Spinach, Bacon and Cheese Quiche - it's what's for dinner!

One of my goals during my week of cooking was to avoid the grocery store and "use-up" items already in my pantry. A great website to check out is All Recipes. Users submit recipes and folks comment on them with feedback, improvement ideas and more. It's a great source to use if you have items you need to "use up" but no idea what to make. The Ingredients Search is a huge help!

With this in mind, I searched for recipes using eggs, spinach and cheese - all of which I had plenty of and needed to use. I found a base recipe and made a lot of changes to it. Although quiche is typically a dish served at breakfast, I made it for dinner. It was great!



Prep Time - about 20 minutes
Cooking Time - 60 minutes
Serves - 6 or 8 depending on the size of the slices

Ingredients:
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1/2 cup milk
5 eggs, lightly beaten
8 ounces shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, 1 ounce reserved for topping
3 tablespoons feta cheese
1/4 package of bacon
1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 frozen unbaked deep-dish pie shell
1 handful of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for topping

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil.

Chop bacon and cook til just about crisp in a small skillet. Remove from skillet and drain (I used a slotted spoon then placed bacon on a papertowel to get rid of the excess fat).

Over medium to medium-high heat, spray a non-stick pan with cooking spray. Add chopped onion and garlic. Allow onion to sweat thoroughly. Add spinach and heat til warm.

In a large bowl, whisk together mayonnaise and milk until smooth. Whisk in eggs. Layer spinach/onion mixture with cheese in pie shell, making two or three layers of each. Pour in egg mixture. Carefully place quiche on prepared cookie sheet. Cover quiche with foil.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes. Remove cover, and bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until top is golden brown and filling is set.

Check out the finished product (you'll notice a bit of brown stuff on the foil...I accidentally spilled a bit putting it into the oven).

Since it was dinner time, in lieu of fruit, I served the quiche with a simple salad of tomatoes and onions with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar:

As an appetizer, I served shrimp cocktail because it's low fat and one of my favorites. But the most important item to note was my fabulous Kettel One martini (will include instructions in a future entry):

I hope you enjoy this twist on breakfast and dinner.

Happy Cooking!

~J