Crust-Less Spinach Quiche My-Way

hehe.. I sure do a lot of things My Way, don't I?  Reminds me of good ol' Frank Sinatra...

Before I get into this I want to stress the importance of eating BREAKFAST...   not just any breakfast, a high protein breakfast.. (and NO toast, muffins, pancakes, english muffins, danish, cereal, waffles.. basically nope.. none of the really yummy stuff... )  If you eat a high protein breakfast with none of the goodies listed above, you will stay full for hours.. not a single hunger pain...it's really true... isn't it worth it? 

Anyhow, I had a request from a very good old friend for this recipe. (She's not not really OLD, cause she is 10 years younger than me and I'm not old yet...  but our camaraderie and (partnership in crime) goes way back to when we both had a houseful of kids... and she did such radical things as carrying one of her daughters (who was crying) out of a church service upside down by her feet... (sorry, dear friend, I just can't help it that every time I think of you I get that image in my head.)   oopps... sorry I digress.  For now, my good old friend will remain anonymous.

So... Crust-less Spinach Quiche.. there IS an actual recipe, but forget that... just follow the basics and make it how you think you'll like it.. keep on experimenting with different combinations, it's fun and almost always tasty.... not only that.. it's cheap, easy, and handy to have in the fridge for a quick low-carb meal or snack.  You may even get your family hooked on it.

First, fry up some bacon (assuming you like bacon)... get it good and crisp, then take it out of the pan and crumble or chop it to add back later.  Saute a chopped onion in the bacon grease... Big onion, small onion, your choice.  If you haven't fried bacon... just use some bacon grease that you have saved from previous bacon-frying. (WHAT?  you don't save bacon grease??? what's wrong with you... you can use oil if you must.. preferably healthy oil like olive or coconut).  So, saute the onion.  When it gets nice and soft, that's when you add some spinach or other greens of your choice.. a healthy choice is KALE.

Now, get this.. you have to pre-steam the (chopped up) kale or spinach if you are using fresh (then squeeze out the excess water..)  If you choose frozen greens, you should defrost them ahead of time and squeeze out all the water. (the original recipe actually calls for 10 oz of frozen spinach) Add that to your large skillet with the onion and bacon grease.. you can add back the crumbled bacon.. let it cook a little while to cook out any excess moisture.

Meanwhile.. you should have cracked 6 eggs into a bowl.. added 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper.  Whisk it up... Add three cups of grated cheese.  I usually use mostly pepper jack with maybe a cup of something else like cheddar...  (you should have been doing that while the stuff in the skillet was sizzling away).

Add in the stuff in the skillet.. stir well and pour into an 8x8 pan.  (mine is glass, not sure if that matters or not)...  oh yeah.. don't forget to "grease the pan"... I use cooking spray.  I have used coconut oil before but it seemed to cause the "quiche" to brown a little too quickly on the bottom.  But, hey, experiment.  You are all grown up now and can do whatever you want!

(If you really want your "quiche" to look like a quiche, you can bake it in a large pie pan... I prefer the 8x8  square.. round stuff is so awkward to fit in the fridge.. )  A long time ago I thought that any round containers should be outlawed...  we have enough senseless laws, at least this one would make sense.. saving space.. and who doesn't want to save space?

So.. you have all that in the pan... sprinkle some Parmesan on top if you happen to have it.  It will make it pretty and brown nicely.. good for you too.  I usually use the shredded Parmesan but ran out and used the powdery stuff  and it turned out just fine too.

You should have preheated the oven to 350.  I forgot to mention that as the first step.  oopps.

Put your quiche in the oven for about 25 minutes.  I usually take a peek and poke it with a butter knife at about 20 minutes since my oven is sort of schizophrenic.  It's the ol' butter knife routine.. you know?  when it comes out "clean" it's done.  ...May even take 30 minutes.  I just cook until the butter knife is clean.

There you go... Crust-less Spinach (or Kale) Quiche.. MY WAY

Not such an artistic photo, I know.. I think I did better on the next one (below)

Something for more adventuresome experimenters...  I often make them in silicone muffin pans.  They cook a little less time.. the silicone lets them pop right out onto a cooling rack where I let them cool and then freeze them individually on a cookie sheet before stuffing them in to zip lock bags for later one-at-a-time quick breakfasts. This is a bit more of a hassle than just pouring it in a pan and setting the cooked quiche in the fridge until it disappears (which usually isn't long).  BUT these are really handy for times like.. if your hubby eats all your quiche and you need some for breakfast.. or to take along on a weekend away.. or whatever.. and anyhow they are sorta cute, right?

Ta-Da... Instant breakfast.  Don't forget to nuke them though.  I Love these silicone things.. I had lots of trouble with the mini quiches sticking to regular ol metal muffin tins.. no matter what I tried to prevent it.  I got these on Amazon.

Also...  you dont' have to stick to bacon as your "meat".. heck, you don't even have to put meat in at all.. but you can use whatever meat (and or) veggies that you happen to have on hand... chopped ham, left over burger or whatever.. (the only alternative I have actually tried though is the ham... I mean as long as I have bacon... I'm eating bacon.  If I run out of bacon, then I may have to make due with something else like ham.

Other good additions that i have tried.. mushrooms, finely chopped water chestnuts.. left over broccoli, left over zucchini...  (But don't omit the greens if you can help it because GREENS are sooo good for you, especially spinach and kale.)  NOTE:  Nope, you can't add potatoes to this and keep it in low-carb status.

Basically:  6 eggs, 3 cups grated cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, about 10oz frozen spinach or equivalent, BACON or something similar.  cook about 25 minutes give or take in 350 oven.

Okay, old friend... is all that clear?  If you have reached this point, you get another gold star.

Sorry.. no time to proof read or even re-read to see if this makes sense.

Trying to give credit where credit is due:
I can't remember where I got the original recipe, but I'm pretty sure it was from Carb Tripper   http://carbtripper.blogspot.com/ 

ONIONS... My Way...

Onions… I love onions.  Eating onions is like breathing air for me.  (I like Vidalia Onions the best, but they have a limited season...  so in the end, any onion is a good onion.)

I’m not sure of the carb count in onions, and for myself I don’t care.  Onions are one of those “exceptions” that I couldn’t remember when I tried to list them in an earlier post.  I’m pretty sure they don’t have many carbs though… and I’m sticking to that theory for myself.

Anyhow…. One of the hassles of onions is that I ALWAYS want to put them in almost everything (minus my low carb [fake] "cheesecake” alternative).  BUT getting one out from the onion bag under the sink.. filtering through other onions' shedded papery skins..(which often end up scattered on the floor)... then cleaning up my selected onion… chopping off the ends, peeling off all the “stuff”… then finally having it ready to chop is just a bit of a hassle.. almost makes me think twice if I REALLY have to have that onion chopped into my tuna-egg salad or not… but of course, I do.... so I do it.

Besides.. after you get all the crud off an onion, you have to clean the chopping board (or get another one… or turn it over…) so that the crud doesn’t get on the onion that you want to chop…  and then… after the chopping and mixing it into the food you’re preparing.. you have to clean up all that crap off the counter… just for one measly, but necessary onion.

Kind of a hassle for one lowly onion.... usually worth it, but still...…  so…   

Here’s “Onions My Way”:

This is how I figure it.... I may as well just get all the mess over with at once.  I get out the whole bag.  One at a time I chop both ends off then peel off the outer stuff that I know I don’t want in my food.  Then.. I rinse it off and put it in a large ziplock… I do this to all the onions in the onion bag….. and end up with a big bag of nice clean ready-to-use onions (they have to be stored in the fridge.. duh...)  Next time I need an onion, it will be all ready to chop and add to whatever I'm cooking.  Ta Da…! 

Of course you still have to clean all that onion crud off the counter… but at least it’s only one big cleaning..not every time you want an onion.  

PS..  You see that knife?  My daughter, Ruth, gave it to me for my birthday.. or Mother's Day or.. can't remember for sure..

That knife is made by a Japanese sword company!  It's the most amazing knife I have ever used.

 

Okay, here's how I did it....

I know some of you want to permanently lose some serious weight as quickly, painlessly as possible.  I can’t claim to ever losing tons of weight, but I DID lose about 65 pounds once (after my twins were born)…  yes, I gained a bit over 80 pounds with them and was left with about 65 of it after they made their entrance.  I can’t remember how long it took, but I did it with my version of Atkins.

As for permanent.. well, it pretty much stayed off until Esther was on the way.  I may have bounced around with 5 pounds over now and then, but when that happened, I jumped back into serious mode and got rid of it.

Gathering the determination to commit to losing weight after a baby usually took me a while, but once I’m there, (and sick and tired of not fitting into my clothes) I am rock solid.  I don’t cheat (except according to my own pre-determined rules and exceptions.. which is why I call it "Atkins My Way") 

My husband would try to do it and he always said (and still says) that it doesn’t work for him.  I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work because he CHEATS… only small diversions, but those will ruin it…. Not one bite of chip or cracker!  Or sugar (which hides everywhere trying to sneak into your body…) Yes, he cheated.  I think he thought that if a tree falls in the forest and no one could see or hear it, it didn't really fall.  (okay, sorry.......I'm tossing that judgmental attitude out the door and into the forest.)

Before I reveal my personal acceptable exceptions, I should tell you the basic “rules” (to the best of my memory).  Disclaimer: Remember, this is what I remember, it may not all be right…

At the beginning to get your body acclimated to the plan:

• Eat lots of eggs and meat (including fish, chicken, beef, pork, and BACON)  Mostly I ate a lot of tuna, it was cheap and easy.  Stay away from ham and lunch meats.. they have sugar hiding in them and sugar = bad carbs
• Eat fat.. butter, mayo, BACON… yummm bacon.  (NO Miracle Whip allowed)
• Coffee with a dab heavy cream.  (couldn’t afford cream back then in the quantities I use it today, which is a lot. I LOVE heavy cream!)
• A SMALL amount of “hard cheese” is allowed, but I avoided it for the most part because I knew I would eat too much of it.
• Drink lots of water.  (Back then I drank diet soda, but I can’t recommend it today.)
• Keep carbs VERY low.  I think Atkins says “under 20” but I tried for about half that.   

The very few carbs you can eat do not include pasta, potatoes (or other starchy veggies like  carrots) or grain products ..  (cereal, bread, etc)  Carbs hide in lots of unexpected places… I usually ate a few veggies (NO fruit!)  I had a handy dandy carb counter…get one, or find one online… all veggies are not equal in the carb department.  I stuck to lettuce mostly, calling it “salad”.  (was disappointed to see that tomatoes had too many carbs!)  Oh yeah, and asparagus which I think is notoriously low in carbs.  I believe Atkins allows salad dressing of oil and vinegar.. but can’t remember, because I don’t like to ruin a good chunk of lettuce that way…. Which leads me to the first of my personal “exceptions”.. Ranch dressing.. (made from a packet with extra  mayo and skimpy on the milk.)  Forgot to mention… stay away from milk.  That was hard for me, I have always loved milk, but these days only drink it on occasion as a “treat”.

Okay.. that’s it!

I lost not just weight, but inches pretty quickly (fat does not weigh much), so the bathroom scale is not the sole indicator of your success… how your clothes fit and how you look are more important than the numbers on the scale in my opinion.

Best of all…. when I eat this way, after the first day or two I don’t get hungry.   Really. In fact I sometimes forget to eat at all until I start feeling a little faint.. and realize.. oh yeah.. fuel the bod… gotta EAT.  If I remember correctly (and my memory SUCKS these days, so this may not be accurate.. do your own research…).. If I remember correctly, it takes the body about 3 days to go into “ketosis” which means you start burning your own fat for energy….  It also means no hunger.  There are some little papers you can pee on to see if you’re “there” yet, but I usually didn’t bother with that.  (probably couldn’t afford them).

Once you are in ketosis.. you can fall out of it very easy.. that is were the determination and will power need to kick in.. no tiny tastes of a cookie..  no licking the spoon (unless it’s mayo or butter)…  nothing.. unless it’s on the list.  As you watch the pounds and inches melt away, you will probably find your determination getting stronger and stronger.. plus the idea of “starting over” is not fun because you have to go through that first day or two of hunger.. (boooo… I HATE feeling hungry)

This first phase of Atkins, is what I believe is called “Induction” and you don’t need to be on it for an extended time… after a couple weeks (to my recollection) you can add a few more “good carbs”…  some hard cheese, more “good” veggies, etc.. but still NO fruit!

Okay.. for those exceptions of mine:

Ranch Dressing.. I already mentioned that.
Hummm, I’m sure there are more, but I can’t think of them right now.  Sorry.

After I was on this for awhile, I took a pre-scheduled “day off”…I planned it ahead of time and looked forward to it.. this can help in times of weekness when you are so bored with tuna or whatever, that you just want a big ol' peanut butter and jelly sandwich  or a couple or three bowls of Raisin Bran and milk (yummmmm!)  and you know that the day for that is coming....  you just have to "delay gratification" a little longer... On those occasional days I ate anything I wanted.  It preserved my sanity..  Then I got right back on the plan… getting back into ketosis as quickly as possible.  According to the scale, I usually added a couple pounds during that time, but it usually came off after a few days of “being good” and in the end, I felt it was worth it.  I’m not sure everyone can afford to think this way… it might depend on your own personality quirks. 

Note:  This plan will not work if you don’t eat enough FAT.. you have to eat fat to burn fat (future post on that subject).  I knew people who tried this plan using low fat stuff…and it didn’t work for them.  They couldn’t accept that the reason it didn’t work was because they limited their fat.  Who’d really want to limit BACON?  It’s one of the best things about eating low carb. And asparagus lots of butter melted on it?...  yummy.  (ANY cooked veggie without butter is seriously missing something...)

Another Note:  I am basically lazy when it comes to preparing food.  The easier the better.. and if it’s prepared ahead that’s good too…. So when I’m hungry all I have to do is open the fridge grab the container,  (and maybe pop it in the microwave), and eat it.  Maybe that is one reason that chips, crackers, and cookies are such great snacks… (NO, not on “the plan”… but for a lot of people)… they are not only yummy, but they are easy and accessible. 

BTW, one good strategy is to just keep the above mentioned snacks out of your house.  If your hubby or kids really MUST eat them, tell them to keep them stashed in their car where you won’t have to look at them. 

Okay.. back to lazy….  

There are a lot of special low-carb, Atkins friendly recipes out there, but unless they are really simple, I usually stay away from them.  I'm not going to alter my cabinets with a lot of specialty items and I'm not going to spend a lot of time cooking when I can get just as full (although possibly bored) with something simple.  I have more important things to do than spend time in the kitchen.

I ate Tuna-Egg salad OFTEN… I’d make a large batch of it (with chopped celery and onion) and eat it for a couple days.  I have other easy make-ahead and re-heat (or not) dishes that I make now (but didn't back then), and will relay them in a future post.  (Gotta remember to tell you about Crust-less Spinach Quiche...  and cabbage, sausage stir fry.. and sausage mushroom soup.. all healthy, all low carb, all easily made.. and re-heatable)

I ate scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast.  I don’t like eggs… especially if they are runny.. (the very thought of it makes me nauseous) but can hack scrambled eggs if I have to.  Once I realized how much energy I got from eggs and bacon for breakfast and for how long I was “full”… I made it more of a habit.  (sidetrack:  a couple times when I wasn’t trying to do Atkins My Way, I ate scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast with a slice of toast.. can you believe I was STARVING in an hour or so?  It’s the bread!  It does it to me every time.. makes me hungry shortly after eating it!  Cereal does the same thing to me, which is why I know if I eat one bowl of it, I will shortly finish off the box.)

Ok.. enough.  If you have read this to the end you get a gold star on your forehead!

Remember, this is all “to my recollection”…  plus, it was almost 30 years ago since I needed to lose a serious amount of weight.  Do your own research.. (I don’t have time right now to do it for you)  I’m just explaining how I did it “back then”.

• I will write about the less strict version of “Atkins My Way” in another post.. the way I do it now when I wake up one day and find that my pants are suddenly too tight.  These days, when that happens, I’m not in such a rush to get it off.. as long as it comes off, so I don’t attack it so vigorously.

• And I will also tell you my “regular” way of eating (which is all very similar with avoiding those BAD carbs but includes fruit and many more “good carbs”. And weekends don’t count. It also includes things I have learned (since back-then) about nutrition (my way).  I’ve made a few changes...like, for instance, eating lots of coconut oil.  I don’t consider myself an Atkins eater anymore, it’s a blend of several theories including South Beach and others I have studied but can’t remember.  So now, it’s just “My Way” ....and weekends don't count.. or holidays, or going out to dinner, or any number of things.. things that happen occasionally, but not frequently.  (how often is "frequent?)

And Yet Another Note:  You will hear that Atkins or other low carb diets are “bad for you”… you will also hear that they are “good for you”… (interesting that I had EXTREMELY high “good cholesterol when doing Atikns..  good cholesterol is good… haha.. as opposed to bad cholesterol which is bad.. it’s all in the percentage of how much of each you have…)  So when I heard that Atkins will give you high cholesterol (in a bad way) because of all the eggs and fat, I realized it just wasn’t true)  Anyhow, there are “experts” on every side of everything, you just have to do your own research and decide what you believe for yourself.

Draw backs to seriously eating Atikns My Way…  Eating can become boring, especially for a lazy cook like me, who always just eats the same things…  Food can become less interesting and less enticing.. although, that is also a plus..  

 There is much more to life than just FOOD.  Find other things to be interested in besides what you are going to tingle your taste buds with next…

Early Aug 1986 - 8 weeks until my due date.  The twins were born a month after this picture was taken...... 4 weeks early, but fine and healthy... 6.5 and 7.5 pounds...  

 Almost a year later, I was still wearing some of my maternity tops!  

But I'd lost a lot of that extra weight that had been clinging to my thighs and butt.  

My belly was harder to deal with...  the twins really stretched it out!