Mini Cheese Quiche

I have two confessions before I get started here.

First:  It was all I could do not to title this blog Mini Cheesy Quichey.

Second:  I ate four cookies just now.  Which is an unacceptable amount of cookies to eat while making dinner!  In case you missed it, check out these chocolate chip cookies with avocado for half the fat, which, really, doesn't make it any better that I just ate four of them right before dinner. 

Anyway, normally when I make quiche I put lots of veggies in it that are not hidden at all... spinach, green peppers, tomatoes, or whatever we happen to have in the fridge.  So it actually didn't occur to me to hide veggies in it until I saw a recipe for mini cheese quiches on a "kid friendly" menu.  Ah ha!  Now I can try and hide veggies in something that shouldn't have any.

I found a handful of recipes online, and this is what I came up with after looking at them.  One interesting thing I read was to use bread as the "pie crust."  Just roll it out before putting into the muffin pan.  So, since I don't have any puff pastry or pie crust, I thought I'd give that a try.

I should also note that I used a jumbo cupcake pan.   In the jumbo pan this recipe made 6 quiches, so it would probably make 12 in a normal size cupcake pan.

Ingredients:
6 bread slices rolled flat
4 eggs
1/2 cup cauliflower puree
1/2 cup squash puree  (Note:  you can use any white/yellow/orange puree combination that totals one cup)
1/4 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.  Roll bread slices flat and press/fold into cupcake pan.  Press cheese into the bottom of the crusts. 

Wisk together eggs and milk.  Wisk in purees.  Pour egg mixture into crusts. 

Bake approximately 20 minutes or until set. 

See how cheesy it looks?  Mm mmm, and it smells like toast.

While I was finishing dinner, my research team served our 11 month old some bread with carrot fondue...  I think this veggie thing is catching on!  Even I haven't completely replaced cheese with veggies! 

He also ate veggies hidden in quiche... sort of.  Mostly he smashed it on the tray.  But I have proof of at least one bite:

They turned out pretty yummy!  I felt like I could taste the squash in them, but the research team couldn't taste the veggies at all.  He knew there were veggies, but said it tasted like cheese quiche.

In the future I think will add some spices (I'm actually not sure why I didn't this time) ... salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, but I think that is all I would change. 

Also the bread-for-crust turned out really well!  It wasn't quite as tasty as the biscuit recipe I use for my chicken pot pies, but it was good.


The Verdict:

"Fooled the baby!"   (and the Daddy too...)


Next time... either veggie bread or brownies...  the way I ate those cookies I'm thinking I should hold off on the brownies for a little while, even if they do have spinach in them!  ;)