Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Quiche

We had a staff breakfast in December that the kindergarten team hosted.  I signed up for quiche.  At the time it sounded like a good idea.... when it actually came time to make them I was feeling like I should have signed up for something I could buy at the store.  I also knew I had a family brunch later in the month so I decided to make three different kinds of quiche and make two of each, to freeze one set for family dinner.

My entire counter was taken over with frozen pie shells and blocks of cheese.  Luckily I had recently discovered that my food processor shreds cheese pretty easily so I was able to shred 6 blocks of cheese in no time.

Here were the fillings for the 3 kinds:

1. Steamed broccoli and cheddar cheese
2. Turkey sausage and pepper jack cheese
3. Tomato slices, basil and mozzarella cheese

After the pie shells are filled you pour this on top... these measurements are per quiche:

3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
some ground pepper

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown.  Really easy to freeze and reheat later. Or make a few days before and just reheat in the oven when you want to eat.

This was a serious quiche making operation..... 


Yumm.

I took one of each to school and froze the turkey sausage and tomato and basil quiche.  The broccoli and cheddar we had for dinner the next night.... 

I got really good reviews on all three :)


Monday, December 30, 2013

Monkey Bread... finally!

Monkey bread has been on my list of things to try to make "unprocessed" for almost a year now.  This past month I finally did it!

Also- if you don't know what monkey bread is take a look at this:
http://www.pillsbury.com/everyday-eats/breakfast-brunch/how-to-make-grands-monkey-bread

It is gooey, sugary deliciousness.

Anyway..... First, I made the dough in the bread maker. It involved almost an entire stick of butter and 4 TBS of sugar.

Then I broke the dough into small balls and put them in a zip lock bag with the stevia (instead of sugar) and cinnamon (see the recipe above)



I don't have a bunt pan so I put them in a pie pan.  Side note- the first time I did this I put them in a bread pan.... bad idea.  It was so many layers thick that it took forever to cook the middle of the monkey bread. 





Then you mix together brown sugar and butter (I still don't really understand if brown sugar is processed or not.  The only ingredient is "brown sugar."  I'm betting it probably is not, but I have tried mixing stevia and molasses to make brown sugar and it tastes disgusting) and pour it over top.

I baked it in the oven and planned to serve it as dessert a few nights ago at a family Christmas party.  Then I forgot it was in the oven and remembered at 11 pm and had to go downstairs to get it out of the oven (the oven had been turned off already I just forgot to take the monkey bread out).  I had a piece at 11 pm and it was a little over cooked (probably because it sat in the oven for forever) but it was good.