Quarantine breakfasts.
I prefer a lazy slow morning and have life-hacked batch cooking breakfast that I can eat over the course of the week, rather than having to cook each morning.This egg bake might be called a crustless quiche, but that sounds so fancy for a lazy, messy meal. If you are serving this to guests, go ahead and call it a quiche. If you are alone, call it a life-hack. There are so many options, so I’ll just describe the few that have gotten me through the quarantine so far.
Broccoli Cheddar is a classic combination, but by adding a shallot and some garlic, you definitely kick it up to a classier level. I’ve found frozen broccoli to be a much easier hack when putting this together; \you can simply pour boiling water over the frozen broccoli in a colander to “wake it up” for baking. If you put frozen broccoli into the plate, it impedes the baking of the eggs; fresh broccoli needs to be pre-cooked a bit or it will still be raw in the final product. I’ve found frozen broccoli that has been brought up to room temperature by boiling water is juuuuust right.
By week two, my local market was out of frozen vegetables that seemed appealing, so I put together what I had on hand. An egg bake is so forgiving, that you can throw almost anything into it and it still tastes delicious. Just start with the right base of shallots, garlic, and add a hit of nutmeg. This quarantine edition has arugula, cherry tomatoes, and a mix of leftover cheddar and parmesan.
Week three. We are all trapped. I forgot to take a photo. Monotony. Routine. Thinly sliced zucchini, so that we do not have to pre-cook it. Oh, what the heck, let’s include the leftover cherry tomatoes. Out of shredded cheese, so we’ll have to slice thin strips off a block of cheddar. We can do this! Turns out zucchini, tomato, and cheddar make a good combination! The cheese burnt a bit on the top, so we’ll experiment next time.
Fourth egg bake. Does that mean I’ve been in this box of an apartment for a full month? Thank goodness I found some frozen broccoli at the store this week! This time I put the shallots and garlic on the bottom of the pyrex to allow the oil of their pre-sautee to be the grease on the pan. I put the cheddar slices on top of this layer to prevent it from burning like last time. Layer three is the boiling-water-thawed broccoli, with layer four being cherry tomatoes dotted around. Finally, I poured the egg mix over the whole tray and baked. This one was the best so far!
Week FIVE. I was able to buy some shredded cheese (and toilet paper!) at Trader Joe’s, so I am ready to create this week’s masterpiece of shallot, garlic, zucchini, tomato and cheddar. Learned last time it’s worth sauteeing the zucchini with the shallot and garlic. Want to bake along? Here are the essentials:
Recipe: Savory Egg Bake (Crustless Quiche)
Ingredients 8-10 eggs¼ cup milk of your choice (depends what I have in the fridge, but have used cream, milk, almond milk, etc.)½ tsp salt¼ tsp fresh cracked pepper⅛ – ¼ tsp nutmeg1 shallot, finely chopped2-4 cloves of garlic, choppedOlive oil (or butter)Cheese, preferably shredded, or sliced thinlyVegetables: Broccoli (frozen), Arugula, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, cherry…
If You Can Bake It Here 