Those of you who have read my last two posts might be wondering if there were going to be many French Fridays in my future for the next few months. How is alternating weeks of protein shakes/minimal dairy/minimal carbs and meaty meals/meatly meals/no grains (oh and did I mention no alcohol?) going to work out with this French thing? Well, I’m trying not to think too far ahead, but the February recipes are fitting in well. (‘cept that Nutella – so not happening.)
This week measured amounts of dairy and fruit are allowed, and although wheat-free grains in small amounts are also ok, I’ve opted to go with totally grain free eating thus far. That means I’ll need to save my low-carb pastry crust recipe for another time – perhaps when Sarah P and I figure out how to whip up a sugar-free low-carb chocolate pecan bacon pie. (Seriously, the high carb version was on the menu today at the pie shop, according to a devilish texter. I’m now officially obsessed.)
Instead, I opted to go bottomless, er, crustless. And as y’all know there is nothing we love more than eggs, so it was no sacrifice. I was on my own in eating this one: D has no love lost for those savory sweet combos. The surprise in the dish is that the apples, once baked, did not taste dessert-like and only lent a nice sweet flavor to complement the salty Gorgonzola. It brought back the memories of the pear, onion and blue cheese pastry “pizzas” from the fall Italy dinner, but the apples being a bit more tart than the pears gave the quiche a flavor lift. My notes follow:
- Dairy and Eggs: The goal of a regular quiche is a balanced firm but still creamy custard-y filling. Unfortunately 2/3 a cup of cream is too much for my plan even spread across the 4 servings I divided this into. I cut the cream to 1/3 cup and added an egg for a total of three. This made it more of a baked omelet, but it was still great.
- Cheese: I had regular Gorgonzola in the fridge, and as much as I love Dolce, better to eat up the good cheese you have, than let it go bad when your food plan bans it.
- Onion: I browned those chopped onion bits, recipe be damned. With a crust, I might have followed the directions, but the caramelized edges of onion bits brought to the tongue’s mind the browned edges of crust. An fitting substitute.
- Baking: Baked in a meatloaf pan (oh, I so need some little French ceramic casseroles – D hope you are reading this :-)) at 400 for 25 minutes.
You can see it was served as a bonus protein-side with a strip steak and sauteed spinach with peppers. Like many egg dishes, it would also be good served as a main dish with a vinaigrette tossed salad. The French Fridays Consortium is not publishing recipes, but we challenge you to pick up a copy of Around My French Table with Dorie Greenspan and cook along!
Let me know when you master that chocolate pecan bacon pie! Your instincts were right – this recipe works great as a sort of sophisticated omelet, too – looks totally yummy!
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Great crustless twist!
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I like this idea, the filling is so good all by itself!
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I too was surprised at how mild the apples were once cooked. I was expecting a stronger sweet vs salty contrast, but both flavors really mellowed out in the oven. I have often been tempted to make a crustless quiche, tart, pie, whatever, but more because I hate to make pie crust than for dietary reasons. Yours looks great.
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Since I had missed your previous post about your eating plan I went back to it. Kudos and best of luck. We’ve gone through something similar recently with my husband’s blood sugar and had tremendous success with dried beans and brown rice. Amazing what they did for his blood sugar very quickly; also amazing what delicious combinations we come up with. With many of the FF recipes not being the best for his plan we try to be super good just before and just after! I’m always fighting middle age spread (who am I kidding I’m way past middle age!) and have settled for middle age rearranging:)
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Thanks Lola! I laughed to myself about the re-arranging: for a while there I was the same weight but went up a pant and belt size. A sure sign you are aging and the metabolism is shifting (or spreading, heh heh). I did a zero fat, rice/bean/legume/vegetarian diet for many years that kept the weight off and the my blood profile in check. My eating for 8 years as a “whole foods” vegetarian taught me a lot about food. I cooked my own meals and worked in a vegetarian/health restaurant (I still love a good tofu scramble on occasion). But I was young then and suspect that I could have eaten doughnuts all day and been ok (except for the weight thing). The more I read and understand about my own body, the more I believe, for me, that I would have found myself in the same boat health-wise as that has happened to other people I know: long time vegetarians who despite being of healthy weight, and active, have high cholesterol. Some folks don’t react well to the insulin production of even whole grains like brown rice and legumes. On the other hand, many people like your husband have great success with ‘Ornish” type food plans that focus on non meat nutrition. Whatever works and works long term is my mantra. Frankly I think my biggest problem is portion control – that switch in my brain for whatever reason is permanently broken and I have to use a lot of external controls like measuring cups to keep it in check. Doing this sort of kick start is a short term way to quickly “trick” your body into re adjusting to less food. I know its working well as I went out to eat Japanese food Wednesday – In the recent past I never would have left with a doggie bag, but now ended up only eating 1/2 the meal. Over the long term, I’ve simply got to rein it in and keep the insulin production down and level as well as as you pointed out – being good most of the time. Be well!
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Good for you to make this recipe work for you. I think an omelet would be a great idea using this recipe’s quiche ingredients. After all the holidays, and now sitting at my computer and desk working on tax stuff I should get on a plan!
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A crustless version sounds just as tasty as a crusted one! I loved this flavor combo, and really like the idea of eating it without the buttery guilt of the crust. Good thinking! I’m going to have to remember that.
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I agree that the omelet version would work perfectly. Your dish turned out well with out
the crust, and I give you credit for doing what you are doing with the dieting. I have
absolutely no will power. This was a real winner here and also at Tricia’s house.
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I have no willpower either. Fear of God/Goddess put in me is working quite nicely for the time being. 😉
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Love the idea of crust- less, sort of like a frittata. The flavours were nice and I used 2% milk instead of the cream.
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Bravo for figuring out how to adapt this…
Now, if you ever figure out that chocolate bacon pecan pie – THAT’s something I totally would want to see. (Bacon & chocolate do go well together, though 🙂 – don’t ask how i know this)
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I’m already working on it in my head. 🙂 Will publish the results eventually -maybe around Easter time when I can work in a treat.
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To me, quiche is all about the filling, so I’m sure this was great crust-less. I was surprised how the apple wasn’t a sweet as I anticipated (which was a good thing), and I think I’d make this again. I also used plain Gorgonzola because it’s what I had, but I would like to try with Dolce another time.
Glad to hear your bookcases worked out so well. I’m embarrassed to admit that I also have a living room wall of shelves and they are 100% filled with cookbooks, and those aren’t all of them. I’m sort of addicted, but they give lots of inspiration, and we certainly eat deliciously at my house. Have a great weekend!
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I’m so addicted as well, and tired of worrying about how many we’ll end up with. I’d rather read a cookbook than just about anything else, and I have very few vices. 😉
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Kudos on being creative and finding a way to use this recipe to be a part of your diet! Good Luck!!
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I am absolutely impressed with your determination and creativity!
Your crustless version of the quiche looks delicious!
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Going crustless is a fab idea – even better than going low fat.
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I like that you made it crustless! I was thinking when I was eating mine that even though the crust was good, I would have no problem just eating the filling by itself. It certainly saves on the carbs and extra calories.
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I did one crustless quiche – the perks of using 4-inch tart pans! I hope those numbers keep going down and will see you in two weeks.
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I love your idea of caramelizing the onions. I bet that flavor really added a lot to the dish. Sounds like you are pretty clever at adjusting recipes to fit the eating plan. That’s great. Best of luck that this eating plan works really well for you.
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I have to be in the right mood for a sweet/savory combo, but this sounds really good to me, even without the crust, and I love me some crust!
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This one seemed right up your alley Jill – even with the savory sweet combo.
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Wow, I picked up some good info from reading your Post. And, good-for-you for being inventive enough to enjoy FFWD while making the recipes fit into more healthy food choices and your eating plans. While I don’t think we need to gang up on Paula, I have been increasingly concerned that many (most) of the Chefs on the popular Food Networks are growing before our eyes. Can we not eat well, have fun with food, and not pack on the pounds? They don’t send a good message. I dealt with that, in a few paragraphs, a few weeks ago.
http://www.lightsonbrightnobrakes.com/finally-a-2012-reality-check-snap-out-of-it/
Keep posting your good stuff.
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Thanks Mary, I try not to judge people’s food choices since I’ve been through a lot of plans and diets over the years, but knowing as many diabetics as I do, I do find something disturbing about promoting some eating that seems specifically contrary to what one is supposed to do to live with diabetes. We gave up satellite TV almost a year ago, and I don’t miss the food shows at all. I’m getting a ton more cooking inspiration from books and the AMAZING variety of cooks on the internet.
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I thought about browning the onions too but decided to follow the recipe, now I’m regretting it. Yours looks excellent. I’m very impressed by your discipline!
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Looks great, and while I love crust, I think this would be great to try next time without. Carmelized onions and cheese are always a great combo.
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I agree – completely terrific without a shell. I’m really impressed with your diet – I did something similar the month of December because of surgery, but unfortunately regressed when I went back to work in January 😦
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Great idea to go crustless. Good to know it worked. My son is always playing around with ingredients to put in his “signature” omelets. I’ll have to tell him about this one. I don’t think he has ever added apple. Hope the diet is still going well.
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thanks! its been a tough week since I’ve had a cold, but I’ve stayed on track. Nothing like homemade chicken soup (sans noodles) for a cold fighter!
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I love your adaptations! I would not miss the crust at all. And I’m drooling at your blue cheese burgers below, too!!! YUM!
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I like the idea of going crust-less. Sometimes, you just don’t need to eat anymore butter 😉
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I love the way you made this delicious quiche work for you. I love quiches that are crustless! Nice job!
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Quite a challenge you have there cooking along with AMFT and juggling a strict diet plan! I feel your pain since I also have a few pounds to shed to get into race shape. Your changes to the recipe seems to fit well without changing the spirit of the dish. Keep up your good work and we’ll miss you next week for the Nutella Tartine! (how about making your own sugarless cocoa hazelnut butter?)
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I’ve made my own sugarless cocoa hazelnut butter before! Many years ago when I first started (Great on low carb bread). It was of course not quite as smooth as Nutella – no industrial grinders here, but the food processor will get it pretty well ground up and if you use some extra fat like coconut butter and hazelnut oil it tastes wonderful. The plan I’m on is really really strict – my only treats are small amounts of whole fresh fruit. When I can allow a few treats – I keep saying Easter or later, I’ll revisit the tartine. I found a low carb bakery that makes a low carb gluten free bread (I also have wheat and rye allergies) that I’m also interested in trying.
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Congratulations on finding a way to make this work for you. It shows how dedicated you are.
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I love the idea of crustless! Good luck on your eating plan, your creativity with these recipes is inspiring!
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Great job making this fit into your diet! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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