New Year, a New Blog: College Eats (Clean Out the Fridge...)

Clean Out the Fridge Quiche-- (Shh!)

My son has had the benefit of two parents who worked in the restaurant industry.  When he was young, we often did the busmen's holiday checking out other restaurants.  Like most children, he liked his food simple.  As he finished up high school, with its years of carb-loading meals that teenage boys and athletes crave, I could tell his palate was changing.  As it did, I introduced him to more "exotic" ingredients and dishes.  Exotic in this case meaning divergent from his preferred diet of hamburgers, pizza, ice cream, spaghetti.

Then he went to college.  As active as he is, that Freshman Fifteen gained on him, even though he constantly felt hungry, worked out on a intramural teams, and attempted to live as cheaply as he could.  Those pounds gained on him.

He would come home for summer and school breaks and eat normally and drop a few pounds.  He would lament how much fast food he ate in college, and how the expensive eating at the Union was.  He often would say he wished he had the recipe for this or that so he could make them at his apartment.

This blog is my attempt to "helicopter mom" him into a healthier life style and give him the tools to "fish" on his own.  (I'm mixing up more than food here, metaphors, too, it seems.  English majors take note.).

In this blog you will find my version of an online cookbook for the college student...
...who probably doesn't have a mixer, the right measuring spoon, measuring cup, bowl, or pan.  It will suggest alternative ingredients keeping in mind the idea of that well-stocked pantry belongs to the future person.  As much as possible I will keep it cheap, generic, and healthy.

Here we go!

Clean Out the Fridge... Quiche

I am reluctant to call this quiche.  My son does not eat quiche, at least not knowingly.  I frame this as an egg dish when serving it.  It is simplye to make and needs no specific ingredients other than some eggs, milk, cheese (although that could be excluded at well).  It does require access to a toaster oven or conventional oven.  I have a single serving version for the microwave which I will share in a future post.

What the making of this dish requires is confidence and thinking ahead.  The cooking time depends on the size of the dish and ingredients.  It can vary a lot.  Depending on the variables thinking ahead is important as the cooking time can range from 25 minutes to 60 minutes.

This leads me to the one item you should stock in your kitchen: toothpicks.  When you mess with ingredients, bowl size and material, it all affects cooking time.  You could use a fork for this, but they leave BIG holes, big suspicious holes.

Old Restaurant Proverb: Cook by sight as well as cook by time!

When I list the time as 25 to 60 minutes, that is a pretty wide variation.  The appliances available for college students are also typically not operating to the standard either.  So use that fancy Smart Phone and set yourself a timer, or tell Siri to do it, at the lower number I list in my recipes.  Start inserting that toothpick in the center of the dishes and when it comes out cleanly, your dish is done.  Otherwise, tell Siri, "Timer, 5 minutes", and go through the whole process again.
 
Cooking temperature: 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Cook in a 9"x 9" metal or glass brownie pan, or an 8" or 9" glass or metal pie pan, rectangular Pyrex stove to freezer lidded (without lid while cooking) dishes.  (You can also use any small to medium-sized oven safe container, probably even the stiff cardboard-y or aluminum container from your last prepared purchased meal.)

Ingredients: 

Mix in some sort of bowl or pan other than the one in which you will cook this.  What is important here, is the ratio of ingredients.  For every 3 eggs, you should have about 2 cups of other ingredients totaled from the Veggies and Meats categories.

3-6 eggs

1 to 1 1/2 cups milk (2% is preferred, although you can use some milk, half, and half, and/or creamer; but not more than 1/2 of the "milk" ingredient should be cream or creamer.)

1/4 to 1 cup of cheese (or none at all, if you include a lot of other ingredients, but it is better with shredded or slivered cheese, or even American slices torn into bits).

Set aside.

Layer in the chosen cooking pan or dish:

2-3 pieces of toast, OR 1/2 to 3/4 cup of breading mix, OR 3 tablespoons of flour, or a couple cups of bread crumbs, OR skip this entirely if you are gluten or lecthin-intolerant.  What works best is the toast cubed into 1/2" cubes spread across the bottom of your chosen pan.

On top of the bread base:

Veggies: This where that clean out the fridge thing comes into play.  Any of these items chopped into 1/4" to 3/8" chopped bits is good.  Shredding them is another good technique, especially for carrots or spinach.

Broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, onions, capers, black olives, green olives, pimento peppers, peppers of any color (hot peppers if you prefer), a small amount of previously cooked potato (cubed or shredded), squash; I am sure this list is not exhaustive.  Including something green here is good for you and makes the quiche a bit more festive.  I would stay away from cabbage, although a small bit of kale might be nice.  Sweet potatoes would probably be too gooey.  String beans are probably not a good choice, although a small amount of cooked dried beans might be fun.

Meats; Chopped sausage patties or links, bacon bits, or bacon crumbled, chopped turkey burger, chopped hamburger patties (leftovers) (You could even use the buns as the bread base here, toasted and cubed.) Chopped up pizza slices might similarly make a good base. I would be careful not to include to many tomato-derived products, however, if you do.

Now, pour the eggs/milk/cheese mix.

Cook, 25-60 minutes in 350 degree oven until golden brown and done using the toothpick check.

The original recipe for the quiche shown here was previously published in a more standard recipe format on my gardening blog.