Ricotta Quiche

This recipe originally came from www.delish.com, to give credit where credit is due; but I have changed it so much in the years I’ve been using it I am claiming it for my own at this point!

I make it crustless, because that’s easiest, especially easiest for the GF. I’ve got recipes for hashbrown crusts and veggie crusts and all, but eating it like a frittata without a crust saves time on my feet - and calories. <Just make sure you go heavy on the pan spray!>

This quiche is great, because the ricotta keeps it lower calorie, and you can toss absolutely anything in it. I’m using spinach in it today and topping it with tomatoes, but sausage-and-spinach is another favorite, and ham-and-broccoli also works well.

NOTE ON THAT RICOTTA: for those of you who are gluten free, watch those ingredients on ricotta cheese! I have found oat gum in some brands,and those oats are NOT the specially grown and harvested GF ones, I guarantee you!

For those of you new to cooking, anytime you’re using eggs in a recipe - beat them first. Just with a fork. You see below.

Add your ricotta and Parmesan in and beat them together. It does a bit of beating sometimes, to smooth it out.

Your tablespoon of cornstarch goes into a 1/4 cup milk. Add that to your bowl of ricotta and eggs and mix in well.

I already had a package of frozen spinach cooked and in the fridge leftover, so that’s what I tossed in. Whatever you’re mixing in, add it at this point.

I wanted my tomato slices on top, so they weren’t mixed in. 

Note on the knife: that’s an actual ‘tomato’ knife, designed for cutting tomatoes, and that thing is AWESOME. I don’t even know where my mother found those - it’s been years ago - but if you ever see such a thing, spend the money and pick one up!

Preheat your oven to 375. Pour the quiche into a pie pan <with plenty of pan spray!> and top with the tomato slices. I set the timer for 35 minutes to check it, but it was 45 before it was done.

I make this so often, I just usually look at it to see when it’s done - but I DID try the knife trick this time, and the knife inserted in the middle came out clean when my eyes thought it was done. So! Try that. It’s more objective, lol.

RICOTTA QUICHE

4 eggs

1 15-oz container of part-skim ricotta

1/4 C Parmesan cheese

1 T cornstarch 

1/4 C milk

1 12-oz package frozen chopped spinach, cooked

2 Roma tomatoes, sliced

Preheat oven to 375.

Beat eggs in a mixing bowl. Add ricotta and Parmesan; mix together thoroughly,  until smooth.

Stir cornstarch into milk. Pour into egg mixture; blend well. 

Add spinach and stir. Pour into a well-greased pie pan and top with tomato slices. 

Bake 35-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Servings: 6
Calories per serving: 155

Shrimp and Broccoli Fettuccine

I had a recipe for this somewhere when I made out my grocery list... Not sure what I did with it! So I’m kind of winging it on this one. 😊

I’m doing the broccoli first: I buy veggies in bulk at Sam’s, so this was two pounds of broccoli florets. Trimmed and steamed in the microwave. 

Shrimp next: I buy them peeled and deveined. They’re still raw, so I count them “from scratch,” but pre-peeled, pre-tailed, and pre-deveined saves an enormous amount of time! I’m just doing a quick sauté in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet.

NOTE ON THAT CAST IRON: figure out how to inherit it, if you can, lol! The old stuff is best. This skillet is from the mother of a friend; I've got another of my great grandmother's. Perfectly serious about the 'inheriting,' you see! 

If you’re GF, I seriously recommend locating your closest Oriental Market. I am in mine all the time.You can tell that’s where these came from! Rice noodles are my favorite of the GF noodle picks, I think - remember your Pad Thai at your favorite Asian restaurants? - these are those noodles. And they're "regular" noodles in the Oriental Marker; that is, they sell them at "regular noodle" prices, not gluten-free noodles prices. Price: $1.69 or thereabouts; ingredients: Rice Flour and Water; calories, 200 per 2oz serving.  Love them. Get thee to the oriental market.

All that broccoli and shrimp is going to make 2oz of pasta a serving, I promise! I didn’t used to believe it, either. Enough vegetables and lean protein and it really does make it a dinner-size portion.

I put the sauce together while the pasta was cooking. The recipe I can’t find probably called for a roux with Parmesan, but since I’m on my own here, I’m making a favorite of mine. It’s in my handwriting in my own cookbook, on an index card - spotted and stained, you know those are your best recipes! No clue where I got it. It's titled "Italian Wedding Pasta Sauce," for what that's worth! 

I mix 2 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch into a cup and a half or so of milk, and microwave until boiling - I use my IKEA four-cup measures for this. Keep an eye on it - it will boil over on you fast! (Mine did, as a matter of fact.) Add 14oz of chicken broth once it’s thickened slightly - I know my recipe calls for a can, but it’s so hard to find GF broth, I usually use this broth base - marked Gluten Free, you can see! It is processed and pretty high in sodium, I'm sure - but needs must. I give in on the broth base.

Put that back in the microwave for another 2 minutes or so, until it’s boiling and thickened slightly. It’s still a thin sauce, so I used some fresh Parmesan to thicken it up a little more.

Then it’s time for bento-boxing! I’m cooking on a Saturday morning, just prepping for the week. This reheats well! Add a little half and half or whatnot if the sauce has soaked up - rice noodles, in particular, are terrible at that, I will admit.

SHRIMP AND BROCCOLI FETTUCCINE 

12 oz shrimp, peeled and deveined 

2 lbs broccoli florets

14 oz of Pasta

2 heaping tablespoons cornstarch 

1 1/2 C milk

14 oz chicken broth (or equivalent)

1/2 C Fresh Parmesan 

Start pasta water heating. 

Trim and steam broccoli florets.

Sauté shrimp. Set broccoli and shrimp aside.

When pasta water boils, start pasta and sauce. Mix cornstarch into milk and microwave two minutes or until boiling and thickened slightly. Add broth; again, bring to a boil. Stir in 1/4 C Parmesan; add a little more, as needed, to thicken sauce.

Drain pasta when done. Rinse if using rice noodles.

Toss pasta, broccoli, and shrimp with sauce.  Top with Parmesan.

Servings: 7
Calories per serving: 258

A Note on Ingredient Labels, for the gluten-free amongst you!

A note on reading labels for those of you who must be gluten free:

First off, you’ve got to read them. Before you buy them!

(I still screw that up sometimes, and I was diagnosed celiac almost fifteen years ago now.)

I used to take lists shopping with me, printed off from the different celiac websites. Reading labels and comparing everything! 

Now we’ve all got Google on our smart phones, I know; but I now shop by a much easier rule.

IF I DON’T KNOW WHAT AN INGREDIENT IS —> I DON’T BUY IT.

Simple. You wouldn’t believe how much that by itself cleans up your diet.

There are exceptions, of course - Quaker has some rice cakes out that I love, these are NOT your mother’s 1980s rice cakes! - but Quaker marks gluten free, so I let some undecipherable ingredients slide. (Tocopherols?)

But I don’t let there be many exceptions.

It’s actually a good rule for everybody, but I haven’t found many ‘everybodies’ except my gluten free folks who are willing to stick with it. 

Read those ingredients. That’s key to cooking gluten free: know what you’re eating! It’s the only way, the ONLY way, to be safe.

Just a Brief Intro!

Just a brief intro: that is, why a random ashleyetc is starting a food blog?
'

• Mainly, because I have lost well over a hundred pounds (114lbs exactly at last count!);
• I am a celiac, which means I have to eat gluten free, and I’ve been GF long enough to have that diet down too; 
• and because I do all my own cooking myself, which is, of course, much healthier for everyone.

But - I am consistently surprised at the number of people who think this takes forever! So, I shall teach you how I cook from scratch without spending hours and hours and hours in the kitchen - and how I keep that weight off!

Shopping the outside of the supermarket, you know, buying fresh and frozen and not processed; watching portions; balancing meals; not eating out as much; it takes a bit more planning on the front end, I will admit. But being able to grab a healthy, balanced bento box for lunch - that'll give you the energy you need for the afternoon! - is worth it. It really is.

Healthy lunch bento boxes to come tomorrow is a spinach and tomato quiche - that one’s also a breakfast favorite, and the recipe’s awesome, you can toss anything into it. 

Dinner tomorrow is a shrimp and broccoli fettuccine!  That’s a new recipe for me. I shall share it if it turns out well.

Some quick intros to the websites I use most often for easy, quick recipes:

Eating Well is great. I recommend signing up for their newsletters! Trying to actually subscribe to their magazine didn't really work. I kept expecting them to actually, you know, send it or something, and that never really happened. Their email newsletters are good though.

Delish is another favorite, especially for minimizing your time on your feet - sometimes a problem, here! Kitchen mats only help so much, you know!