One Ham, Two Dinners, Part 2: Ham and Cheese Quiche

Posted on May 10, 2016 by jacky grace

Tuesdays are worse than Mondays.

I don’t know why. They just are. Mondays at least you can talk to your coworkers about what you did over the weekend, and somehow in retelling the weekend fun, you can kind of extend it beyond the two days. But Tuesday? Tuesday is like okay for real now, you have to work. No excuses.

So I’m even more excited about the ham we made Sunday being in the fridge and ready to be transformed into a super easy super yummy dinner than I was yesterday.

Yesterday was all about the Croque Monsieur. Today, we’re going to take the same ingredients (minus the bread) and make a ham and cheese crustless quiche!

So easy. If you made the Croque Monsieur yesterday, you’ll have all the ingredients on hand. If not, the shopping list is still super simple.

ham, cut into one inch cubes
cheese, shredded (any kind works- mozzarella, swiss, cheddar- whatever you have)
five eggs
splash of milk
butter, for greasing the pan (you can use cooking spray too)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and butter a pie pan.

To the buttered pie pan, add your chunks of ham in an even layer.

Then sprinkle over your shredded cheese.

In a bowl, crack five eggs

Add a splash of milk

And whisk until combined.

Pour your milk and egg mixture over your ham and cheese.

Bake for about 30-45 minutes, until the center is firm.

Slice and enjoy.

To continue the French theme, serve with a salad of greens topped with a mustardy vinaigrette. It will cut through the richness of the eggs, ham and cheese, like it did yesterday with the Croque Monsieur.

And there you have two meals from a few simple ingredients- eggs, milk, ham, cheese, butter and bread.

That’s two itty bitty city kitchen friendly meals from 6 ingredients!

Spinach Artichoke Quiche

Posted on March 13, 2014 by jacky grace

Spinach Artichoke dip is one of the greatest food inventions. Ever. Period.

However, it can’t be consumed in large quantities. Or with great frequency.

Especially not when your waistline is still recovering from the croissants and the crepes and the baguettes from your trip to Paris.

With Paris still on my mind, I started thinking about the fantastic foods we ate and I landed on quiche. My fiance’s cousin made an absolutely fantastic traditional quiche lorraine for us while we were there, loaded with cream and cheese and ham and a buttery crust. I knew my tummy couldn’t handle quite the same flavor bomb, but I thought I could lighten it up and mash it up with spinach artichoke dip.

And that’s how spinach artichoke quiche came to be.

This quiche doesn’t have a crust, which helps eliminate loads of calories right there, and is jam packed with spinach and artichokes, so the filling is more veggie than egg and cheese.

For this recipe you will need:

1 bag of spinach
1 can of artichoke hearts, drained
olive oil
salt
pepper
4 eggs
grated gruyere (I leave the amount to you)
parmesan cheese (again, I will never limit your cheese intake)

Preheat the oven to 375 and lightly butter a 9 inch pie pan.

In a large skillet, drizzle some olive oil and sautee the spinach and the artichokes. I just broke up the artichoke hearts into chunks with my hands. You can chop nicely if you wish.

When the spinach is nice and wilted, season with salt and pepper and then transfer the mixture to the pie pan.

In a large bowl, crack four eggs and toss in the gruyere and the parmesan cheese.

Using a fork, stir to combine.

Pour the egg and cheese mixture over the spinach and artichokes and add a sprinkling of parmesan to the top.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes until the eggs are set.

Slice it up and enjoy the mash-up of a quick Parisian meal with your favorite bar snack.

Christmas Quiche

Posted on December 23, 2013 by jacky grace

With Christmas only a few days away, dinners need to be fast, easy and light.

Whenever that’s the order of the day, I turn to quiche. Quiche doesn’t sound light, but if you take away the crust, you’re left with fresh veggies and eggs, both of which are good for you things that will keep you going during your marathon present wrapping session!

I know that the crust is the best part of most things. But with the amount of pies and cookies that we’re all going to consume in a few days, I think it’s okay to lose it for this dish.

You can use any vegetables you like in this. I’m going with spinach, tomatoes and some feta cheese for a bit of a Greek twist. Let me know the combos you come up with.

The basic quiche mix will be the same.

You will need 4 eggs and a few tablespoons of heavy cream. Okay I’m being a little naughty. You can use skim milk if you want to be totally virtuous.

Also, I bake my quiche in a lightly buttered pie dish. It makes for easy serving, easy clean up, and it looks really pretty. I usually don’t care about presentation, but with the holidays coming up, I send that to you as a little piece of advice in case you wind up with unexpected overnight guests. Baked eggs in a pie dish = elegant breakfast!

Okay, for my spinach, feta and tomato quiche, I started by preheating the oven to 400.

Drizzle some olive oil in a skillet and add heaping handfuls of baby spinach.

When the spinach starts to wilt a bit, add a few diced tomatoes (The other wonderful thing about quiche is that there’s no measuring necessary. Chop up leftover veggies, throw ’em in and you are good to go).

When the spinach and tomatoes are cooked, pour the mixture into the bottom of your greased pie plate.

You’ll notice I didn’t season these. I’m going to crumble feta over the veggies, so I don’t want to add extra salt.

And I season my eggs with pepper (I forgot to take a picture after adding pepper. Imagine little black specks floating amidst the cream and egg yolks!)

Beat the eggs and cream and pour over the veggies.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the eggs are set.

This is great to bake the night before then warm up for a grab and go breakfast, too.

And look. It’s red and green. That’s a very festive quiche, if I do say so myself.

Eggplant Parm Pie

Posted on June 18, 2013 by jacky grace

The only thing I love more than my mom’s meatballs is her eggplant parm.

If you’ve only eaten eggplant parm out at a restaurant, you have never eaten eggplant parm.

Sorry restaurants. But mom’s will win every time.

Bobby Flay should really come do a Throwdown with my mom.

Here’s the thing about her eggplant though. It’s a process. Totally worth it in the end, but it involves a lot of time over a hot stove. First you make the gravy, then you fry the eggplant in batches, then you layer the gravy and the eggplant in a casserole dish, then you top with cheese, then you bake for an hour, and then, during that hour, you clean your grease-splattered stove.

In the summer, my itty bitty city kitchen is ridiculously hot.

So no thanks.

But I was thinking about eggplant. And so I came up with this. It’s not at all the same thing as mom’s, but it’s quick and it’s light.

Think of it as the summertime cousin to mom’s cheesy, melty, tray of eggplant wonderfulness.

A sort of quichey, eggplant pie.

You will need

4 eggs

1 eggplant

1 tomato

1 heaping scoop ricotta cheese

mozzarella

splash of milk

olive oil

salt

pepper

butter for the dish

Turn your oven to 400.

Peel the eggplant and slice into discs. The more even the width, the more evenly they will bake.

Lay them on a foil-lined cookie sheet.

Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for about twenty minutes.

When the eggplant is nice and browned up, remove from the oven and set the slices aside. Slice up the tomato in rounds and place on the foil-lined sheet you just removed the eggplant from. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast for about ten minutes.

This recipe sounds a little lengthy, but to me roasting time isn’t really cooking time. I throw things in the oven and forget about them for a little bit, taking the time to unwind after a long day or to swiffer the floors or to do some previously neglected tasks. Like paying the bills. While the tomatoes roast is the perfect time to pay the bills.

When the tomatoes are done, butter a baking dish or pie pan. I’ve extolled the virtues of my pie pan before. Namely, that it is dishwasher safe. So between the foil-lined cookie sheet and the pan that goes in the dishwasher, this is a no cleanup necessary dinner.

Line the bottom of your pan with eggplant.

Next add a lawyer of tomatoes.

Top with the remaining eggplant.

In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, a splash of milk and a scoop of ricotta cheese. This is serving as the parmigiana part of the dish.

Pour the mix over the eggplant and tomatoes and then top with mozzarella.

Lower the oven to 350 and bake for 45 minutes. Again, a long baking time, but there’s very little active cooking time in this recipe. There’s a lot of hang out, put your feet up, sip some wine and let the smells fill the apartment time.

Remove from the oven when the eggs are set.

Slice up and serve with a side salad and some crusty bread.

It’s not mom’s but it does the trick.

For now.

Leftover Veggie Crustless Quiche

Posted on May 29, 2013 by jacky grace

Friday night’s calzones left me with a half a bag of spinach and a container of mushrooms in my fridge.

Much as I wanted to stop at the store and peruse the produce section ( I like grocery shopping. I know. I’m strange), I knew I had food to use in my fridge.

I hate having food go to waste.

Usually when I have leftover veggies, I sautee them up and toss them over pasta.

Unfortunately, we just had pasta last night.

So I racked my brain.

And came up with this.

Leftover Veggie Quiche.

This is a crustless quiche so it’s super quick to prepare and needs only a few ingredients:

some veggies (I’m using spinach and mushrooms and some scallions)
parmesan or another shredded cheese (optional) (I also scooped in some ricotta because the sell by date’s approaching)
4 eggs
milk
butter (to grease the pan, you can use cooking spray too)

Sautee the veggies in some olive oil and black pepper over medium heat. Remember they will cook some more in the oven, so don’t cook them all the way.

Meanwhile, grease a pie pan or a baking dish. You can use whatever you have on hand – glass pyrex casserole, a brownie pan – I’m using a pie pan because I have one and because it’s dishwasher safe. One less pot to wash!

When the veggies are cooked, dump them into the greased pan in an even layer.

I, for whatever reason, cooked the spinach first, put it in the pie pan as my bottom layer, then cooked the mushrooms and laid those on top of the spinach. I tossed the chopped scallion over.

In a bowl, crack four eggs, pour in some milk, sprinkle in some cheese, scoop in a spoonful of ricotta, add a few grinds of black pepper if desired and whisk away.

When the yolks are broken and well combined, pour the egg mixture over the veggies.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until the eggs are set. About 30 minutes.

Slice, serve with a side salad and some crusty bread.

I’m starting to notice just how often I type the words crust bread, and, subsequently, just how often I eat crusty bread.

I think I have a problem.

Is there a crusty bread eaters anonymous?

Wait.

This is a crustless quiche.

No crust means no bread. An otherwise breadless meal.

And I need carbs.

I did have yogurt today for lunch. And fruit.

Totally healthy. And totally breadless.

So, I’m perfectly entitled to my crusty bread tonight.

What say you, Rachael Ray, is that the correct girl math?

I was always bad at math. I’m an English major.

Oh well.

The math I can handle? Dinner ready with only five minutes of prep + a nice long hot shower during the thirty minutes while the quiche bakes + only one pan to wash = a very calm and relaxed girl ready to settle in for some Game 7, Blackhawks vs Red Wings old school hockey!

#Becauseitsthecup

Itty Bitty City Kitchen

tiny kitchen, BIG CULINARY ASPIRATIONS

Tag Archives: quiche

One Ham, Two Dinners, Part 2: Ham and Cheese Quiche

Spinach Artichoke Quiche

Christmas Quiche

Eggplant Parm Pie

Leftover Veggie Crustless Quiche