The Zen of breakfast in the chaos of Christmas
It's a fact. There will always be things that need to be done late at night on Christmas Eve. Because of this, I have a plan that will make Christmas morning seriously easy. Make Christmas breakfast now, like today. It's a gift we can give ourselves. This weekend I'll be making breakfast quiche and putting it in the freezer for a no-brainer breakfast.
What makes this recipe unique is you don't have to pre-bake the quiche. You put the easy-to-make filling right in the unbaked shell and freeze it. When you want to bake it you simply stick it in the oven and walk away. Easy!
MAKE AHEAD SPINACH QUICHE
Yield: 6 servings Prep time: 20 minutes Bake time: 1 hour
What You'll Need:
1 (12 oz.) box frozen spinach souffl̩ (such as Stouffer's) Рthawed
½ pound breakfast sausage - cooked and crumbled
3 large eggs
Kosher salt
Dash of grated nutmeg - optional
1 unbaked deep dish 9-inch pie crust
¾ cups grated Monterey Jack or Swiss cheese, divided
Red pepper – diced – optional
Here's How:
To ensure this goes smoothly, make sure you have room in your freezer to place the finished quiche flat. Thaw the spinach soufflé overnight in the fridge. Don't try to thaw in the microwave because the soufflé thinks it's time to cook. Silly soufflé. When you're ready to do this thing: in a frying pan, cook the sausage, breaking apart with a wooden spoon until crumbled and let cool. In a mixing bowl, blend together the eggs, a wee bit of salt, nutmeg and the thawed spinach soufflé. Into the unbaked pie crust place the cooked sausage evenly over the bottom of the crust. Sprinkle ½ cup of the cheese over the sausage. Pour the egg and spinach mixture over the sausage and cheese. Use a small spoon to gently move the sausage around to let the egg mixture cozy up to the sausage. Top with remaining cheese. The pie crust will be quite full. Garnish with red pepper if using. I added the red pepper to the green spinach because I'm a sucker for a Christmas cliché.
Place the filled quiche in a level area of your freezer until frozen solid. Wrap in plastic and cover tightly with foil. Use within 2 months.
To bake; preheat oven to 350°. Retrieve quiche from the freezer, remove foil and plastic wrap. Place quiche on a baking sheet on the bottom shelf of your oven and bake until the middle is set and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 65 to 70 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes, slice and serve.
This recipe is easily doubled. Even if you only need one for the holiday, make two. The second will come in handy another time. Some morning you'll be happy you did. It makes a great lunch or light supper as well and it makes a lovely gift, too. Maybe you'd better make more.
Frugal Festivity contributed by Patti Diamond from Divas On A Dime – Where Frugal, Meets Fabulous! www.divasonadime.com Join us on Facebook at DivasOnADimeDotCom.
