Sunday, April 17, 2011

Preparing for baby...with food.


I know, I've been a bad BAD blogger. Admittedly, our food intake has been a rather boring topic since I've had to stick to a gestational diabetes diet for the last couple months. But our new son is coming tomorrow and so I've been looking forward to eating "normal food." Really, I'm just looking forward to eating carbs besides brown rice and whole wheat English muffins...oh, and condiments like BBQ sauce. Everything else I've eaten has been pretty normal. We got our last winter CSA pickup this weekend, and I figured I should challenge myself to somehow preserve as much of it as I could in dishes that could be frozen and easily prepared while holding a screaming newborn.

We had spinach left over from our last pickup and got another bunch this week, along with a bunch of kale and some leeks. We also had a bunch of eggs and milk from the CSA, as well as a hunk of romano cheese. What can easily be made with all these items? QUICHE! So I picked up a few more items (more cheese - feta and goat - some bacon, onions, and my favorite whole wheat pie crusts from the hippy section at Wegman's) and went to town, this morning.

Three varieties, and five quiches later, I had quite a supply. I liked the idea of making quiche because it can be eaten for any meal of the day. Plus, they can all be made relatively the same way by sauteing the vegetable ingredients, spreading that on the bottom of the a pie crust, adding cheese and/or cooked bacon, and then pouring a simple mix of beaten eggs and milk on top. I like to bake at a higher temp (425, usually) for about 15 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 for another 15, or until the center is solid. We got two kale/bacon/romano quiches, one leek/spinach/feta, and two leek/spinach/goat cheese. Yum!

And then, just for fun, and some tasty comfort food during that first week of insanity, I made this fancy tuna noodle casserole. I froze the whole thing before the baking step and plan to just defrost overnight and bake as per the directions.