Post-Christmas Day Ham and Cheese Quiche

This recipe was created in collaboration with Midwest Dairy. I was compensated for my time, but the content and opinions included are my own. 

Wondering how you’re going to use up all that leftover ham from Christmas?? I think some people use it in black eyed peas for New Years (correct me if I’m wrong??), but I’ve got a better idea. A quiche! And not just any quiche, but a quiche filled with caramelized onions, savory sweet potatoes, and sharp cheese. (Oh, and don’t forget about that flakey, buttery crust).

Now, I’m a little confused about the difference between Thanksgiving food and Christmas food. Because with my family, we always have turkey with “all the sides” at Thanksgiving, but then we have turkey or ham with “all the sides” again at Christmas. Are the same foods traditional for both? Or is ham just an Easter food? Please set me straight and help me to understand here. My assumption for this recipe is that there WILL be ham served on Christmas day. But if not, just go out and buy a small package of ham for this recipe. And also grab a pre-made crust. Sure homemade crusts are delicious, BUT SO ARE PRE-MADE CRUSTS and they are so much easier. Do yourself a favor and simplify. There’s enough to think about with this holiday season.

I also recommend buying a variety of cheeses while you’re getting the ingredients for this. Not because it calls for a million different cheeses, but because your fridge is never well-stocked without cheeses for various situations. 😉 I used a sharp white cheddar for this quiche, but I think a hard, aged gouda would pair REALLY nicely as well. I attended an online “Cheeseboard chat” earlier this month with Midwest Dairy and they sent a variety of cheese for a cheese board tasting and sustainable nutrition discussion. They sent me an aged gouda with it and I’ve been pairing it with lots of various egg dishes or pasta and it’s simply delicious. Here are a few takeaways I had from the virtual chat with ACTUAL dairy farmers:

In making this recipe, I learned a few tips and tricks for baking pie crusts. I make quiches pretty regularly (we have an egg-based dish for dinner every week), but have never put in the time to learn how to properly bake a crust. Without fail, the crust sides would always fall down and fold on top of the center. I discovered that to avoid that, you can just put parchment paper and dried beans on top to help it stay in place and not “shrink”. I found this video helpful for learning various techniques for styling the crust. And I also learned that it’s super important to let the dough warm up enough to spread out without cracking or breaking. But regardless, you ultimately don’t need it to look pretty—just taste delicious. So even if you have a pie crust fiasco, rest assured you’ll still enjoy the final product.

A few other notes—I know cottage cheese is a strange ingredient, but I find that it increases the cheesy flavor and helps with the texture (a spongey quiche is not what we’re looking for here). It’s totally optional, but I always put it in my quiches. Also, I find it’s easier to distribute the fillings more equally if you put them into your crust and then pour the egg/milk mixture on top. There’s no right or wrong with that, but I just find it is easier to ensure equal distribution. ☺️ And lastly, I know quiches take awhile to prep and cook. My recommendation is to prep the ingredients the night before, that way all you have to do is put your filling in and bake!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Have a Happy Holidays!

Yield: 4-5

Author: Ashley Smith, RD

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Post Christmas Ham and Cheese Quiche

Wondering how you’re going to use up all that leftover ham from Christmas?? I've got an idea. A quiche! And not just any quiche, but a quiche filled with caramelized onions, savory sweet potatoes, and sharp cheese. (Oh, and don’t forget about that flakey, buttery crust).

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 1 H & 10 M

Ingredients

• Pre-made pie crust
• 1 cup sweet potatoes, 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2-3/4 cup ham, chopped
• 5 eggs
• 3/4-1 cup cheese, shredded (I used a sharp white cheddar)
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup cottage cheese
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 and take your crust out of the fridge.
2. Thinly slice your onion and chop your sweet potatoes into medium bite sized pieces (1/2 inch cubes).
3. Spray your pie pan with non-stick spray and roll out your crust into the dish. If you are having difficulty unrolling it, give it a few more minutes to come to room temperature. Shape the edges of the dough according to your preference (see video above). Poke bottom of the crust with a fork. Place a piece of parchment paper and dried beans on top (or pie weights) and bake for 12-14 minutes. Take out parchment paper and beans and bake again for another 2 minutes.
4. While crust is baking, heat a pan to medium-low heat and add olive oil and thinly sliced onion. Cook, stirring often, for about 15 minutes or until onions are soft and caramelized. You may need to add 1 Tbsp water periodically to keep the onions from sticking or burning.
5. In another pan, heat oil to medium and add cubed sweet potato along with garlic powder and onion powder. Cook until fork tender, about 10-15 minutes. Again, you may need to add water to prevent burning or sticking.
6. Once crust and vegetables are cooked. Add vegetables, ham, and cheese to the crust. Scramble the eggs in a separate bowl and add the chopped rosemary and cottage cheese. Pour over the quiche filling and slightly move the pieces around to make sure the egg gets to the bottom. Bake uncovered for 40-50 minutes (or until set).

Fall Apple Muffins with Crunchy Cinnamon Topping

This recipe was created in collaboration with Midwest Dairy as part of the dairy community’s Undeniably Dairy campaign . I was compensated for my time, but the content and opinions included are my own.

It’s fall, ya’ll…or can we agree it’s basically winter already?? It’s currently 16 degrees outside as I write this. Holy moly, summer transitioned into winter quickly! But to be honest, I’m loving cozy sweaters and pajama pants, candles, hot coffee, and pumpkin spice EVERYTHING. If you follow me on instagram, you know that I’m already listening to Christmas music. There’s no shame in my game.

So in light of the changing weather, fall produce, and the upcoming holidays, I am bringing you these delicious fall apple muffins with crunchy cinnamon topping!!

My neighbor recently had a baby (I promise this is a relevant story), so I wanted to bring her family some snacks to eat on while they figured out a rhythm for taking care of a newborn. I know when we had Camden that meals brought to us was so helpful. And I also know that my hunger was like none other, so snacks and substantial meals were essential. I found an apple muffin recipe that I made for them, but found them to be super dry and dense, and they weren’t sweet enough for my preference. So I decided I needed to perfect my own apple muffin recipe. After a few tries, I found a recipe that brings the right amount of sweetness (it’s there, but not overly so) and is tender and moist.

A few of my tricks for this recipe is the buttermilk, almond flour, and preparation technique. Now, I’m sure you could use regular milk (you know, because thinking AHEAD to get buttermilk doesn’t always happen), but buttermilk gives it moisture and a nice fluffy texture. Leftover buttermilk is great for pancakes, biscuits, scones, and even oven fried chicken nuggets. The majority of the flour used is white whole wheat and all purpose, but I added a little almond flour to make them more moist. It’s actually a trick I use in a lot of my baked goods. Lastly, I made sure to not over mix the batter. The instructions included help to minimize mixing so that your muffins don’t turn out like a rock. You’re welcome. 😉

Oh and that crunchy cinnamon topping? It’s optional, but not really optional, if you know what I mean. It reminds me of coffee cake…which is why I think you should make them for a thanksgiving/friendsgiving/special-family-gather brunch. And if you want to make them a little more fancy, just drizzle some powdered sugar icing or cream cheese frosting on top!

I’d love to hear if you made these and what you think!!

Yield: 12 muffins

Author: Ashley Smith, RD

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Fall Apple Muffins with Crunchy Cinnamon Topping

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 30 Min

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

• 1 C buttermilk (warmed in microwave for 30 seconds)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 C melted coconut oil
• 1/4 C maple syrup

Dry Ingredients

• 1 1/4 C white whole wheat flour
• 2/3 C all purpose flour
• 1/3 C almond flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 C finely diced apple (granny smith, pink lady, or honeycrisp)

Crunchy Cinnamon Topping

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 3 Tbsp white sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Finely chop apple and combine with remaining dry ingredients. Mix together.
3. In a separate bowl, microwave the buttermilk to warm it slightly. If not, the melted coconut oil will solidify and make mixing difficult. Add the egg, maple syrup, and coconut oil.
4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, being careful to not over mix the batter (that makes them dry and dense). Grease a 12 muffin tin and divide the batter evenly—the tins will be full.
5. Microwave the butter and add the sugar and cinnamon and mix. Top muffins with a teaspoon or so of mixture.
6. Bake for 5 minutes, decrease temperature to 400 and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick comes out clean.

For more dairy inspired recipes, you can check out https://dairygood.org/recipes.

6 Things I'm Loving Lately

Hello hello, friends!! What has everyone been up to? Life has been a little crazy on our end and I feel like I’m treading water to keep my head above. But it’s also been really good, and I feel like fall (or has the weather decided it’s already winter??) has been really refreshing for my heart and mind. I wanted to post something fun with a few of the things I’ve really been enjoying lately. I originally was going to share, but I just had to include all six!…So here you go!

1. This white chicken chili from Fit Foodie Finds. I have a really random, but prominent memory of eating white chicken chili with tortilla chips and cheese in a styrofoam bowl in the the hallway of a school during my brother’s basketball game. My family couldn’t afford to eat out, so my mom would prep food in a crockpot and bring all the necessary accompaniments so that we could eat dinner on game nights. She is such a rockstar.

My mom’s recipe is super delicious, but I came across this recipe on instagram and really wanted to try it out. It did NOT disappoint. It’s super hearty, filling, and delicious. Anyone else love hominy? Just me?

2. Candles on cold, dark mornings. Candles just make everything cozy, am I right?! Last year I had a candle that smelled so so good from Bath and Body Works. Unfortunately, they no longer make that scent and when I looked it up on Amazon, they were like $27…for a candle. So instead, I’ve been enjoying a woodwick candle (again, crackling candle=cozy).

3. My new rug. I’m horrible at making decisions, especially when money is involved. I had been eyeing this rug for several weeks/months and couldn’t decide if I should buy it or not. I saw an ad on facebook marketplace for THE perfect coffee table (it was a round marble top table with gold legs 😍) and it was on a similar looking rug, which confirmed that I needed this rug. I got the rug, but the table sold too quickly. For those interested, I got it from RugsUSA.

4. Cleaning my sink more regularly. Let’s be honest, cleaning my house isn’t my strength. Like at all. Both ImmaEatThat and The Real Life RD recommended this website. She had a clean your sink every night challenge, but that’s just not realistic for me. I’ve been using her sink scrub “recipe” a few nights a week and it makes me feel so clean and put together! Maybe one day I’ll be able to clean it every night, but that day is not today.

5. French toast with sourdough bread. I’ve lived the last 29 years thinking I didn’t like french toast. But the other day, I offered it as an option for breakfast to Isaac (to be polite, but secretly hoping he didn’t choose it) and that’s what he chose. I considered making something else for myself, but decided to try it. Oh. My. Goodness. I was so so wrong about french toast—it’s delicious. I just scramble an egg with milk and cinnamon and then dip the bread in it until it’s soaked all the way through and then cook it on a greased/buttered skillet. I then top it with peanut butter, banana, and syrup. Yum!!

6. Interior Design Masters on Netflix. I stumbled upon this show and absolutely LOVE it! It’s a competition with various individual and group challenges to design rooms, retreats, shops, etc in two days and each week, someone is kicked off the show. I love seeing the transformations, the interactions between the contestants, and the British accents.

I hope you find some inspiration in the things I’ve been enjoying lately. I’d love to hear from you—what are YOU enjoying??