Caramelized Onion Bacon Quiche

This weekend my dear hubby had a special request for breakfast. He claimed since his birthday happens mid-week, that I should fix him a special birthday quiche on the weekend.  So I was a nice wifey, and fixed a special bacon-loaded quiche. It was fabulous!

I served it with cantaloupe and a salad of mixed greens with cranberries and almonds and a red wine vinaigrette dressing.

Ingredients
1 9-inch blind baked pie shell
1 onion, sliced into strips
3 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon minced garlic
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup shaved Swiss cheese, or similar cheese like Gruyere or Emmentaler
Black pepper and sea salt to taste

Method
1. In a medium frying pan, saute onion and butter. Cook over medium heat until onion begins to brown. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking until softened and brown. Season with salt and pepper. Add minced garlic at the very end and saute until just browned, about 1 minute.
 

 2. Spread onions in bottom of pie crust. Layer half of the shaved cheese on top of the onions. Sprinkle bacon in another layer. Top with the remaining shaved cheese.

3. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Gently pour over the quiche layers.

4. Bake in a preheated 350F oven about 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. If the crust start to brown too much, cover the edges with a strip of foil.

Broccoli Cheese Bake

Yum for broccoli! We like broccoli. I bought a seriously huge bag from Costco. I barely made a dent in it after this broccoli casserole and a couple nights of steamed broccoli. Note to self: Costco bags of broccoli are too big for normal consumption.

Going back into my childhood, I liked broccoli with "cheeze."  Since processed cheese is very high in sodium (and lots of artificial weird stuff) I don't like to eat it all that often. Thankfully, my kids aren't big fans of Velveeta. However, this is one of those traditions where I have to indulge myself every once in a while.

This was part of the Easter dinner feast. It was really salty and oozy and yummy. I'm pretty sure we negated any health benefits from the broccoli with all the "cheeze" and butter, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Ingredients
2 lbs broccoli, chopped
1 lb block Velveeta
3 T. butter
2 T. milk
6 Ritz crackers, crushed

Method
1. Microwave or steam broccoli until just tender. Set aside for now.

2. Melt Velveeta, butter and milk together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until smooth.

3. Combine broccoli and cheese in a 8" square baking dish. Spread out and top with crushed crackers.

4. Bake in 325F oven about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.



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Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Hello again my dear readers. It's springtime here and I'm finding more and more good produce at the stores. I found some adorable Brussels sprouts! They are essentially miniature cabbages that grow on stalks. I'm hoping to grow some in our garden this year!

I wanted to try something a little bit different. I recruited my daughter to help me make dinner. I told her to help put the sprouts in the pan and that she had to watch for bugs. She was very thorough and questioned almost every brownish spot she saw. As part of this experiment, I asked her to eat one raw. She did! My picky eater ate one whole raw Brussels sprout! What an accomplishment!

However, once I got out the onion, she lost interest. She did ask if I was crying (from the onion fumes) and looked deep into my eyes to see if I had any tears forming. Funny!

After stuffing the pan into the hot oven, I managed to heat up some ham and microwaved a huge sweet potato to make the meal. The lemony cheesy Brussels sprouts were a nice contrast to the salty ham. A little cinnamon, butter and agave syrup on the sweet potato rounded out the sweetness.

Ingredients
2 lbs fresh Brussels sprouts
1/2 a medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
2-3 Tablespoons Annie's Consorzio Roasted Garlic Olive Oil
1 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
1 sliced lemon
1/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese

Method
1. Wash and trim the Brussels sprouts. Slice in half lengthwise. Discard any buggy ones you find.
 
2. Toss sprouts with the garlic olive oil and lemon pepper seasoning. Spread in a 9x13 pan. Arrange the sliced onions on top.

3. Roast 10 minutes at 450F. Stir and return to oven for another 10 minutes or so. You want them to get tender with some roasty-toasty brown areas.

4. Place hot sprouts in a serving bowl. Squeeze some lemon juice all over, about half a lemon should do it unless you really like it lemony. Top with Romano cheese and serve warm.