Poor Girl Cooks: Quiche aka Cheese Pie

Eggs. Eggs and I are not friends. I'm not really allergic to them, and it's not that I don't care for the taste, it's just that every time I eat them I get the worst stomach ache and the inside of my ears itch to the point where I consider using a power drill to fix it. So, accordingly, I often choose not to eat egg-intensive dishes. However, my love of cheese often outweighs my common sense and so I often make quiche!

This is a modification of my mom's recipe. She had already altered it to include a full pound of swiss cheese and a minimum number of eggs, but I found that by decreasing the cheese and increasing the meat that I could actually use even fewer eggs! In this edition, I've used sharp cheddar and some delicious fontina to enhance the flavor lost by reducing the cheese. I also decided that eating half a pound of bacon was probably a bad idea, so I switched to using turkey sausage instead.

Start by frying up half a pound of your meatstuff of choice. You could easily go ground beef with this, throw in a dash of taco seasoning, and call this quesadilla pie, but I didn't.


Then select your cheeses. I recommend using about 12oz of whatever combination you choose. Since this is "Poor Girl Cooks", I went with the cheapo sharp cheddar and half a wedge of fontina.


Now here is the embarrassing part: 99.9% of the time, I make my own pie crust to go with this (because let's face it, I make fantastic pie crust). Lately though, we've had a problem with our faucet leaking nasty water all over the counter and I just can't bring myself to roll out anything I later plan to eat on it. So I did the big bad, I went and bought refrigerated pie crust from Wegman's (which ironically tastes just like my own). At any rate, place a round of your preferred pie crust into a dish and cut slits around the bottom. Then place a thin layer of cheese...


Followed by your meatstuffs...

(apologies for the blurry, feel free to donate a DSLR at any time)

And then add the rest of the cheese and the eggy goo.


Mmm no wonder my dad calls this "cheese pie".

You'll notice that you probably won't be able to even see most of the eggy goo, but trust me, it's enough. Do not panic at this point, your cheese pie will come out fantastic.

Pop that bad boy in the oven for about 45 minutes and take a quick nap with your adorable baby kitty.


Then, badda bing! You've got a one dish meal.



Now please, don't feel restricted to my recommendations, this is a super versatile recipe that can take almost anything. Shredded chicken and green peppers? Possible! Ground beef and jalapenos? Possible! Bacon and broccoli? POSSIBLE! And these are just the things that my cold-addled mind can come up with, so explore, explore!


Low-egg Quiche

1/2 lb of ground sausage
8oz of sharp cheddar
4oz of fontina
1 pie crust
3 eggs
1/2-3/4 cup of milk
Black and red pepper to taste

1.) Brown your sausage and set aside. Shred the cheese and toss to mix. Place crust into a pie pan and slit the bottom.

2.) Assemble the pie starting with a loose layer of cheese, followed by the meat and the rest of the cheese. DO NOT PACK DOWN.

3.) Whisk together three eggs and and the milk. Add the pepper to taste. Pour over assembled pie as evenly as possible.

4.) Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until the top is browned and the eggs are set. Remove and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before slicing.

Mmmmmm delicious cheese pie....