The Pudding Song - This Is How We Do It

Hi Everybody! Long time no ethereally communicate through cyber space. It's been super busy in Nina Land lately, but I wanted to share with you a little ditty I came up with while making pudding for the Bear with the pulled tooth. It's to the tune of Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It." Mostly because I have a tendency to randomly yell "THIS IS HOW WE DOOO IIIT," while cooking. In the event that I can't get this out of my head for several days, be prepared for a performance!

You don't have to chew it!

(You don't have to chew it)

Shalalalalayeeah!

You don't have to chew it,

it's pudding night,

and some chocolate's right.

The pudding's here, it's the best kind.

So I reach for my box and then I mix it up,

Masticated pudding is the key to my truck.

Pudding's good so don't hate it.

It's creamy and it's thick cause you know this shorty made it.

It's tastes so good in my hood tonight.

So fill up your cup, lift your spoon up,

and let me hear Bill Cosby say...

Got a sugar buzz and it's all because,

(You don't have to chew it!)

I scarfed that pudding like nobody does!

(You don't have to chew it!)

To all my neighbors bright different flavors,

(You don't have to chew it!)

let's flip the snack,

bright the old school back.

Wow: I Really Like Colons In Titles.. and Summer!

The title says it all.

It's a day of Fri and that is really all it takes to make it a good day. Summer has finally arrived with a week-long, upper 90's heat spell in Chicagoland. I have been taking refuge in sunglasses and swimming pools, and sipping on icy cold beverages. (Doesn't that make my life seem enviable even though I am currently sitting in a cubical waiting for the last 40 minutes of the work week to pass?)

Being out and about more, I haven't been as strict in keeping up with my Primal eating habits. When I go swimming until 8 o'clock at night I usually don't feel much like going home and cooking, but I have been trying to keep in mind all the primal learnings I have amassed. I don't eat any carbs or sugar during the day at all, but does that make any difference when you end up eating chicken nachos for dinner that night? I don't really know the answer to that, but I do know that I enjoy having freedom in all my choices, and until the world is 100% Primal, I find it hard to be so myself. I think that's ok though because I still eat healthy and am exercising much more. I do still shop primal, and the house is free of all junk food aside from our weekend beer or wine splurge. So I've got that going for me. (I'm not going to lie and say I didn't love every second of my red velvet homemade ice cream from last week though. Frozen Memories, best ever!)

In other news, next week I am DJing for my Dads wedding! I have been very excited to get a little road trip in with my Honey and attend an actual event. I love events! I think said Honey though, might be slightly annoyed with the amount for prep time I insist on putting into not only the music, but my outfit, and the trip planning, but I just want everything to awesome and light and fun; no-worries-mate style, Nina style. Ok I may have a slight compulsive need to shove as much fun into the fleetingly short months of Summer as possible, but I find that need pretty valid. It is Summer after all, and as Cyndi Lauper so succinctly put it:

Such wise words.

WTF of the Day: Bear Seasoning

I like a lazy Sunday. This Sunday was indeed very lazy and suited me just fine. I had apple time to slowly wander the isles of my gigantic employee owned grocery store, Woodmans. They just added tons more organic and natural and gluten-free products, and I was super happy to even find Organicville Ketchup, that uses agave nectar instead of sugar!

It turned out though, that the spice isle was hiding the truly rare find of the day. (No, I did not buy it!)

Ahhh... Chef Peterson's Bear Seasoning! A family favorite! I am wondering if there is a part of the country where, much like out beloved Old Bay in Maryland, you must not be caught dead without Chef Peterson's Bear Seasoning in your pantry. Maybe somewhere in Canada? I admit that while I kinda know that yes, people out there do hunt bears, I also figured it was something to be shrouded in shadow. Apparently though...

"...serious hunters hunt bear." It also mentions something there about "The full enjoyment of bear meat...," specifically Black Bear. I personally enjoy my bear meat when it is running, looking after it's kids, hunting salmon, and not dead. But that's just me. Clearly I haven't tried it with Chef Peterson's Bear Seasoning. I wonder if Stephen Colbert is a fan...

Primal Cheatza Pizza (A Recipe in Pictures)

Pizza cravings -Who among us is immune to the siren song of cheese, sauce, and crust? (Well, probably lots of us, but just follow me here.) It's an American staple that is unbelievably hard to avoid, and if you've given up eating grains, and therefore crust, it may be something you're missing very very much.

I think I may have mentioned before that I enjoy cheese. And while I am a huge fan, I'm not sure if I enjoy it quite enough to make my fake pizza, or cheatza as I like to call it, on a regular basis. The crust is made, following this recipe, from about 50% cheese. Don't get me wrong, it's yummy, if you're trying to avoid carbs, gluten, or grains, it's a great way to banish the pizza cravings. It's just a lot of cheese.

Also part of the whole primal eating blueprint is not eating dairy, or just eating raw, grass fed cheese or yogurt once in a while. I admit I have definitely added cheese back into the mix, and I'm trying to stick to those harder to find good kinds. For my cheatza though, the highest quality mozzarella I could find was Kraft made with no hormones or antibiotics. While that's better Velveeta I suppose, it definitely helps put the CHEAT in this cheatza.

First I assembled the crust ingredients: Shredded Cauliflower, Eggs, Mozzarella, and Oregano.

 

Then I (incorrectly) mixed my ingredients. (I guess you were supposed to steam the shredded cauliflower before you mixed it all into a crust dough-like-thing. It still turned out well, but I think this may have contributed to the burnt edges you will see in the pictures.) I then patted the mix down into a pizza shape on a pizza pan.

This is what the crust looked like after about 14 minutes in the oven. So pretty!

Without letting the crust cool, which I figure would help melt the cheese, I piled on my MORE cheese and toppings. I used my old family classic: black olives, green peppers, and onions(these are red).

After about 6 minutes in a hot boiler the cheatza looks just like pizza, although maybe a little more rough around the edges.

Like I said before, there is a lot of cheese on this baby. I really did enjoy it though, I just felt ultra heavy and overly cheeseified after a few pieces. All in all though, well worth the effort. The left overs made for perfect lunches paired with a big salad. 

Mmmmm... Cheatza

Semi-Primal Burgers with Semi-Primal Buns

A.K.A. the best freaking thing I have eaten it a long time! I devoured my burger like a wild primaly animal. Sadly I only had enough turkey to make two of these so we only got one each. I totally could have scarfed at least one more.

The buns I used followed this recipe that I originally found from a link on Mark's Daily Apple. In this application they were a revelation! I couldn't believe how perfect everything tasted together. Eaten alone though, or with just turkey bacon as I tried to do for breakfast yesterday, the buns get a big "Eh". They tasted too dry and eggy for me. For the burgers though, perfect. I actually cut the edges off the buns, where I thought they looked too dry.

Sometimes you just gotta have cheese, right? I mean unless you're vegan or 100% primal, or my friend Shana who had to give it up during her pregnancy. (You are all stronger than I.) I know cheese is not totally Primal, but it's not entirely cheating either. I was really craving a gooey cheese burger, with a little turkey bacon for good measure, and that's exactly what I got.

(Primal?) Bacon Cheese Stuffed Turkey Burgers

1 Pound Ground Turkey (7% fat)

4 Slices Turkey Bacon

1/2 Cup Grated Cheese

1 Onion

1-2 Teaspoons of your favorite Grill Seasoning or Seasoning Blend

A good squirt of Mustard and (Primal) Ketchup and (Primal) Worcestershire Sauce

Sea Salt and Pepper

A little Olive Oil for Cooking

Saute onion over low/medium heat. Cook until they start to smell sweet. You don't want to brown them, just cook them slowly to the point of carmelization. (About 10 minutes) About half way through the cooking add the grill seasoning to the onions, this will give the spices a chance to mellow.

Cook your bacon in the pan while the onions cool to the side.

Mix together turkey meat, condiments, salt & pepper, and onion mixture once cool. Don't over mix, it will mess up your burger texture. Good texture is a burger's friend.

Place crumbled bacon and grated cheese on a plate next to you, where you won't contaminate more than you need with your raw turkey hands.

Form turkey mixture into four equalish parts. Grab one part, form it into a ball, then flatten it with your hand. Take a good amount of cheese and crumbled bacon and stick it right in the middle of that flatten piece of turkey. Fold it over and pat into a burger-like shape. The less holes the better, unless you like a pool of runny cheese cooking under your burger, which you might!

Heat a little olive oil in your pan over medium-high heat, you want a fairly hot pan - burgers should sizzle when they hit it. Cook the burgers, lowering the heat to medium after about 5 minutes. Flip when browned on the bottom. Cook second side on Medium for about 5-10 minutes til cooked through. (burger will be sort of firm to the touch and juices will run clear) Let them rest for a few minutes before serving.

Assemble your burgers.

Go, "YUM!"

All in all this was one of the most satisfying things I have had in a long time. I probably won't make them this decedent all the time, but there are a million variations to try, and now that I have a bun to use as a building block, I feel like the possibilities are endless.

Frak You and Your Fraking Pizza

Beware the nerdulence of this post. As of now we're not eating pizza in my house hold due to our primal cave-people like eating, but once upon a time (last month) we feasted on the sweet sweet cheesy doughiness of Nerddom. You see Battlestar Galactica was one of our most favoritest shows, and when the last episode aired last month we wanted to celebrate. We got some sort of alcoholic drink I believe, and set out to make the best pizzas in all the universe. Of course if you've never seen this show, this post will probably mean nothing to you, and the pizzas will just be confusing. I recommend catching up on all seasons of the show, and then coming back to bask in our cheestastic glutenous glory. Even if you have no idea what the giant robot head is (it's an original model cylon!) you can at least figure out what frak means, right?

Really more food should be Sci-Fi themed. What about a Dr. Who scarf fruit roll up?

Recipe: Primal Apple Crisp

I have had a severe lack of dessert since the start of my primal living experiment, which ended up lasting much longer than a week. I hopefully have broken through the wall of grumpiness and depression which may have been cause by sugar withdrawals, but that doesn't mean I have forsaken an after dinner treat completely. I've been eating a lot of fruit when I want a treat, but sometimes that just doesn't cut it.

I have been wanting to make apple crisp for a while. I think I did find a straight forward primal recipe for one at some point, but yesterday when I went to make it, I couldn't fine one recipe that didn't have something verboten in it. I basically dissected and picked apart several recipes from around the web, and used things I  had on hand already, creating something all my own.

Nina's Primal Apple Crisp

Topping:

1 Cup Nuts (A lot of recipes call for all almonds, I used Almonds, Pecans, and some Macadamia)

3 Tablespoons Arrowroot

1/4 teaspoon Salt (I omitted this because some of my nuts were salted)

4 Tablespoons Cold Butter (sub coconut oil to Veganize!)

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/4 Cup Agave Nectar*

Fruit:

5-6 Apples (I used Granny Smiths, McIntoshs, and Galas)

Juice and Zest of 1 Lime & 1/2 Orange (most recipes called for lemon but I used what I had)

1 Tablespoon Arrowroot

2 Tablespoons Agave

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Fresh Nutmeg

*I use agave nectar in any recipe that calls for cooked honey. Cooked honey is considered poisonous in Ayurveda. Which my father has adamantly reminded me of my whole life. I'd rather not temp fate.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients of topping mixture in work bowl of food processor, pulse till nuts are small chunks. Add agave, butter in small pieces, and vanilla. Pulse until incorporated, butter may still be chunky.

Peel and chop apples in a separate bowl. Add juice, zest, arrowroot, agave, cinnamon, and nutmeg, mix.

In a sprayed or buttered baking dish, add apples, then top with blobs of topping mixture.

Bake for 45 minutes, til golden brown and bubbly.

This was good. Very very good. It's not as sweet as traditional apple crisp, but I thought you really got a feeling for a true sweetness of the apples without missing out on the sweet sweet goo that you have come to expect with a good apple crisp. The nuts got all toasty (be careful not to burn them) and made for almost a cookie tasting topping. We just wanted to eat only this for dinner when it came out of the oven. I will make this again.. and again.. and again.

My Primal Week and Beyond

One week down. As of Tuesday my week experiment in primal living is complete. I've read lot, cooked and ate a lot, and lost a lot of weight without much effort. Ahh, it is that last part there that probably has me stuck on the primal living kick my friends. I mean there are not many among us not looking for that magic potion that makes the pounds fly off. I think going primal is probably closest thing to that potion that I have seen work on myself (Okay besides trying fen-phen back in the day, but permanent heart damage probably isn't a good trade off for weight loss).

I spent much of this week compiling information on what exactly the parameters of primal living were, then I stumbled upon a really good explanation and starting point at Mark Sisson's Daily Apple, one of the best sites all round for information on primal diet and fitness. 

Mike and I were doing great all week, especially Mike. He has been cooking and getting creative like nobodies business (cept mine!) and says he has more energy than he has had in years. He is really a true convert, he hasn't had an eating plan click with his physiology the way this one has ever before. I feel like it's been a little harder for me though, honestly my mind keep trying to think of excuses of why I need carbs, and my monthly chocolate cravings were leading me to the edge of insanity for a few nights there. 

Here is some pretty pictures of bunless burgers Mike made us, just to break up the Nina-rambles.

Saturday was our "cheat day" due to the fact that we were taking Mike's younger brother, and his girl friend, out to Chinese. We ate noodles, a little rice, and what I'm sure is a large about of sugar in the sauces. We both felt heavy and tired that night, and I've convinced myself that this cheat is also the reason I soon after got so deathly ill. I am usually the one person left standing while some awful cold or flu mows down my compatriots, this time though I was a casualty; it was bad. 

I was down for two whole days, only seeing the sun when Mike was nice enough to prop me on the couch and open the curtains so I could watch the sunset and the rainbows from my prism dance across the walls. The rest of my time since Monday night has been spent in bed, sleeping, coughing, or whining. Today though, I am back at work, still far from 100% but sometimes you just can't stay in bed any longer.

Since my week ended on such a sickly note, it's hard for me to take stock of how I am truly feeling. I do know that I seemed to have lost my low blood sugar crankiness from not eating. I just get sort of a general feeling of hunger in my stomach without the swimmy headed nauseous feeling that used to come with skipping meals or waiting too long to eat. This is good, now if the carb and chocolate cravings would go away, and the lingering sense that I am being deprived of the foodie world I love so dearly, I would be golden. Fucking golden. 

Bottom line? We're sticking with it.

Paleo Update: Creativity in the Kitchen

Few things inspire me more than food. You can probably tell this by looking at me. I have never been able to, or willing to, sacrifice my fun in the kitchen for anything that I found limiting to my art. Trying the primal diet, I've learned that, as is the case with most of my other creative endeavors, having parameters to work within can actually makes things more fun. It gives you a sort of challenge that just have complete free reign doesn't offer.

For instance, cauliflower - I have always known that cauliflower is somewhat special. First of all it's white, and it's probably the only white food that is good for you. Of course now that I said that, someone will just come up with more foods chalked full of whitey goodness, but let's just say the usual suspects of sugar, flour, and shortening, we can live without. Mark Twain described cauliflower as, "cabbage with a college education," and with a little smarts of your own it can be your best friend, it's one of the most versatile veggies I know.

I've had three separate encounters with the fluffy cabbage cousin this week alone. It all started with my failed attempt at roast cauliflower that ended up blackened, and thankfully got much better from there. On Wednesday night, Mike made a really delicious cauliflower puree in the style of a mashed potato. He added little bits of turkey bacon to it, and the results were fantastic. I knew I had to try one more thing that I had been reading about on primal blogs though, cauliflower rice. It's so simple it's really a non-recipe. All you do it grate the cauliflower and steam it, or saute it if you like, and it is almost unrecognizable as an impostor! I ate it with some marinated mahi-mahi and even though my brain knew that what I was eating wasn't a grain, my taste buds told a different story, a story of fluffy almost al dente white rice. Cauliflower is a win my friends, and I get the feeling I am going to be eating a lot of it in the near future.

Our other creative endeavor last night was an apple and pear puree, apple sauce style, that Mike put on the pork roast he made for himself. It was so good that I had some as a dessert. All we did was boil peeled apples and pears in water with a little orange juice for some sweetness, until they were tender, then hit them with the handy-dandy stick blender. A regular blender would have worked just as well. We loved it. We'll be making a lot more very soon!

Primal Recipe: Almond Crusted Zucchini

This is Mike's recipe transcribed by me, I hope I got everything right. By request, here is the recipe for Almond Crusted Zucchini from Wednesday.

Man Recipe: Almond Crusted Zucchini

2 Eggs

1 Shallow Bowl of Ground Almonds

1 Large Zucchini

2 to 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

A Pinch of Sea Salt (at your discretion)

Crack the eggs in a bowl and mix with pepper, combine with fork. Add sliced zucchini to egg mixture and coat all pieces. Let the zucchini soak in the eggs for a few minutes.

Heat olive oil on medium heat.

Remove one slice at a time from egg mixture and drop into bowl of ground almonds. Press the almonds into the zucchini, making sure they are coated on both sides. 

Place the coated zucchini in your pan and watch carefully, since it cooks very quickly.

Drain excess oil on paper towels. Season with a pinch of sea salt.

Enjoy!

Paleo Update: Winner Dinner, and a Larabar

This morning for breakfast I didn't have time to do anything impressive, in fact I didn't have time to do anything at all. I grabbed a bar that I read about on Son of Grok, called a Larabar. They are made with only primal ingredients, though they do contain a lot of dates, which I guess are a little high in natural sugar. Because of this, I probably will not be eating the banana I also brought, since there is some debate on whether you can even tropical fruit at all on a Primal diet due to it's relatively high natural sugar content. Luckily I have a back-up green pear.

(Like Son of Grok, I will probably be trying to make my own primal type bars for quick grabbing, stay tuned.)

I'm not sweating my non-gourmet breakfast this morning. I think that has a lot to do with the amazing dinner I had last night that seemed to eradicate all carb cravings. My fiance, Mike, has been transformed into Primal Top Chef. When I came home from work he had already made a chicken meat loaf, made loafy with the addition of eggs, onions, and peppers. As a side, he created an amazing cauliflower puree, erasing all memory of my horribly failed cauliflower experiment from the night before. We also had a beautiful bright salad.

Paleo Update: Feeling Full

Finally I am feeling full! I think it must take the expertise of home cooking to actually make me feel satisfied. I was thinking that I would just be putting together a simple salad for lunch today, then I came home to this:

Mike knew I had been craving carbs and went to work trying to find something that would scratch my itch. He came up with almond crusted zucchini! It really made me feel like I was snacking on something naughty, which is always a good thing. The shrimp though were the best part, they were chalked full of garlicky goodness! 

When I was driving home for lunch, I couldn't even look at the all the crappy restaurants on the way. I just kept picturing pizza, or bread, or french fries. Now though, I am feeling like I don't even need the steely resolve I was planning to muster. This is how I like things to be, easy.

Paleo Update: Sad Dinner and Happy Breakfast

The carb cravings started a little before 6pm last night. I went to Trader Joes, which was great place to pick up beef and turkey jerky, natural bacons, and veggies. Unfortunately they also have a great selection of starchy and sugary foods. Mmmmm... starchy and sugary. 

I ate some turkey jerky when I got in the car. It was good it helped, but by the time I got home and started cooking dinner I was starving again. I snacked on some pineapple, almonds, and strawberries while I was cooking dinner.

Dinner was a serious learning experience for me. I tried to make a chicken and potato dish that I love by substituting cauliflower for potatoes. Of course for some reason I didn't take into account that the cauliflower would not appreciate being cooked on the bottom rack of the oven the way potatoes do. Let me tell you, blackened cauliflower tastes even worse than it sounds. The chicken turned out pretty well though and I thought I would try to make some kale chips as a side to make up for my sad sad cauliflower char. The only kale I could find in my grocery store surprisingly was pre-washed chopped and bagged. Not really what I wanted and the kale chips suffered. The kale was cut in you very nonuniform pieces so some got overly browned while other were not even cooked through. Oh well, live and learn, it will all be better next time.

I woke up this morning craving carbs again. All I wanted was something starchy. Even typing the words now is slightly painful for me. By the time I got to work, I was starting to get a little discouraged. Then I opened the foil wrapped plate that my man had made for me:

What would I do without him? The sight was a saving grace. See? It's pretty and wonderful food! You love pretty and wonderful food! And I did. In case you are wondering, it's scrambled eggs topped with sauteed onions, resting on natural turkey bacon and seared red pepper. It was delicious and satisfied me for the most part. I still feel a slight nagging in my stomach, begging me to eat anything loaded with carbohydrates. I say nuts to that! It's only been one full day. I better start practicing my steely resolve.

Paleolithic Update: Tuesday Lunch

If you have read my earlier post, you know that this is my week of eating like a cave woman. Although I can tell you the cave peeps probably never had it this good. For lunch today, I had this beauty waiting for me when I walked in the door. Thanks to Mikie, the man with the eggtastic plan. It consists of almost hard boiled eggs, some lettuce, grape tomatoes, black olives, and dill. I also had a bed of greens on the side (not pictured) with a little olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon on top. 

I can say that after eating I felt satisfied but not overly full. Now it is about a half hour later and I am feeling still satisfied; no craving at the moment. I will keep you up to date on the whole primal Nina week long experiment as things transpire.

A Week Long Experiment: Paleolithic Diet

This week I am trying something that is a little off the radar of usual Nina behavior. I love food, and I am really not big on restrictions of any kind. Sure I don't eat pork or red meat but that's not really work for me, I haven't eaten them in pretty much my entire life and never really had desire to start. This week though I am going against the grain, if you will, and cutting it out completely. (Grain that is.)

I have been reading a lot about Evolutionary Fitness and the Paleo Diet lately, and a friend of mine, who has a great new blog, is also really into it. After some more research, we decided to give it a try at our house! The idea behind Evolutionary Fitness is really mimicking the activities and eating habits of our hunter gatherer ancestors. Agriculture, let a lone chemicals and industrialized food, changed the foods we intake and our body composition has yet to catch up. On our shopping trip last night we gathered meats, which for us meant just chicken and turkey right now, eggs, nuts, tons of veggies, and some fruits and berries. The idea behind a lot of these foods is that they could be safely eaten in their raw state. This eliminates pretty much all starches and grains from the table. I have been curious to see how my body would fair without carbs and dairy, for awhile now, and here my chance to find out.

If anyone keeps up with my other blog, Look What She's Eating, you already know I keep a sort of half day food journal. For this experiment I thought I should document all my meals and snacks on here, and will continue to post what I eat at work on Look What She's Eating. 

For breakfast this morning I made two eggs, with red pepper and shallots, the rest of the raw pepper on the side, and of course, water.

Then, since I don't go to lunch until about 1:30ish, I had a handful of blanched almonds around 12:00. 

I sounds silly, and it could be just mental, but I think I might actually already be feeling better than I did yesterday. I am just feeling clear headed and I have no heart burn, which I often get after eating a meal at my desk at work. Stay turned for more meals, and more results, and check out the above links for more information!

Vintage Yum

A few days ago I was trying to remember the name of my favorite cookbook as a kid, the one with the awesome campy pictures of everything, pink fluffy frostings, meat with little white puffy paper chef hat thingies on the ends of the bones, (what the hell are those things called??) and lots and lots of sixties pizazz.

Well I believe this is the book right here. (Vintage List)

The Betty Crocker's New Picture Cook Book from 1961. It was fab. I don't remember what recipes out of this we actually used, I just remember flipping through it a lot for my favorite pictures. If my mom still has this I am so figuring out a way to kidnap it and take pictures of all the pretty stylized foods within.

Not with a bang, but a crunch.

Sometimes it doesn't matter how god-awful an idea is, it's an idea, and therefore must be tested. Remember the Taco Town Taco, Saturday Night Live's mocking of Taco Bell and the like who combine and rearrange the bizarre goo elements of their products constantly to tantalize the taste buds of their patrons?

Well even the farcical tantalizing works a little too well.  According to a link on This is why you're fat, a great site for killing a little time by looking at the horrible monstrosities we create out of hunger and more accurately misplaced human ingenuity and boredom, the Taco Town Taco was not only constructed, it was eaten... by people! You don't believe me do you? Well feast your frightened eyes on this!

Go to the link above for an entire photo walk-though of how this thing was created, if you dare. I know what you're thinking though, how can I not love a crunchy beef taco with nacho cheese, lettuce, tomato and southwestern sauce wrapped in a soft flour tortilla with a layer of refried beans in between, then wrapped in a corn tortilla with a layer of Monterrey Jack cheese in a deep fried gordita shell with guacamole sauce baked in a corn husk topped with pico de gallo, wrapped in a crepe, filled with egg, gruyere cheese, sausage and portobello mushrooms, all wrapped in a Chicago-style deep dish pizza wrapped in a blueberry pancake and finally deep fried with spicy vegetarian chili dipping sauce? 

Well, they forgot the tote bag.

Best Quote From Top Chef Last Night

"Hospital? No! I will chop it off, sear it on a flattop so it doesn’t bleed, and deal with nine fingers tomorrow!"

Tri-Pepper Goat Cheese Quiche with Potato Crust

I love quiches, they are one of my favorite ways to use up all the veggies and cheese and other goodies aging in my black-hole of a refrigerator. One problem for me is the crust, one because it's pretty fattening, and I have been trying to lighten up all of my cooking lately, and two because I am lazy. (Wow, too lazy to make pie crust and needs lightening up, I am real catch huh? Good thing I am already love-ed.) I have mostly messed up the pie crusts I have tried to make in the past and while I pretty much know what I could do to fix my mistakes, I seem to have a mental pie crust block now.  Pie crusts from the store are either lard laden and flavorless or made with butter (yay!) but very pricey (boo). The whole drive behind my quiche idea was making a super economical meal on the fly. 

So what to use instead? I had been reading smittenkitchen's post about tortillas recently, and it provided with my own little ah-ha moment when I saw a bag of pre-sliced potatoes at Target. Potato crust! Everyone loves potatoes, and they're not inherently stuffed with butter! (They're just better that way.) 

The results were amazingly good. Mikie took the time to cook the onions and peppers for me to the point of almost carmelization, they were sweet and soft, and very nicely played off the bold creamy little pieces of goat cheese. Yum!

Tri-Pepper Goat Cheese Quiche with Potato Crust:

4 Tablespoons Canola Oil (or any oil with a high smoke point) 

1 Russet Potato sliced thin or ran through a food processor or mandolin*

1/2 of a Green Pepper

1/2 of a Yellow Pepper

1/2 of a Red Pepper

1 teaspoon Fresh Thyme

2 Tablespoons Goat Cheese

4 Eggs

1/3 of a cup of Half and Half

Salt and Pepper to your liking

*You can also use pre-sliced but really doesn't work as well, as I found out the hard way.

Preheat oven to 375.

Heat onions and peppers in one Tablespoon of oil, salt, and cook on a low heat, stirring, for about 10-15 minutes until soft.

Heat the remaining oil on medium-high heat in an oven safe pan. Place the potatoes in slowly and carefully, working from the center out, trying to make a single layer if possible. (Mine was pretty messy, but the egg that runs down beneath the potatoes will get too browned and be no so good eats.) Oil should be sizzling when you add the potatoes so be extra careful. 

Season the potatoes with salt and pepper generously, and allow to cook until turning golden-brown around the edges. Turn heat down to low.

Start layering on your onions and peppers. Cut your goat cheese into tiny pieces and dot on top of peppers and onion. Sprinkle on Thyme.

Crack your eggs and mix with half and half in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into your pan. 

Turn heat up just slightly and cook on the stove top until the edges are set. Transfer pan to oven and cook until completely set throughout. (about 10 minutes)

This is good hot, room temperature, or cold, so at this point you're golden! Or if you're me you're more like a few minutes away from charred, but it was awesome anyways.  This would be great for a brunch or a lunch with a pretty salad.