Sunday, November 11, 2012

Veggie Quiche

I think I am officially going to the start the "How to clean out your fridge of soon expiring ingredients :)" section

Ingredients
Cheese - I used shredded mozerella 2-3 Tblsp and 1 slice of Swiss
Eggs - 3
Onion, tomato, green peppers, spinach, garlic - to taste ( you can omit any of them)
Betty crocker pie crust dough - I use half a pack and got 5 cupcake size mini quiches
Salt
Pepper
Italian seasoning
Milk - 1/3 cup
Method
1) Fry onions, garlic, tomato, spinach garlic with some salt and pepper in 1 tsp of olive oil until the veggies are tender.
2) Beat eggs + milk in a bowl. Mix in the shredded chesse. Add the fried veggies and mix well.
3) Prepare and roll out the pie dough as instructed and cut into circles and press down onto cup cake tins (of course you could roll out the pie dough onto an 8" round pie tin - which I did not have and so I just made it in a cupcake tin)
4) Preheat the oven to 400 degree and throw in the pie-cupcakes to cook for about 10 minutes. It does not have to be browned but it should look semi cooked.
5) Laddle in the egg+veggie mixture until it fills up to the top.
6) Cut the swiss cheese into rectangular pieces and place a couple of pieces on top of each quiche.
7) Bake for about 25 - 30 minutes or until a fork comes out clean.

Guess what?  Here is a picture of the final product :)




Monday, November 5, 2012

Super cheesy bread lasagna

You heard it right. I did say super cheesy :) It is one of those recipes I probably won't repeat often or not at all unless I had the same unique situation or I am cooking for guests. What's the situation you ask?
Well, I had 3/4 pack of grated mozzarella cheese, 4 slices of swiss chesse, 6 slices of bread and 1/2 bottle of alfredo sauce - all needed to be used within the next week. This forced me to come up with a  recipe and "Bread lasagna was born."  Of course, I plan to give away at least half of what I baked :)

Here goes...

Layer 1 -  Chunky Tomato Sauce:
Tomatoes 6 small chopped, onions - 1 big chopped, garlic- 6 pods roughly chopped, spinach - frozen 1/2 cup, Italian seasoning, bell pepper 1/3 chopped and salt

Fry onions and garlic till golden brown in 1 tsp of oilve oil. Add bell pepper and cook for 1-2 min. Add the salt and seasoning and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add tomatoes and spinach. Mix well and close with lid. Allow to cook for about 6-7 minutes. 

Layer 2 (Pasta):

Elbow macaroni - 1/2 cup, broccoli - 1/2 cup frozen chopped, peas & carrot mix - 1/2 cup frozen, salt - to taste, alfredo sauce - 1/2 bottle

Cook the pasta in about 4 cups of water. Once cooked add salt and veggies and cook for about 5-6 minutes and remove from gas. Drain and add the Alfredo sauce and mix well and set aside.

Layer 3 (Bread):
Toast 6 slices of bread on both sides

Layering:
1. Take a 9"  square baking pan. Place 2 bread slices and 2 halves of a bread slice on the bottom until it more or less covers the base. 
2. Place 4 slices of swiss cheese on top
3. Spread a layer of the chunky tomato sauce
4. Spread the pasta on top
5.  Spread 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese
6. Spread a second layer of the chunky tomato sauce

7. Place the other 2 slices and 2 halves of the bread on top
8. Cover with the remaining mozerella cheese
9. Bake in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.