“Egg”ceptional Quiche

I love eggs. I don’t know when it all first started, but when I was growing up my Dad cooked many an omelet on Saturday mornings! He had a whole list of wonderful ingredients to throw in the omelet at the last second: fresh spinach, sausage, cheese, cheese, (did I mention cheese?), mushrooms, onions, green peppers, it was a veritable omelet pizza! When asked, the only additional ingredients I requested were cheese and some extra cheese, please, if you don’t mind!

Okay okay…I know it sounds lame… So I hadn’t developed my frugal foodie palate at nine years old!

And I have to admit it’s still developing… one day I might like capers… but for the moment though, I’ll pass!!

At the present, I love spinach! And sausage, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and now I might even throw in some yellow tomatoes, and even a diced avocado! Aren’t you proud!

For our menu today (much in part due to my love of “all things egg”) I decided on a quiche! You cannot go wrong with a quiche. Versatile, relatively fast, very easy (if you can beat an egg, you can do this!), and oh so yummy!

Most quiches are basically made up off first and foremost eggs (you’ve gotta hold that sucker together somehow!), sometimes a meat, often a vegetable or two, and most usually one or an assortment of cheeses, along with milk or cream, and various spices that enhance the flavors of the meats and vegetables in the quiche. You can make it with a crust or without…I definitely prefer with!

Our quiche today is definitely for frugal foodies…. You could also call this “using up random leftovers in the fridge to make a somewhat gourmet quiche!” There was not an immediate cost involved in this recipe, I had all the ingredients from previous trips to the store, but for the cost purists out there (costs are estimated):

Eggs = $1.25 (much less if you don’t buy organic, free-roaming!)

Pie crust = 1.00 (much less if homemade)

Scrooms = .59

Milk = (negligible…)

Feta = $2.00

Broccoli = .30

TOTAL = $5.14 for a 9’ pie

8 slices (about 3 meals for my husband and I) = that’s about $1.70 a meal, a BARGAIN!!

Here’s my recipe for today’s meal:

Mushroom, Broccoli, and Feta Quiche

1 frozen (or homemade, if you are so inclined) pie crust

6 eggs

¼ c. milk

1 small can sliced mushrooms

¾ c. crumbled feta cheese

½ a small frozen box of broccoli florets, defrosted, with water removed

2 tsp. SPIKE garlic seasoning (more or less to taste)

Freshly ground salt/ pepper to taste

¼ tsp. annatto (optional, for color)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl beat eggs and add milk. Mix in crumbled feta, mushrooms, broccoli, garlic seasoning, salt, and pepper. Pour mixture into pie shell. Sprinkle top of egg mixture with annatto. Bake for 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. (You can also test the firmness by gingerly turning the quiche side to side –like a steering wheel to see if it jiggles in the middle. If it doesn’t, you’re good to go! ;-)

A few notes on quiche:

*Remember this recipe when can’t think of anything to make for dinner! Keep a frozen pie shell on hand, or if you don’t have a pie shell, make one from scratch or serve with toast or biscuits and forget the shell altogether! (Or for you crazy low-carb folks, just forget the bread!)

*You can substitute any veggies for veggies, any cheese for cheese, and you can even throw in a meat (deli ham, leftover browned hamburger, sausage, you name it, it will work in a quiche!)

*Remember that for the most part measurements can be adjusted to suit your tastes or to amounts you have on hand.

I served the quiche with a fruit salad made up of random fruits we had handy: 2 peaches, an apple, a banana going south, and strawberries. I squeezed half a lemon over the salad and tossed. If I had an orange, I would have squeezed an orange over the salad as well! Serve chilled with the quiche!