Crustless Spinach & Ham Quiche

 (with option for a gluten free quiche)

Prep Time:  15 
Cook Time:  25 min
Level:  Easy
Serves:  8 servings

Ingredients
Extra-virgin olive oil, for greasing and drizzling
2     Cups grated mozzerella cheese
2     tablespoons flour (use rice flour to keep this gluten free)
1 cup fresh baby spinach, rough chopped in small pieces
8 large eggs 
1/2 lb ham, cubed (I used 2 thick slices, all natural ham from deli counter & cubed myself)
2     teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
6     scallions, chopped
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup milk (unsweetened almond, rice, cow's - whatever you have)

Directions
Position a rack in the upper third of the oven, place a baking sheet on the rack and preheat to 450 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish with olive oil.

Lightly beat eggs in a bowl then add salt and pepper, grated nutmeg, chopped chives, ham, and spinach.  In a seperate bowl, toss 2C mozzerella with 2TB of flour.  Add chees tossed in flour into egg mixture.  Stir.  Now add the milk.  Use your judgement here.  The mixture should pour into the dish without splashing so add more or less milk depending. 

Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and sprinkle with paprika. Place the quiche on the preheated baking sheet and bake until the center is just set, 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve the quiche hot or at room temperature.

Photograph by Lindsey Fuller

 Copyright 2011 The Everyday Organic
All Rights Reserved

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Thanks to Chef Megan McCarthy, the dish I brought to the lake was a complete hit! Fresh cucumbers and tomatoes from my in laws garden took it over the edge. Quinoa can be used as a substitute for rice, couscous & even bulgur wheat as in traditional tabbouleh. Quinoa is gluten free which makes it a fantastic wheat substitute. It's 6g of protein for every 1/2 cooked cup also make it a good source of non-animal protein.


Here's Chef Megan's recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh:

1C Quinoa (rinsed til the natural occurring white residue is off & water runs clear)
2C water
2TB extra virgin olive oil
3 Roma tomatoes (or 1/2C cherry tomatoes from the garden), seeded and diced-obviously roma tomatoes are easier to seed but I had fresh cherry tomatoes so that's what I used.
1 Cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
2 green onions, chopped
1/4C fresh lemon juice
Salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Bring water and quinoa to a boil. Cover and turn down to simmer 12-15 minutes or until water is absorbed. Fluff with a fork while transferring to a bowl so it can cool. Add remaining ingredients to quinoa. Serve at room temperature (our favorite) or chilled. Serves 4-6

This is a great side dish or vegetarian meal. Leftovers are perfect for brown baggin' it to work.

Organic Mushroom Kit

We discovered The Mushroom Kit while in Berkeley, CA.. A science experiment turned business for two college guys. Huh, so there really IS stuff growin' in the guy's dorm... anywhoo, back to the root of the story. Karen, an enthusiastic endorser of the product, educated us on how these mushrooms grow in recycled coffee grounds. She appeared to be closer to my age than two college kids, which means she must know what she's talkin' about.

We bring home a kit. Now, I will pre-warn you, if you're flying home with one of these kits in your carry on bag, you might have some 'splainin to do at security. "It's a mushroom kit" isn't really enough to get TSA clearance. In fact, they might just raise their brow a little higher. Eventually, my husband told them we were in Berkley and before he even finished getting it out of his mouth, the head of security said "I should've know you were from Berkeley. Go ahead".

Once safely at home, we started the kit. Easy to follow instructions lead you to cut one side of the box, make a small cross slit in the plastic bag and then mist twice a day. Nothing appears to be happening for about 5 days and then all of a sudden, BAM, you have mushrooms growing. I meant to take a picture of the very beginning but seriously, everyday they doubled in size. It's cool and kinda weird having mushrooms growing in the corner on our kitchen counter but certainly earth friendly and budget friendly. Besides, if they're good enough for Alice Waters, they're good enough for me.

Organic Snacks

The heat is on! If you're lookin' for somethin' to help heat up your summer snackin', may I suggest A Hot Mess.  Pure Bliss Organics roasted cashews, peanuts, and puffed rice with tamari and cayenne to give your mouth a sizzle.  Don't be afraid of the heat, once our 12year old tasted it, she claimed that bag as "hers".  Funny.  

Sweetly-glazed almonds, hazelnuts, and raisins are combined with crystallized ginger making the perfect Sweet Nuttins.  Sprinkle this on top and your guaranteed to get those kids to eat their yogurt.

Pure Bliss Organics offers other NEW flavors of gourmet nuts including Pretty Good Stuff (a savory blend of nuts and cranberries) and Off The Walnuts (Walnuts dusted with cinnamon & ginger).  All four flavors mentioned here are vegan and gluten free.

Snack on!  

Vegetarian Baked Beans

For our family, Baked Beans are such a reminder of summer. Cookin' out after a day on the lake or the beach-there's nothin' like it. However, in our quest to eat less meat I had to figure out a way to save the flavor without the...bacon. According to my kids' reaction, I figured it out! Not only that, you cook it in the crock pot-easy easy!

3 cans pinto beans (vegetarian style)
1C Organic Ketchup
2TB Spicy Mustard
1TB Worcestershire sauce
1 Medium Onion chopped (preferably a sweet onion from Vidalia, Georgia)
2TB honey
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
ground pepper to taste

Put all the ingredients in a slow cooker on low setting, give it a stir, cover and go sit on the porch and sip some sweet tea for two hours.

Community Gardens

Gardens just make people happy and community gardens are popping up everywhere. Since the idea of prepping and turning your own soil can seem daunting, especially to urban dwellers and suburbanites, it’s a nice way to share the work load. Not only do you share the weeding and watering, you also share the fun part…harvesting!





Highland Community Victory Garden in Raleigh, North Carolina is not only serving those who directly care for the garden but excess produce is donated to “Plant a Row for the Hungry”. This allows families access to fresh produce who might otherwise go without.



Cullen Whitley is the Garden Coordinator and both his BIG heart and Masters in Horticulture help get the job done.


If you’re in the Raleigh area and interested in joining the Highlands work, it only takes $10 and a commitment of 10 hours. Though Cullen assured me that while no one is turned away because of money, everyone gets their hands dirty! Not in the Raleigh area, no worries, Find a community garden near you

Organic Strawberries

Strawberries are repeatedly on the dirty dozen list as one of the fruits with the highest pesticide residue. That’s enough to make you want to grow your own. Which is just what I did with my niece recently. We drilled holes in the bottom of old pots and buckets, dropped in some empty recycling containers so we didn’t need as much dirt in the large buckets then filled them with organic potting soil almost to the top. Gently placed the organic strawberry plants in the soil and added more around them, packing lightly until the plants were securely in place.

Grace will tell you what to do next.

"Put them in the sun, water them with water and wait til they turn red."