Bacon, Tomato & Caramelized Onion Quiche

I made this quiche for Zak's birthday and it was a hit.  Super yummy and just what he had envisioned.  I grew up having quiche for brunch on Christmas day, but never for dinner, like Zad had.  I had also never made quiche before, so I was a bit nervous but then I realized, I've made pie (even those cute mini chicken pot pies!) and other complicated dishes, I should be able to make this!  Anyways, huge success, going to make it again this week because: yum!!  

I basically looked at a few recipes and combined them, made it taste good and wrote down my notes.  So here is my recipe for bacon, tomato & caramelized onion quiche:

8 oz. (about 7 pieces) bacon, cut into small pieces

1 large white/yellow onion, sliced 

1 large tomato, diced

1 single recipe of pie crust (used frozen deep dish pie crust)

3 Tbl. light sour cream

4 eggs

3/4 c. half & half

dash tabasco sauce

1/4 tsp. dry mustard

1 c. cheese (I used a cheddar blend, we aren't big on Swiss)

salt & pepper

butter

1.  In a large pan on medium heat, heat up a few tablespoons of butter.  Add onions, season with salt & pepper and cook for about 10 minutes.  Turn heat down to low and continue to cook until translucent and soft.

2.  Bake crust for 10 minutes at 375 degrees, cool.

3.  Fry bacon pieces while baking crust and caramelizing onions.

4.  In a small bowl, mix sour cream with a pinch of salt & pepper.  Spread on the bottom of cooled crust.

5.  In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg.  Add half & half, tabasco, dry mustard and salt & pepper to taste.

6.  Add caramelized onions to pie crust, followed by bacon pieces, diced tomatoes and cheese.  Pour in egg mixture.

7.  Baking on cooking sheet for 40 - 45 minutes at 375 degrees

beautiful!

taken the next day, we scarfed down our pieces

Chicken & Bacon Fried Rice

This is a variation of my mom's fried rice recipe.  We often had fried rice the day after we had rice with dinner.  I don't usually get fried rice at Chinese restaurants because it never seems to be as good as my mom's.  I'm a bit partial to it.  The other day I cooked a bunch of rice but ended up making something different for dinner, and the next day at work I thought about making fried rice all day.  So I came home and did it.  I decided to add chicken to make it more of a main dish than a side dish.  Zak helped me and we made a delicious, big batch of fried rice that lasted us a few days.

3 eggs, beaten with a little bit of milk, salt & pepper
4 c. rice (leftover is fine)
4 slices bacon
1 lb.+ chicken (used about 20 oz.), cut into bite-sized pieces and cooked (Zak seasoned with salt & pepper, butter, rice vinegar & a bit of soy sauce)
4-5 baby carrots or 1-2 medium carrots, grated
1/2 (?) c. frozen peas
2 (?) green onions
soy sauce
water chestnuts (optional, not my favorite)

1.  Dice bacon, cook and drain most of the grease.  Leave a little room so the rice can fry in the grease.
2.  Add rice to wok/pot and cook in small amount of remaining bacon grease.
3.  Add carrots, peas, chicken and green onions until mixture is warmed.
4.  Add scrambled egg, cook for a few minutes until everything is mixed together.
5.  With the soy sauce, draw a small circle over rice and mix to taste.

delicious!

nom nom nom

Belgian Waffles

This is a family favorite!  We have it a few times a year, and it's always a treat.  Sometimes we have fancy, super waffles with ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream!  But they are also good with plain ol' syrup, or jam.  Or just with butter!  Zak was craving waffles all day, so we had them for dinner, yum!

1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
2 c. lukewarm milk
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbl. sugar
1/2 c. melted butter

1.  Sprinkle yeast over warm milk; stir to dissolve.
2.  Beat egg yolks and add to yeast mixture with vanilla.
3.  Add in flour, sugar and salt.
4.  Stir in melted butter and combine thoroughly.
5.  Beat egg whites until stiff, carefully fold into batter.  Let stand in warm place for about 45 minutes.  Use 1/2 c. mix per waffle.

Makes about 11 waffles.

perfectly golden brown!

so delicious!

Zak had this idea to mix in a few pieces of crumbled bacon into the batter.  We put in about 2 1/2 pieces of bacon, and it seemed to be the perfect amount.  It's mostly waffle, with hidden bacon explosions, delicious!  With syrup they are pretty perfect.  Zak also wanted to have two over-easy eggs on his, and have the yolk be like the syrup for the waffle.  I had a bite, it was pretty good.  We have so much leftover batter that we're just going to freeze the rest of the batter, and have them again with some scrambled eggs with cheese.

Zak's first plate

close-up, maybe that's a bacon piece?

Crockpot Potato Soup

Zak found this recipe on Reddit.com.  I looked it over, and decided to give it a try.  The past few days we've been getting snow, so it seemed like a good winter soup, especially paired with some sour dough bread.  The original recipe was for a 6 qt. crockpot, and I ended up modifying the amounts for ours (which I think is a 4.5 or 5 qt.).  Well, my adjustments worked out perfectly, and the soup was delicious.  I opted to add light sour cream in lieu of the cream cheese and added a sensible amount of cheese.  The result was 13 cups of soup, and with 1 cup per serving with only 175 calories.  So, not bad at all.  Easy, tasty & not too bad for you?  Triple whammy!

3 lbs. potatoes, peeled & diced
6 c. chicken broth
1 1/2 c. cheese
1 c. light sour cream
1 c. corn
6 pieces bacon, crumbled
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion (or 1/2 regular sized), minced
1/4 - 1/2 c. green onions
1 tsp. seasoned salt
1 tsp. pepper
salt to taste

1.  Peel & dice potatoes, layer on bottom of crockpot.
2.  Add in onion, garlic & sprinkle seasonings evenly.
3.  Pour in broth, cook on high for 4 hours (I ended up cutting that short by half an hour, didn't hurt it) or low for 8 hours; the potatoes should be 'fork tender'.
4.  Use an immersion blender to mash up potatoes until it reaches a thick, even consistency.
5.  Add in sour cream, bacon, corn, cheese and stir until melted.
6.  Add in green onions, stir and serve!

Makes 13 cups.

Nutritional Facts
servings per recipe: 13
amount per serving

Calories: 175.1
Total Fat: 5.9 g
Saturated Fat: 3.2 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 0.7 g
Cholesterol: 19.1 mg
Sodium: 586.4 mg
Potassium: 502.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 24.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.9 g
Sugar: 4.3 g
Protein: 8.4 g
Vitamin A: 5.2 %
Vitamin C: 34.4 %
Calcium: 12.5 %
Iron: 5.4 %

Baked Potato Soup

I first made baked potato soup for my dear friend Sarah's birthday in January. I didn't have the time to talk to my mom about it, because I knew there was a recipe she loved and I wanted to use it. So I found some recipe that was doable and it turned out very well. But this time, I wanted my mom's recipe, just so I could compare it with other ones I saw on-line. It turned out so well, it's very yummy and worth the time it takes to make.

4 large potatoes (2 3/4 lb.)
2/3 c. butter
2/3 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
6 c. milk
1 c. sour crean
1/4 c. green onions
10 strips of bacon, crumbled
1 c. shredded cheese
*optional garnishes:
-corn
-shredded carrot
-blanched broccoli

1. Bake potatoes at 350-degrees for an hour to and hour and fifteen minutes, or until soft.
2. While potatoes bake, cook bacon until dark and crispy (if it's chewy in the soup, it's a bit of a turn-off).
3. Cool potatoes completely once out of the oven, then peel and cube.
4. In a large pot, combine butter, flour, salt and pepper until smooth.
5. Add in milk; boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat.
6. Add in sour cream and potatoes.

*When I add in the sour cream and potatoes, I add in the other toppings such as green onion, bacon, cheese, corn. Since it's just the two of us, I figured why not get everything mixed up really well?