Manly Quiche

Last night was another of my Family Dinner Nights.  We had a bunch of left overs from my daughters 1st birthday party - deli meat, cheese, and veggies galore!  We made a truly delicious gluten free quiche with a hash brown crust that was inspired by a goat cheese and arugula quiche recipe found here. I tossed a bunch of the left over crudité with some spring lettuce mix for a tasty salad. To quote my husband, "Real men eat quiche. Especially when it is made with hash browns and bacon!" There was not a spec left!

INGREDIENTS:
cooking spray
2 tablespoons butter, melted - plus more for pan
1 pound package frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed
8 large eggs
sea salt and ground pepper
½ cup light sour cream
1 cup half and half
sea salt
8 - 10 oz  grated cheese (I had left over deli cheese so I just chopped it roughly) 8 - 10 oz  chopped deli ham
1/2 cup red onion - small dice
3/4 cup cooked and crumbled bacon (4 - 5 slices)

DIRECTIONS:
1)  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2)  Spray a 9-by-2 1/2-inch spring form pan with cooking spray. Line the sides of the pan with strips of parchment paper (trim to the same height as pan). Spray the parchment with more cooking spray - this part is essential, it will give you a beautiful golden crust and as well as keep the crust from sticking to your pan.
3)  Place hash browns on 3-4 thicknesses of paper towels and fold paper towels over potatoes. Hold over sink and squeeze excess moisture from hash browns.
4)  In a large mixing bowl whisk  melted butter, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon coarse salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add squeezed hash browns and mix until all the butter egg mixture is coating the hash browns. Pat into bottom and up sides of prepared pan, using your hands. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until set, 15 to 20 minutes (we did 18 minutes in our convection oven).
5)  In a large bowl, whisk 7 remaining eggs, sour cream, half and half,  cheese, ham, onion, bacon, 1 teaspoons sea salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper until well combined. Pour into crust, and bake until set, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove outer ring of springform pan, and gently peel off parchment paper.
6)  Let rest for 10 minutes and serve.


NOTES: you could sub any meat and cheeses you like.  Spinach, arugula, chopped broccoli, chopped asparagus, or green onions would be good too.

(photo curtsey of Sarah Germain)

Winner winner chicken dinner!

This was super tasty, super fast, & super easy! Grilled chicken, fruit salad, multigrain veggie medley.

I marinated 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts for about an hour in about:

1/3 cup soy sauce
2 T Mrs Dash (garlic herb)
2 T canola oil

Then my hubby cooked it on the grill.
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The multigrain veggie mix is a bag from trader joes in the frozen section - thaw and serve.
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For the fruit salad you can use any combo you like. Here is what I had on hand and it turned out great. The key is to use citrus juice to prevent browning, and use a variety of textures. My 3 year old asked for another helping 4 times!

2 apples, cored & chopped
1 pint of strawberries, quartered and chopped
1 cup frozen peaches, chopped
3 cutie clementines chopped
plus the juice of 1 more cutie

Toss it all to make sure the juice from the cutie coats everything to prevent browning. Let rest at least 30 min so that the peaches thaw completely and the fruit has a chance to mingle & get happy.

Family Dinner Night - 2

Last night was another wonderful family dinner night with my girlfriends - there is the family you are given, and then there is the family of friends you choose!

Six fabulous women around a candle filled table in my back yard sharing great conversation, amazing dinner, lovely wine, and some "oh my goodness" cookies with port for dessert. Our menu this night was Italian stuffed zucchini boats, herb salad, gluten free rustic olive bread, and maple bacon chocolate chip cookies.

The recipe for the zucchini boats was inspired by this recipe that is meat free. We changed and added a few things to make them more of a main dish. Our recipe serves 6 to 8 depending on the hunger level of your guests - and it can easily be halved or increased.

INGREDIENTS:
8 medium zucchini
2 good quality Italian sweet sausage, cooked and crumbled
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 can no salt petite diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups finely chopped fresh mushrooms
2 T dried Italian herbs
1 T crushed red pepper flakes (or more to taste)
grated Parmesan cheese


DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400° degrees F.

1) Remove sausage casings, cook sausage over medium heat, breaking up as you cook to yield fine crumbles. Drain and set aside.

2) Cut zucchini in half lengthwise; scoop out pulp and seeds, leaving 1/4-inch shell. Reserve pulp from 4 zucchini and chop. (We used a mini food chopper for this and to chop the mushrooms).

3) Combine sausage, zucchini pulp, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, Italian herbs, & crushed red pepper flakes in a large bowl.

4) Divide mixture among zucchini shells. Place stuffed zucchini on a baking sheet; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, & bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until zucchini is tender.

5) Gather some great friends, open a bottle if red, sit back and enjoy!

Here is a merlot we opened that was a perfect pairing to our zucchini:

 

Check back tomorrow -  I'll post about the the AWESOME maple bacon chocolate chip cookies which are gluten free and refined sugar free!

Spring Rolls!

We have loved Vietnamese ever food since our mission trip to Saigon in the summer of 2005.  One of our favorite local Vietnamese restaurants serves several dishes with heavenly slices of grilled pork. We've tried guessing at the ingredients to make it at home because we can't go out as often as we'd like, and we've finally come very close! Last night we used the pork to make spring rolls for dinner. Yummalicious! Our girls are not super fond of the spring rolls themselves, but they love the pork, noodles, and peanut sauce so it ends up being a meal we can all eat.

INGREDIENTS - PORK:
Pork loin
5 - 6 fat garlic cloves - minced
1/2 a tube of lemon grass paste (found in the produce section)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 T. canola oil
2 T. water

DIRECTIONS:
1.  Freeze the pork loin for 20 - 30 minutes to make it easier to make thin slices.  You want to slice this as thin as possible for the spring rolls.
2.  In a large zip lock combine garlic, lemon grass, brown sugar, oil, & water to make a thick marinade.
3.  Add the thinly sliced pork to the marinade, mix around to ensure all the pork has been covered in the marinade, and then seal the bag squeezing most of the air out of the bag.
4.  Marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours - longer would be superb.
5.  Cook pork over medium high heat just until no longer pink.  This should only take 2 - 3 minutes per side - a little longer if your pork is cut thicker.  A little bit of browning and charing is desirable makes it super tasty.


INGREDIENTS - SPRING ROLLS:
1 package Bahn trang spring roll wraps
water
green or read leaf lettuce
1 package cooked vermicelli style rice noodles
pork
mint leaves
basil leaves
cilantro
pickled carrots (recipe)
Optional:
1 - 2 avocados sliced thin
1 red bell pepper sliced thin

DIPPING SAUCE:
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup hot water
2 T. soy sauce
2 - 3 T. sriracha (to taste or leave out if you are giving it to kiddos)
2 T. coconut syrup


ASSEMBLY:
NOTE: You will make one roll at a time.  We spread out all of the ingredients in assembly line fashion and each made our own. This would work well for a summer dinner party as you can get all the ingredients ready ahead of time and everyone can make their own.  Here we used the lemongrass pork, but you can add grilled shrimp, chicken or just keep it veggie. These can also be made ahead of time and wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated, but they really are best freshly made.  I like adding the bell pepper and avocado though they are not strictly traditional and my hubby likes to eat them with 1/2 sriracha & 1/2 peanut sauce, but that is a bit too spicy for me.

1.  In a large shallow dish, soak one spring roll wrap for approximately 10 seconds.  It will still be stiff. DO NOT wait until it softens completely or  you will have a hard time working with the wrappers.
2.  Place the wrap on your plate, then start piling on your toppings.  Start with lettuce, then noodles, pork, herbs, pickled carrots, and other veggies.  Keep it to small amounts or it will be hard to wrap!
3.  Fold in the sides, and then roll up starting from the edge nearest you - burrito fashion.
4.  In a small bowl stir together all the ingredients for the dipping sauce until combined.
5. Dig in and enjoy!

BLT Ranch Penne Pasta!

For tonight's dinner, I hit it outta the ball park, if I do say so myself. BLT Ranch pasta. I mean it has BACON in it. What's not to like? Plus spinach and tomatoes so you can kinda feel good about eating it. My husband went back for a second helping and said "I'll make you a deal... If you make this, I WILL eat it."

The idea for this started because we had some cherry tomatoes that were looking kinda sad and wrinkly. Which makes them PERFECT for a pasta dish - trust me! They plump up when you cook them, but they don't burst. Plus their flavor is intensified by having dried out a bit on the counter. And since both bacon and pasta were on sale at the market today. Winner, winner bacon pasta dinner!

INGREDIENTS:
12 oz pasta of choice
12 pieces thick cut bacon
1 T. Butter
1 T. Olive oil
2 cups cherry tomatoes
2 giant fistfuls of baby spinach
1 T. Ranch dressing mix (or more to taste)

DIRECTIONS:
1). Line a cookie sheet with foil & lay out your slices of bacon. Put into a cold oven and set temperature to 375. Set timer for 20 minutes. Bacon should be perfectly crisp and golden.
2). While bacon is cooking, cook your pasta with very salted water according to box directions.
3). Once bacon is cooked, stack and slice into 1 inch strips.
4). When pasta is close to done, heat a skillet over medium heat. Add butter and olive oil.
5). Add cherry tomatoes and bacon.
6). Add drained pasta & spinach. Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring to prevent sticking, until spinach begins to wilt.
7.). Sprinkle with ranch dressing mix and toss to coat. Serve with fresh cracked pepper.

And...YUMM! See how the tomatoes plumped?!?! Super tasty and quick.