Made Bacon Quiche

I am making this meal again one night this week…requested after the first bite at last week's dinner.  I love quiche!  It's breakfast for dinner and we grew up having BFast for dinner quite often.  I sliced up some fruit to serve on the side.

Will be trying Spinach Quiche in the next few weeks but it calls for a few more ingredients that I don't have on hand.  

1 pie crust
1 c. swiss cheese, grated
8 slices bacon, crumbled
3 eggs, beaten
1 c. milk
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 tbsp. onion, chopped
salt & pepper to taste
(I had mushrooms and 1/2 red bell pepper on hand so tossed those in as well)

Pre-bake pie crust at 250 degrees for 10 minutes.  You can do this while your oven is preheating to cook the bacon.  Cook bacon until crisp and then crumble.  I cook my bacon in the oven, on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 until crisp.

Combine eggs, milk, nutmeg, onion, salt & pepper and any other ingredients you want to include and beat well.  Sprinkle crust with cheese and bacon, pour in egg mixture on top of cheese and bacon.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.  I had to bake for an extra 10-15 minutes.

Let cool and slice into pie-like servings.  Enjoy and make again the next week like I will be doing!!

Made 3-Cheese Chicken Penne Florentine

First word of advice on this one - prepare ingredients before hand.  Cook your chicken, pasta and cut up all your veggies and you will be in a much better place as you follow the directions.  Cooking Light said this was "quick & easy"…I disagree on the "quick".  Tastes great though!!

1 tsp. olive oil
Cooking spray
3 c. thinly sliced mushrooms
1 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped red bell pepper
3 c. chopped fresh spinach
1 tbsp. chopped fresh oregano (I used ground as fresh can be too strong)
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 (16 oz.) carton 2% low-fat cottage cheese
4 c. hot cooked penne (about 8 oz. uncooked)
2 c. shredded roasted skinless, boneless chicken breast
1 c. (4 oz.) shredded reduced-fat sharp Cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 c. (2 oz.) grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 c. 2% reduced-fat milk
1 can reduced-fat cream of chicken soup

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add mushrooms, onion and bell pepper, saute 4 minutes or until tender.  Add spinach, oregano and black pepper; saute 3 minutes or just until spinach wilts.

Place cottage cheese in afood processor, process until very smooth.  Combine spinach mixture, cottage cheese, cooked pasta, chicken, 3/4 cup Cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, milk and soup in a large bowl.

Spoon mixture into a 2-quart baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Cheddar cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.  Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly.  Makes 8 servings.

What I would do next time:

Prepare chicken and pasta prior to sautéing the vegetables

For the 2 cups of shredded chicken, I would purchase a Rotisserie Chicken and make another meal that same week with the rest of the bird.

Try fresh oregano

Cut the cream of chicken soup in 1/2 

Making Taco Soup

This one is dedicated to my roomies of #7204…love you and miss those Village days and meals together when we just happened to be at home at the same time!!

My take on Taco Soup...Easy, quick and guaranteed to provide leftovers.

2 lb. ground beef, browned
2 cans ranch style beans
2 cans pinto beans (I substituted one can with black beans this time)
1 can corn
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 envelope Taco Seasoning Mix
1 envelop Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

Mix and simmer all the ingredients, including the juice from each can.  Simmer for as long as you like - the longer the better.  Serve with your favorite cornbread or with corn chips and shredded cheese.  And if I didn't have to be somewhere at 6:30 and it wasn't a "school night" I would be enjoying a sweet margarita on the side!!

Made in Tahoe…not by me...

We are just settling back in from our first newlywed vacation, outside of honeymoon, spent in Lake Tahoe.  There are so many wonderful things about Tahoe and the food was at the top of the list.  Here are a few shots of some of our favorites.  

Plumpjack Cafe at Squaw Valley was a planned lunch stop after our hike that began early in the morning, the first day of our trip.  We were up with the sun, on the mountain before 9 and then finally sitting and dining at this wonderful restaurant.  I enjoyed Jack's Chicken Enchiladas and B, here holding his oh SO TASTY Seared Tuna Club.

After another day of hiking we had planned on a nice dinner out but this greasy spoon that we had passed throughout the week was calling our name.  B made a spontaneous decision and we whipped a "U" and pulled in for what tured out to be my favorite meal at Burger Lounge. 

The above cannot be accurately represented in words but I have officially changed my Best Burger vote to South Lake Tahoe's Burger Lounge.  And all that food was just for us - the Sno-Bro, cup of tomato soup, Pesto Fries and the Hangover - amazing!!  B topped the meal off with a coffee shake…we went back for shakes later in the week.  

Wild Goose was recommended to us by our good friend, Ben.  What a recommendation it was!  We made early reservations the evening before our big, last hike at the end of the week.  The weather was perfect and our table was a wonderfully romantic spot.  Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee was our pick for dessert and left such a sweet taste in our mouth, very representative of the trip, adventures we took, conversations had and time spent together.  Cheers to my love on a great vacation together!!