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
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| 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?
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| 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/
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