Spinach Quiche

Simple. Breakfast.

You can only eat so much bacon and eggs with toast before you decide that it's time to venture out into the eclectic world of quick and easy breakfasts that don't take forever to prepare.

So here we have quiche. A French dish full of flavor but also only uses a few ingredients! 

Start off with some chopped onion and garlic.

Sauté those in olive oil over medium-low heat until they are very fragrant. 

And stir every so often. 

While those onions are sautéing, grab your fresh spinach! If you don't have fresh spinach, you can use a package of frozen spinach instead, in which case you can skip this part.

Chop up that spinach nice and good!

After the garlic and onions are done, throw in your spinach. 

 

Let it cook all the way through until the spinach is wilted. If you added frozen spinach, make sure all the liquid is cooked out. Then remove it from the heat.

While the spinach is cooling off a bit, grate 2 cups of cheese. I used white cheddar and Monterey Jack, but you're more than welcome to use whatever cheeses suit your tastes!

In a medium sized mixing bowl, crack 5 eggs...

And beat them with slight aggression.

Add your cheese!

And some spices. I threw in some flavored salt, ground pepper, rosemary, and thyme.

Mix that until slightly incorporated. 

Prepare your baking dish with a nice layer of olive oil. I recommend using a 9 inch round baking dish.

Add your slightly cooled spinach mixture to the cheese/egg mixture and stir it all up.

Transfer your concoction to the baking dish.

Smooth everything out with a spatula. Throw it in the preheated oven (350 F) and bake for 25 minutes. 

Remove when the sides are golden brown and there are no more bubbles.

Bon appétit!

Easy Spinach Quiche

(Makes roughly 8 slices)

Ingredients

1 medium sized onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

6-8 cups fresh spinach, chopped, or 1 package frozen spinach

5 eggs

2 cups grated cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

dried herbs (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. In a large saucepan, sauté onion and garlic over medium-low heat until fragrant, about 8 minutes.

3. Add chopped spinach and cook until all the spinach has wilted. If using frozen spinach, cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

4. In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until beaten. Add cheese, salt, pepper, and herbs and mix until incorporated.

5. Mix the spinach mixture into the egg mixture until integrated. Transfer this to a round, 9 inch, prepared baking dish. 

6. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the sides are golden brown. 

Pumpkin Pancakes for Halloween

So it's Halloween, you have canned pumpkin in your cabinet, and your boyfriend suggested pancakes for breakfast? 

I've totally got you covered.

First, get together your ingredients: milk, eggs, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!), flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground ginger.

Mix together your spices in a medium sized bowl. Careful of the fumes. If you're not careful, you'll be smelling Christmas for days!

Add all the rest of the dry ingredients on top of that. 

And mix them until blended. Set this bowl aside for the time being.

Grab a new, large-sized mixing bowl. 

Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk them all together...

Whoops! Almost forgot the vanilla.

Take those sitting dry ingredients and add them to the wet mixture very slowly until everything is incorporated. 

It should look like this!

Take about 1/3 cup of batter and pour little circles onto your heated griddle. I usually set mine to 300-350 F. 

They're ready to flip when the sides look dry and the batter starts to bubble.

Lovely! A good pancake has a wonderful golden-brown color. Let them cook for another 5 minutes or so. 

The first batch goes onto the serving plate!

Repeat this process until all of the batter has magically transformed into delicious, pumpkin pancakes!

That's a good looking stack of pancakes.

A completed breakfast worthy of Halloween. Don't forget a drizzle of honey or pure maple syrup. 

Pumpkin Pancakes

(Makes 16-20 pancakes)

Ingredients:

1.5 cups milk

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 egg

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons vinegar

1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

2 Teaspoons baking powder

1 Teaspoon baking soda

1/2 Teaspoon salt

1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 Teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 Teaspoon ground ginger

1. Preheat griddle to 300-350 F.

2. Mix all dry ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl. Set aside. 

3. In another larger mixing bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until incorporated.

4. In small batches, slowly mix the dry mixture into the wet mixture until everything is combined.

5. Spoon 1/4-1/3 cup of batter onto the preheated griddle.

6. Cook pancake for 5 minutes on each side, or until the pancake is golden-brown and cooked through the center. 

7. Serve with breakfast!