The Pursuit: Cooking Edition

Roni M. (3/31/25 6:00pm)

Have you ever had a hankering for something?? Breakfast burritos, a certain type of smoothie, cake, or a type of casserole. It can be pricey these days to satisfy this insatiable palette. 

So....let's venture into our roots of making food like our grandparents used to, with ingredients found at home!!

                   THE JOURNEY TO FOOD SECURITY

                                      (the pursuit of full-bellied happiness)

The first fully, homemade dish I ever made was QUICHE. I made the crust with affordable ingredients, and even saved as a lot of ingredients were already in my kitchen. In fact!! The only ingredient I had to buy were egg whites!!

*Here's a tip for egg lovers: Eggs are expensive, if you don't know someone who raises chickens, the most inexpensive way to have your egg fill is...BUY EGG WHITES IN THE CARTON. Makes soooo many meals at almost a third of the price.*

Now, let's discuss how to make quiche when on a budget.

First to make the crust:

All-purpose flour, salt, butter, and ice cold water

For the filling:

Egg whites, cheese of your choice, meats of your choice, veggies of your choice, and of course seasonings of your choice

As you can see, this meal is a throw together meal, with just the crust being pre-prepared. When making my crust I followed directions from A Beautiful Plate. 

Here are the basic measurement breakdowns for the crust:

11/4 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter

1/4 cup ice water

 If you follow the instructions directly from this lovely website you will get a flaky, buttery, soft crust that tastes so delightful. 

Always pre-make the crust and freeze, this way if you make enough crusts you can just pull it out and fill with whatever. If you want to make your quiche breakfast style or dinner style switch up the ingredients for your filling.

Now for the filling

This is based on your tastes, but the ratio of egg whites in the dish should be relatively the same. For example: 2 cups of egg whites should be enough to fill a 9-inch deep glass pie pan. Just make sure your added ingredients are well balanced so the filling doesn't overflow. 

Me personally I made my quiche a dinner quiche!!

I  added 1/4 cup of julienned romaine slices and Roma tomato slices (so1/8 romaine and 1/8 Roma). Then I added in about 1/4 cup of  diced Tyson grilled chicken breast strips (or if you like, cook a chicken breast on stove top and dice) and 3 tablespoons of real bacon bits (if you like, cook about 3 to 5 strips of thick bacon and dice). Then I added about 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese as I love cheesy dishes.

Then of course I seasoned my quiche with garlic, Italian herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme, parsley), pepper, cumin (because I love the taste of this seasoning), and onion powder (it's a plus if  you put half a thinly sliced sauteed onion into the filling).

Pour your ingredients into the egg whites, mix it up, then pour into the pie crusts. Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes and let cool before serving. 

This meal saves you a lot of trouble of looking for something, because it can be made with whatever you have handy. You can make it as simple as you want or throw in extra ingredients to make it very filling. 

Here are some different types of quiche you could try if you have the ingredients just sitting about:

• Bacon, onion and cheese 
• Spinach and tomato
• Sausage and kale
• Ham and cheese
• BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato)
• Cheeseburger (ground beef and cheese)
• Philly Cheesesteak (thinly sliced steak, onion, green pepper and cheese)
• Spinach-Artichoke with Goat Cheese
• Broccoli and Cheese
• Tomato, basil, and caramelized onion
• Salmon 
• Mushroom (add any veggie with it)
• Fried potato, cheese and (whatever meat you like)

the list goes on and on...mix and make your own creation. Fight away that hangry feeling. Plus if you feel the crust is too much work!! just make it crustless. 

I wish you much happiness as you fill your bellies😊