Chez Robinson

While searching for an idea for dinner, I ran across a recipe for Crustless Asparagus and Mushroom Quiche in the April 2005 issue of Shape magazine. I read through the ingredients list, decided to substitute broccoli for the asparagus, and headed to the grocery store.

Later in the afternoon I started really reading the recipe, and it called for starting the quiche in a frying pan, then transferring it to a glass baking dish and finishing it in the microwave. The microwave? I've never made a quiche before, but I've had quiche, I am aware of the concept of quiche, and I've never heard of making it in the microwave. That's when I abandoned the recipe. I searched the internet and found generic instructions for crustless quiche, and decided to follow the recommended baking method. This is what I came up with:

Crustless Brocooli and Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients:
cooking spray
butter
1 1/2 cup broccoli florets
1 cup coarsely chopped white mushrooms
6 large eggs
1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup lowfat sour cream
1/4 teaspoon paprika
3 slices lowfat Swiss cheese, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375

I briefly steamed the broccoli and sauteed the mushrooms in a tiny bit of butter. I sprayed a 10 inch glass quiche pan with a quick coat of cooking spray, then spread the cooked broccoli and mushrooms in the bottom. In a separate bowl I whisked together the eggs, milk, sour cream, paprika, salt and pepper. I poured the egg mixture over the vegetables, then sprinkled the chopped Swiss cheese on top of everything.

The generic recipe calls for baking it from 30-45 minutes, beginning to check on it after 30 minutes. I started checking on it at 30 minutes, and pulled it from the oven after 38 minutes. I let it rest on the counter for 5 minutes, then we dug in. It was perfectly delicious. I ate 1/4 of it. My husband went back for seconds and ate close to half of it.

This was fantastic, and I will definitely be making other variations of this. As an added bonus, my "You're putting meat in that, right?" husband ate it without complaint. In fact, he raved about it and declared it one of his new favorites. This further proves my theory that he doesn't miss the meat if a dish is hearty enough.

Here is the nutritional info provided by Shape for their version: 250 calories, 15g fat (7 saturated), 8g carbs, 20 g protein per serving. One serving is 1/4 of the quiche. Substituting broccoli for asparagus shouldn't make much of a calorie difference. I did add a tiny pat of butter to the mushrooms, but without the butter those numbers should be pretty close.

I had every intention of spending time this weekend coming up with a Meal Plan and sharing it as part of Meal Plan Monday. The weekend slipped away, and apparently with it any thoughts of meal planning. Today I suddenly remembered that I planned to plan, and that my lack of a plan meant I had no ideas for dinner tonight. I've been eager to try new recipes and dishes, so my only goal is to prepare something I haven't made before.

While flipping through an old issue of Shape magazine I found a crustless quiche recipe that looks good. I've never made quiche before, so it fits the bill. A warm egg dish also sounds good considering the cold evenings we've been having.

I'll share the results later!

I've spent most spare moments of 3 of the past 7 days working in the back yard. I'm trying to rake and clean up the yard in general, get our small garden plot ready, and build our herb spiral. While preparing our garden plot I had an embarrassing realization:

There are substantial parts of our back yard which we have not raked since we bought this house.

And we bought this house six years ago.

We have a pretty large yard for suburbia, we don't have kids or even dogs who would explore the backyard, so the areas farthest from the house have been neglected. Like I said, embarrassing.

However, this led to a few unexpected benefits for the vegetable garden.
1 - No grass or weeds to clear, dig or pull up. The raking left dark, beautiful soil behind.
2 - I feel this area has essentially been self-composting all these years. The soil is rich and it smells like life. My husband laughed when I told him that, but I smell the promise and potential of growth.

I have high hopes for this rich, beautiful soil.

So, it's been a while. :)

I stopped posting about my challenge last year when I learned an important lesson. My job, specifically the travel my job sometimes requires, ruins my meal planning. Everything was going very well until I hit the road on a 14 hour day. Maybe there are people who come home and cook after days like that, but, as much as I enjoy cooking, I'm not one of those people.

I am trying to do better. Now I do more cooking on the weekends, and more freezer cooking. I've started leaving casseroles in the fridge for my husband to put in the oven when he gets home before me. Also, I've been putting my 2 Crockpots back to work. These new ideas work well, and I need to get back into weekly meal planning and incorporate these ideas in my plans.

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This time of year my head starts spinning with ideas for cleaning, organizing, gardening and home improvement. I guess it's a bit of a spring cleaning kick, but it seems to hit me early. Here are some of my plans for the next few months:

1 - Construct an herb spiral in the backyard
2 - Prepare an area for a vegetable garden in the back yard
3 - Create a space in the garage to start vegetables and flowers from seeds
4 - Clean out and organize the entire garage, including cleaning and applying garage floor coating to the floor
5 - FINALLY complete the master bathroom remodel

I'm hoping to use this blog to post my progress, especially with the vegetable garden. This will be our first vegetable garden, so this could be entertaining. :)