice your bacon crosswise into bite size pieces, throw into a pan, and cook until crisp. Remove from pan & drain.

Layer the bacon, spinach, & cheeses. I layer like I would a lasagna so that every bite gets a full helping of spinach & bacon. Bacon, spinach, cheese, bacon, spinach, cheese.. Depending on the depth of the dish you're using, you'll have at least 2 and possibly 3 layers.

Beat the eggs, then add half & half and salt and pepper and stir to combine. Pour the egg mixture over the layered ingredients. I take a spoon and push it straight down in a few places just to get the egg mixture into all of the crevices faster.

Bake in oven for 45 minutes. When I bake in the deep covered baker it is NOT set in the middle at this point. For some reason I have a perpetual problem with getting the middle of a quiche cooked so I pop it in the microwave for about 8 minutes and it firms up the middle. I pop it back in the oven for another 10 minutes & then call it. The middle might be a little moister than the edges, but it'll continue to cook after removed from the oven, and if you're reheating throughout the week it'll definitely get cooked when heated up in the microwave.

Adjust cooking time depending on the depth of what you're baking in, but 45 minutes should be the minimum it'll take even in a shallower dish.

Fried Apples

Try not to eat the whole batch by yourself in one sitting. I dare you.

6 Apples, washed, cored, & sliced (I used Gala)

4-6 tbsp butter

2 tbsp honey

1/4 cup Simply Apple Juice

Cinnamon

Salt

Heat 2 tbsp butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add half the sliced apples and and cook until browned on one side. Give the apples a good sprinkling of cinnamon and then flip with a fork and brown the other side. Remove the first batch to a plate. I quickly cut the apple slices in half before removing them.

Add 2 more tbsp butter to pan & repeat browning with second batch of apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon and return the first batch of apples to the pan.

Add the apple juice to the pan & cover it for about 2 minutes to get the apples good & soft. Removed the lid & add 2 tbsp honey and a light sprinkling of salt. Let the sauce reduce for a few minutes and add the last 2 tbsp of butter to the sauce. Take a taste & decide if you need more cinnamon, honey, etc.

Spinach, Artichoke, Chicken...Heaven.

God bless you, Wellness Mama. This Spinach & Artichoke Chicken is perfection. I really thought I'd miss the appetizery goodness of digging in with toast points or chips. Miraculously, the empty carbs didn't even cross my carb loving mind thanks to the filling combo of chicken and everything else that is good in this world (cheese).

I didn't have the patience to wait out the full crock pot method and for some reason I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to cooking down my own spinach. So here's how I did it, but if you want the ease of the abbreviated version check out the link above.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp coconut oil or bacon grease

1-2 tbsp butter

2 lbs chicken breasts

3 (12) oz bags baby spinach (or one 10 oz bag frozen spinach)

14 oz artichoke hearts, drained & roughly chopped

1 (8) oz package cream cheese

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup Greek yogurt (or sour cream)

1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

1/8 - 1/4 cup chicken broth if needed

Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces, season with the garlic, salt, and pepper. Heat coconut oil or bacon grease in nonstick pan over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until almost done. I place the lid on for a minute or two. Just don't overdo it. You don't want rubbery chicken here - it's going to spend another hour or two in the crock pot.

In a large sauce pot, heat 1-2 tbsp butter and start dumping in the bags of baby spinach. Press down with a wooden spoon, stirring and turning as it wilts. It's going to take a while, so I'd work on this step while cooking the chicken. The spinach is going to wilt and release moisture and the plan is to get rid of as much moisture as possible. If you find a decent size pool of liquid in the bottom on your pot, drain it off and keep on cooking the spinach down. Tyler Florence says cook that spinach until it's dry. That's never going to happen. Eventually you'll need to take the spinach out and drain it well. Once drained, roughly chop your gob of cooked spinach. Stand back and marvel that the roughage that was once taking up the entire bottom drawer of your fridge is now the size of your fist. Or you could defrost a bag of the frozen kind. Again, drain well.

Throw the chicken, spinach, artichoke hearts, cream cheese, parmesan cheese, greek yogurt & 1/8 cup chicken broth into the crock pot. Cook on high for an hour until melted and creamy. Stir everything together, then taste it and give it a once over. Add salt if needed and if it's not quite as creamy as you envisioned, add a bit of chicken broth. Go ahead and throw in 1/2 cup of mozzarella and work it in to the mixture. Serve topped with additional mozzarella.

Verdict: This is taking up permanent residence in my fridge.

Alterations: I pre-cooked the chicken, added a little more cheese & greek yogurt, and a threw in a splash of chicken broth. I also unnecessarily cooked down my own spinach.

Garlic Meat Balls in Tomato Sauce

Halloween night I tried this Garlic Meat Balls in Tomato Sauce recipe. Though I believe it's a virtue to be able to cook without precise instructions, I got a little unnerved over the amount of garlic. We're a garlic loving family and I didn't know if 21 small cloves of garlic was going to be enough. But, go big or go home, right? I took the plunge and instead of 21 small cloves I went with about 20 cloves. Some were quite large. Followed form with the garlic required for the sauce - same number, bigger size. I'm pretty sure no vampire was within a 50 mile radius of our house last night.

I also added a tad more parmesan than called for because, well, I always add more cheese than a recipe calls for. The recipe calls for honey, which based on previous experience I'm guessing was to cut some of the acidity of the tomatoes. As evidenced by this tried and true masterpiece, it's all about the butter, baby. Instead of the honey I threw 2 tbsp of butter in the pot to smooth the flavors out. Worked like a charm. If you're impatient, give the tomatoes a once over with a potato smasher once they've started to soften up.

Verdict: This one is a keeper. Even Ethan gave it a thumbs up once I threw some parmesan cheese on top.

Alterations: Adjust the garlic to your comfort level.

LOVE = large/regular size cloves and

LIKE = small cloves (or 1/2 the number of large/regular size).

Smooth any tomato bite over with some butter and skip the honey altogether.

And so it begins...

This week I finally managed to get things in order and embraced the change. No pasta, no bread, no sugar, no corn, it's gone. The kids are still kicking and screaming - Ethan is on the verge of a meltdown because he wants ALL of the Halloween candy he collected last night. All of it. Not just our negotiated 20 pieces. Right now my focus is just keep it out of my face.

I'm bad about saving recipes on this or that computer, printing some out, making changes here and there, or forgetting altogether to bookmark or print it in the first place. The goal is for this to serve as the repository for food information from now on. No more lost bookmarks or clippings.