Real Men DO eat quiche!

Some of my favorite recipes are those that I end up
tweaking either a little (or a lot) to make the finished product
taste even better.

This recipe for Crustless Cheddar Broccoli Quiche is one of my favorite recipes to change up.

The original recipe is basic, and simple, and best of all, forgiving.
(Essentially, forgiving means that you really can't screw it up) And, as a bonus, it is lowfat, and tastes delicious.
You don't even miss the crust. Really!

Start by heating 2 tsp olive oil in a saute pan on med heat.

Now comes the tweaking.

The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup chopped onion, and 1 pkg of thawed frozen broccoli.

What I do is check out what veggies I have in my frig, and use
just about any combination I like.
Leftover veggies are perfect.

Here I started by chopping 1 red pepper into a rough dice.

Throw it into the pan and start it going.

Next, a bit of red onion, chopped.
Now, I LOVE onions, and ordinarily I would put twice as much as this, maybe 3 times..but...keep listening..cuz we are adding a
little somethin-somethin in a bit.

Into the pan go the onions...

Checking out the very back of my veggie drawer, I saw a bit of leftover fresh broccoli.
I chopped it a bit, and put it in the microwave for 1 min to steam a bit.

And then chopped it up....

..and added it to peppers and onions.

In this recipe, I am using TWO ingredients that can take your
recipes from good to sublime.

Here's the first one:
Caramelized onions.
Heaven in a dish is what I call it.

Chop up some of this deliciousness and

add that to the pan too.
If the peppers and onions have softened, you can shut the stove off.
They just need a light saute.

Now back to the basics.
Eggs and cottage cheese.

Normally I use egg whites (which the recipe calls for) and add some whole eggs.
This morning I realized that the only egg whites I had were frozen.
Yes, I realize I could have made my own egg whites out of whole eggs, but I'm too lazy.

The basic recipe calls for 2 cups of egg whites (Egg Beaters), but I ended up using
just 6 whole eggs.
This is why I call this recipe forgiving.
You can tweak it all you want and it
still comes out OK!
Just you wait and see.
(Normally I might use 1 cup of egg whites and 3 or 4 eggs.)

Here I am pretending to pour frozen egg whites into the mixing bowl.
(This is just in case you might want to use them someday when you tweak YOUR recipe!...hhahaha)

Now for the cottage cheese..the recipe calls for 1/2 cup..but I use 1 cup.

Add it to the eggs...

...and mix.

Salt and pepper are nice....

...so I add them here too.

Now here is the SECOND ingredient that can take your recipes to the next level.

Sun-dried Tomatoes!
yummmmm.

Chop them finely....

...and add to the egg mixture.

Now the recipe calls for 1/2 cup shredded
cheddar cheese...but here comes more tweaking.

I used 3 kinds of cheeses...about 2 TBLS of leftover romano cheese, 1/4 cup of feta, and 1/2 cup of a shredded 3 cheese lite blend.

Stir that into the egg mixture too.

Take your sauteed veggies and put them into the bottom of a pie dish....
(spray the pie plate with Pam spray first)

..and pour the egg mixture on top.
Do not stir!

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or so.

Real Men in this house LOVE this quiche.