nutritious – Welcome to my backyard city homestead

Sometimes its simply a matter of looking OUTSIDE the proverbial box. This quick quiche loaded with protein and vegetables is eaten like a pizza. I call it QUICHE PIZZA, and it is a delicious, nutritious dinner that you hope to have leftovers of so you can eat it for lunch again tomorrow! It’s just as good cold.

This recipe serves four people with two eggs each. I use a family sized pie plate and two tortillas. If you want to make less in a smaller pie plate, just adjust accordingly. Shoot for two eggs per person, and the rest is up to you.

The vegetables:
Use what you have on hand. I like to use chopped onions, red peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, and of course spinach. I add spinach to almost everything it seems. These are vegetables I always have on hand because I mostly use freeze dried vegetables – but if you have fresh out of your garden, AWESOME! Use those.

ingredients:
8 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese, beaten into the egg mixture
2 large tortillas
seasoning salt of your choice
assorted vegetables, suggested: diced red peppers, chopped onion, sliced mushrooms, broccoli flowerets, spinach
shredded cheddar or blend of cheddar and pepper jack

directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat eggs till frothy
Add cottage cheese and beat it into eggs till well blended
Arrange tortillas in a large pie plate. Cut the 2nd one into half or even quarters to arrange in pie plate making sure all of the plate is covered.
Pour egg mixture in.
Assuming you’re using the same vegetables I use, begin by arranging about 1/2 – 3/4 cup mushroom slices in the bottom of the egg mixture.
Sprinkle about 1/4 cup chopped onions on top of them.
Sprinkle about 3/4 cup red pepper slices over top of the onions.
Arrange small broccoli flowerets in some empty places between the red peppers.
Sprinkle a layer of spinach on top of everything else. I put quite a bit on (about a cup of freeze dried spinach)
If using freeze dried vegetables, use a fork to gently submerge all vegetables into the egg mixture so that they’re moistened by it.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add a layer of shredded cheese. Be generous. 1-2 cups.

Place into heated oven in the middle rack, and set the timer for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes test the middle to see that it is no longer liquid – ‘jiggly’.
If it needs a few more minutes, lower the heat to 325 and lay a sheet of aluminum over top to prevent the tortilla crust from over cooking.

Watch it carefully at this point so that you don’t over cook it. When the center is firm, remove from oven and let the ‘pizza’ rest on a rack for 10-15 minutes.

Remove from pan and cut into wedges as for a pizza. Serve. Enjoy.
You can eat it with your hands, and it’s pizza so DO.

Here’s my Secret: When I make this quiche pizza (or anything similar to it), unless I have fresh garden vegetables, I use freeze dried vegetables. But not just any freeze dried vegetables. After trying many different brands over the years, I now use Thrive Life freeze dried vegetables. There’s a good reason for that, and its a very important one to me (actually a few good reasons, but I’ll tell you five of them).

1. Thrive Life guarantees that their produce is picked ripe (at the peak of what nature intended that fruit or vegetable to be), AND guarantees that in less than six hours from harvest (usually two to four hours), that produce is washed peeled, chopped and flash frozen! Locking in the colour, texture, taste and ALL the natural goodness. In that frozen state (-40 degrees Celsius), it is transferred to a facility where it has all the remaining moisture removed without it thawing. That’s the second step in the two-step process of freeze drying.

2. Thrive Life fruits and vegetables are as organic as you can get without them being ‘certified’ organic. They monitor the process of planting, growing, harvesting, freeze drying and packaging from beginning to end. It’s part of what they call their NUTRILOCK Guarantee and its something they take very seriously.

3. Because of this attention to detail, Thrive Life foods are the BEST in the world and that is no empty claim. They have always been the best, but as of the beginning of 2024, they are also the biggest freeze dried company in the world. They literally are “Fresher-than-Fresh”, or what we frequently refer to as ‘fresh’ – the produce in our grocery stores, which are picked green if possible and are subjected to long travel times to get to us – anything but ‘fresh’.

4. Thrive Life freeze dried food has a 25 year shelf life, making it the most dependable, shelf stable, nutritious food on the market – the perfect choice for anyone interested in emergency preparedness, and long term food storage. So that means I always have fruits and vegetables in the pantry, ready any time I might decide I’d like to have spinach in my homemade quiche, or cheese on a homemade quiche, or mangoes in our yogurt, or blueberries on top of cereal or . . . . . well, the list is endless. And its always there because once you open that can, you can count on it being perfectly good for about a year afterward.

5. The other important reason I use Thrive Life freeze dried food is the convenience. Those vegetables are already washed and chopped. I just sprinkle the onions from the can, distribute the sliced mushrooms or red peppers from the can, add a layer of spinach from the can. It’s quick and easy. And guess what else? They even have freeze dried eggs! I literally had this recipe ready to go into the oven in less that ten minutes. With zero mess!

There now you have it. My secret. How I do things. And make no mistake – I’m all about down home goodness, and doing things from scratch. These are not ‘processed foods’. These are CLEAN, WHOLE FOODS and nothing but. Making dinner from scratch still counts even when you’re using freeze dried food. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

I hope you’ll try this easy recipe for a great dinner, lunch or brunch. Whether you use garden fresh, freeze dried or a mixture of both as I do much of the time.

Let me know what you think.

Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle

Tag: nutritious

is it Pizza? or is it Quiche?