Gluten-Free Sausage Mushroom Quiche with Hashbrown Crust

I've decided to stop doing ingredient lists and to just cut to the chase with instructions, putting ingredients in bold. This recipe does not use many ingredients (though, of course, you can add as much meat or veggies as you want to the egg mixture).

Here's the How-To:

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Shred/grate potatoes, enough to line a pie pan. I had small red potatoes, so I needed about 10. If you had big Idaho or Russet potatoes, you probably just need 2, maybe 3. I don't like to peel my potatoes, so I didn't but you certainly could.

3. Mix potatoes with 2-3 tablespoons melted better and line pie-pan with hashbrowns. (You could also use frozen hashbrowns, just make sure you thaw them first).

4. Put in oven and crisp the hashbrown crust (probably about 25 minutes).

5. While hashbrown crust is in the oven, cook breakfast sausage (I cooked one roll of sausage and probably put 1/2-3/4 of it in with my egg mixture later). In a separate pan, cook sliced mushrooms (1 package).

6. Beat 6 eggs. Add freshly ground pepper (a few twists), a dash of milk (if you prefer, probably 1/4 cup) and cheese (I put in shredded parmesan, probably 1/4 cup - I just finished off what I had left in the fridge). I recommend using a decent parmesan, not the grated Kraft stuff that does not need to be refrigerated.

7. Mix eggs, sausage and mushrooms together and pour over hashbrown crust (once crust is crisp, but not overdone).

8. Reduce oven to 350 and cook for 30-45 minutes (use a toothpick to check for the eggs to be done).


Of course, you can use whatever veggies or meats (or no meat) or cheeses (or no cheese) with your egg filling. Sausage and mushroom just happens to be one of my favorite combos for omelettes, so I thought they would be good in the quiche, and they were. I think this would be a great recipe for using up veggies you have in the fridge.

My husband and I both really loved this quiche.

This Week's Lunchbox: No-Mayo Egg Salad Sandwich with Kale Chips

I try to pack lunch so that I am not tempted by fast food or don't end up at the after-school program getting "lunch" out of the vending machine. It's tough, though, because I don't like deli meats, hate mayo, and can't really get into pb&j that much as an adult. Plus, bringing something that needs to be heated up doesn't always work either.

As I result, found myself just taking boiled eggs with me because the protein is definitely filling or taking a can of tuna and just eating it (again, I hate mayo so tuna salad is no good). Recently, though , I found an egg salad recipe that didn't use mayo (yeah!!), but did use avocados (yeah again). I've created my own variation on it and I love it. I pack the bread and salad separate and eat it open-faced. If you have a nice, crispy romaine, put it underneath the egg salad. Even better.

Egg Salad

Ingredients

• 3 boiled eggs (I like mine soft-medium boiled, not runny but not hard)
  
• 1/2-1 avocado
  
• 1/8 cup shelled and cooked edamame
  
• 1 squirt of spicy mustard (or whichever mustard you choose)
• 1 dollop sour cream
  
• 1 small, chopped shallot (I typically don't use shallots, since I had some, I added it).
  
• Red onion (just a little bit for some bite - eyeball it)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Boil eggs (to the hardness you desire). When eggs are cool, dice them. I use an egg slicer and do it 2 ways and then break the egg apart a bit more in the mixing bowl with a butter knife.
2. Cook edamame
3. Chop edamame, onions, shallot and avocado
4. Mix together the egg and other chopped ingredients.
5. Add sour cream (I typically use 2-3 spoonfuls) and add 1 squirt mustard (I like to use spicy brown - go easy on it. I find if you add too much mustard it can overpower the other flavors)

Serve as mentioned above.

Kale Chips

• Kale (as much as you want - just tear it off the stem)
• Olive Oil
  
• Sea Salt and Pepper

It's best to just refer you to Kath Eats Real Food and The Kitchn, the two blogs I referenced and pulled from to make my Kale Chips.