Breakfast: Waking Up to Spinach and Bacon Crustless Quiche

I'll be honest - Breakfast is probably my least favourite meal of the day. Waking up for breakfast means having less time to sleep-in in the mornings, and as you can imagine, between getting extra sleep and some food, sleep usually wins.

Then the kids came along and suddenly all that information that I'd pushed to be back of my mind about breakfast being the most important meal of the day started flooding back in uncomfortable clarity. I started planning breakfast for my two kids and finding it in me to get up to get breakfast prepared. 

It was probably also the fact that my children never let me sleep in, ever. 

Most days, Noey gets a cup of milk with either a bowl of cereal, or biscuits with cheese, or bread with jam, or a bun from a bakery. He's got to be up and ready to leave for school by 8am every morning and he's a super slow eater so there isn't much time for anything elaborate. Naomi gets fruit with rice cereal or oats, or soyghurt when it is available, and sometimes a cranberry bun or toast, just to mix it up a little. (She's got a milk protein allergy, which limits my options for her quite a bit.) In the weekends, when we have a bit more time, we'd have fish fingers, or sausages, or pancakes. Once in a very long while, we'll have french toast. Nothing very inspired, unfortunately.

So when Adora proposed this Breakfast for Champions series, I was excited. Partly to learn from other mums and increase our breakfast repertoire at home. But partly also because it gave me the perfect opportunity to try out a recipe that's been on my to-make list for a while: Spinach and Bacon Crustless Quiche. As the name suggests, this is a quiche, but baked in a dish without the crust. I'm glad I finally made this, because it tasted awesome. Even Noey, who generally doesn't like eggy stuff, pronounced it "very good".

This recipe comes from our Aunty Jud, but what I've reproduced includes modifications and tips of my own.

Spinach and Bacon Crustless Quiche
(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

5 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 eggs, whisked
1 ½ cups milk
½ cup self-raising flour
250g cheddar cheese, grated
200g spinach leaves, chopped
1-2 tomatoes, sliced
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease a baking dish. (I used an 8 inch pyrex casserole dish)

2. Fry the onion and bacon till onion softens. Set this aside to cool for about 5-10 mins.

3. In a big bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, self-raising flour, cheddar cheese and spinach leaves. (Additional helpers are optional.)

4. Stir the onion and bacon that you set aside earlier through the egg mixture and season with salt to taste.

5. Pour into your baking dish and garnish with tomato slices.

6. Place in the oven and bake until the centre is set. This should take about 40 mins.

7. Dish out and tuck in!

Cooking notes:

♥ It helps to chop the spinach leaves into thin strips. I think strips of about 1cm in width would be optimal. I chopped mine roughly, thinking it would be fine since spinach shrinks a good deal when cooked. It was alright cooked, but I had some difficulty mixing them into the egg mixture because the big pieces were unwieldy.

♥ This recipe makes a good sized quiche and chances are there will be a good portion left for storage. Quiche can be easily kept in the fridge for up to three days, or stored in the freezer for a couple of months. This site has some good tips for storing and reheating quiche.

♥ Instead of making this quiche in a big baking dish, you can try pouring the batter into ramekins for individual portions instead. I made a couple in this batch which the children enjoyed. Do bear in mind that the smaller portions need less time to cook. Mine took about 25 mins.

This post is my contribution to a Breakfast for Champions initiative. Click the button below to find out what other yummy delights you can make for your family!

 

Incidentally, today is also my husband's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!

There'll be good breakfast today. I promise!