Easy Peasy Spinach, Mushroom and Bacon Quiche {Recipe}

In my 1 year "blog-iversary" giveaway, a couple of you mentioned you would like to see more quick & easy recipe posts. I love writing these; just a matter of finding the time among the other blog commitments I have going on (and, of course, that thing called "real life" as well. ;)

Barring an allergy or strong distaste for eggs, quiche is a dish that every home cook should have in their repertoire. Why?

• It's ridicu-easy and quick to make (and almost impossible to screw up, in my opinion). Especially if you opt for pre-made shells like I do, given my complete lack of appreciable pastry-making skills. Total preparation time? About 15-30 minutes. (15-20 if you're most people and 25-30 if you're me, because I'm inexplicably slow in the kitchen. I'm working on this.) Of course, making your own crust adds to the time as well.
• It can be reasonably healthy. Good protein from the eggs, and adding in some greens really boosts the nutritional profile. 
• It's flexible. The base can be readily changed up according to the ingredients you have on hand, what you have a taste for, etc.
• It's tasty!! (Well, I think most people would agree with this, anyhow.)

So as part of this week's menu plan, yesterday I made a spinach, mushroom and bacon quiche. I was planning to use ham but ended up subbing in the bacon as I ran out of said ham earlier in the week. The result: just as yummy! I referenced a couple recipes but changed things up a bit, so I thought I'd record the actual ingredients & steps I used for future reference.

Like I already mentioned, you can totally change things up in this recipe. For example, you could replace the spinach with finely chopped broccoli, or use different spices (I've seen nutmeg and coriander powder included in other recipes.) You could adjust the proportion of milk to cream, or milk and cream to egg as well. A quiche purist might tsk tsk these suggestions (and of course, they'd undoubtedly make their own crust as well), but I personally think as long as you don't stray too far away from the basics, it all comes out tasty in the end. :)

Easy-Peasy Spinach, Mushroom and Bacon Quiche

Ingredients:

• 2 pre-made pie crusts (285g total)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 5-6 oz of fresh, organic baby spinach
• 5-6 oz of button or portabella mushrooms, chopped
• 6 strips of bacon
• 1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese, grated
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup 18% table cream
• 1/2 cup rice milk (or cow's milk)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 1/2 tsp paprika 
• Salt & pepper to taste    

Steps:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2) Cook bacon until it's just starting to crisp. Reserve about 1 tbsp of the bacon grease.

3) Saute onion & mushrooms in the bacon grease until soft.

4) Reduce heat and add spinach. Stir for 1-2 minutes until wilted.

5) Chop bacon into 1/2-1 inch pieces and add back in. Stir for another minute.

 

6) Spread mixture evenly into two shells. Top with grated cheese.

 

7) Whip together eggs, cream, milk, cayenne, paprika, salt and pepper to make a custard. Pour evenly on top of the base ingredients in each shell.

 

8) Bake for 40-45 minutes.

9) Let stand for 10-15 minutes, serve and enjoy!

Do you like to make quiche? Do you have any favourite recipes / ingredient combinations you would like to share?