Ham and Cheese Quiche

My six-year-old had ear surgery yesterday. Everything is fine; he had tubes a few years ago and there was a residual hole in his eardrum that never healed. They patched the hole using his own fat, which is hilarious because the kid hardly has any fat anywhere on his body! Anyway, we got up at 5am to be to the hospital by 6, and were home by 9:30. When lunchtime rolled around and I assessed my fridge, I realized I had some leftovers, but not enough to get us through for lunches the rest of the week. Not to mention dinner that night, and I had absolutely nothing to eat for lunch if I was saving leftovers that my nine-year-old could eat at school. What's a girl to do? I ended up making a Blueberry Chicken Chopped Salad for lunch but then I realized (oops) that was supposed to be our dinner for tonight. Give me a break, by 11:30am it had already been a long day. So, I went back to my fridge and sized up the contents (again) as if something might have sprouted there since I last stuck my head in. It hadn't. Dang. I did realize that I had eggs, leftover diced ham, shredded Parmesan cheese and a red bell pepper. I could make this work - quiche to the rescue! I checked my freezer and realized I had a pie crust. Score; it wouldn't have to go "crustless." I'm not at all opposed to crustless quiche, but sometimes you just need the crust. And this time I also needed to use the blueberry muffin mix in my pantry to go with the quiche). Because then, when my husband came home hungry after putting in some extra hours at work he exclaimed, "Alright, breakfast for dinner!" He assumed I had it planned all along.

The totally rad thing about this quiche is any of the ingredients can be substituted. I used ham, but you could use bacon or sausage. You could even replace the ham with veggies for a vegetarian quiche. I had a red pepper but any veggie works great. I actually decided to roast my red pepper (here's a great tutorial on roasting your own peppers at home), but you could just as easily saute peppers (or any other veggies) in a small pan before adding them to your quiche. I would definitely advise sauteing or roasting any veggies you decide to use to soften them up a bit. I used five large eggs but if you want to use egg whites or egg substitute feel free to do so. My milk product of choice was fat free half & half but skim, 1%, 2%, whole milk or even heavy cream would be good too! Same thing with the cheese. I had Parmesan but any cheese is good. So, not to beat a dead horse, but the point is to USE WHAT YOU HAVE! Anything goes when it comes to quiche. The good news is there will probably be leftovers and you won't be left puzzling about lunch or dinner tomorrow.

Ham and Cheese Quiche

5 large eggs
1/3 c. fat free half and half (any milk works)
4 oz. diced ham (bacon or sausage works too)
1 roasted red pepper, diced (1/2-3/4 c. of any veggie you have on hand)
4 oz. Parmesan cheese (or any cheese you have on hand)
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper 
1/2 t. dried thyme (use any dried herb you like)
1 (9") deep dish frozen pie crust

Preheat the oven to 375. In a medium bowl combine the eggs and half & half and whisk to combine. Add the ham, red pepper, Parmesan, salt, pepper and thyme and whisk until all ingredients are combined. Pour into the pie crust and bake for 35-40 minutes until the quiche is lightly browned and set (not jiggly) in the center.

6 servings (305 calories each serving) according to my calculator on loseit.com