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Brooke Lark
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Meal Prep makes it easy to eat better through the week and save money on last-minute purchases when hangry hits. Here's one of our most favorite family meal prep ideas: a week of quiche. 6 easy to make rounds, all flavored uniquely, baked on Sunday night and popped into the fridge for the week to come. A great way to feed the whole family, give yourself a few nights off from cooking, and get some seriously savory eats on the menu, Quiche Week may just be the best way to eat your way through any week.
It all started on a family road trip. We'd forgotten to bring syrup to the campsite, so found ourselves driving into the tiny town of Escalante on a Sunday. If you've ever tried to find a place open on Sundays in small Utah towns, you'll know you're often out of luck.
But on this particular day, we got lucky.
A cafe on main, tucked in the back of a souvenir shop, was warmly waiting. The air smelled of bacon, cinnamon, coffee. We ordered generous portions from the menu--giant slices of quiche, cinnamon rolls just out of the oven, big mugs of coffee. Tucked ourselves into the corner and hummed our way through every bite.
Somewhere in the middle of such goodness, 15-year-old Jake paused, fork in front of his face, and says "I would eat quiche everyday. If we just had it ready to go, it's all I'd never need to eat."
As a busy working mama, with a boatload of kiddos, who often finds myself too harried to prep afterschool snacks and homemade family dinners, the idea took hold.
Quiche was simple.
It was make-ahead preppable.
It could be made in a whole variety of forms.
It was budget friendly.
And it was so, so good.
Once home from the trip, I hit the store and grabbed eggs, cheese, meats and some mostly pre-chopped veggies. The got to work conjuring a variable formula that works with a variety of fillings. Sure enough, it proved easy to put together a DIY recipe. Ready? Here it is...
THE DIY QUICHE FORMULA
Start with a pie crust. I've purchased frozen pie crusts that come ready-to-go in foil pans. And have also grabbed the foil pans and lined them with my favorite pie dough (Trader Joe's). I suppose you could make your own pie crust here, but I'm straight up not a pie crust maker. So will let you decide how far you want to homemake this whole process. For ease and simplicity, the frozen pie crusts are stee*zy quick, so I say go that route whenever possible.
Each pie crust will need 6 eggs. Between 4 teens, post bike-ride snacks and afterschool hunger, plus 2 adults that both work from home (and thusly, enjoy lunch from home), we can crush 1 quiche daily. So I tend to aim for 6 quiche at a time. But the great thing here is, you pick how many you want to make, assemble, bake and enjoy. Briliantly easy, my people. You can't muss this up.
THIS WEEKS 6 QUICHE SHOPPING LIST
Now, the glorious truth here, as mentioned above, is: you really can't muss this up. Once you've got pie crust and eggs, you can mix in cheese, meat and veggies and it's pretty well guaranteed to taste good.
But if you simply don't have the brain space to conjure flavor combos of your own, I got you. This weeks shopping list is easily saved to your phone. Grab the ingredients (plus cream or half-and-half, I forgot cream and half-and-half) and hit the grocery store.
- QUICK TIP: If you're one of those humans (like me) who doesn't adore all the prep time, hit the pre-chopped area in the produce section and go wild. Most grocery stores carry diced onions, cauliflower and broccoli, you may even be lucky enough to find a ready-to-go veggie mix. Grab it and go. No chopping for you, oh hot one.
MEET THE QUICHE
This week, I prepped 6 quiche for the week. All ingredients were purchased at Trader Joes. Total bill came in right around $86, which means each quiche slice is about $1.50. Not too bad a serving price, when I consider that the alternate is some hefty takeout bill via UberEats (or some poor combo of not-so-nutritious pasta that I toss together at the last second for the little people). (Honestly, is it possible to be a foodie that doesn't love the whole process of cooking?) (Hi, that's me.)
To make the 6 quiche you see below, I just grabbed 1 large bowl and mixed each up one at a time. Once ready, they'd be poured into the crust, then the next quiche was mixed in the bowl, and so on. And so on.
Total prep time was less than 15 minutes. About 2 mins per quiche, once the pie crusts were in the foil pans.
I cooked in 2 stages, so total cooking time was 2 hours. But that was no big deal, because they just baked while I read and drank ample amounts of Merlot and enjoyed the waning light of a sweet Sunday evening.
So here's the lineup. 6 scrumptious quiche, perfect for everything from breakfast to snackaging to dinnertime. We'll use them this week for all of the above, plus lunch. These suckers are so great to have in the fridge.
THE HOMESTYLE |good for breakfast, and one of the kids favorites. Apparently children love potatoes. Or, at least, teenagers do. I always wrap the quiche with foil and write the name & ingredients with sharpie atop. This one has been pulled from the back of the pile and sliced into 4 times today. The flavors are comforting and simple. Great with a cup of coffee.
THE CLASSIC |This is my version of a green smoothie. I always make a "classic" spinach quiche for me, because the kids don't tend to go for it, so it lasts all week. Plus the flavor is amazing, and anything that helps me sneak in more greens is a mommy must-have.
THE COWGIRL | A veggie-packed Southwestern flavored quiche, I nearly called this The Cowboy, but figured dudes on horses might be turned off by broccoli. At least, that's how small town men I used to be married tend to feel about the green stuff.
GO GREEK | Trader Joe's makes a ready-to-go gyro meat, so the flavors here were made to compliment such. Tomatoes, peppers, basil. You could go for feta, but I had enough parmesan to toss inside and didn't want to buy more cheese. Either cheese option makes for a tasty quichexperience. Can't find gyro meat? Diced deli roast beef or shredded rotisserie chicken works, too.
THE HURRICANE | Inspired by our travels to Southern Utah. Red Rock Roasting Co in La Verkin (near Hurricane)(near Zion National Park) may have the best darned quiche I've ever tasted. So this is a low-key copycat. The original is mini, made in a corn tortilla, but this one keeps it easy and makes a whole glorious pie packed with corn, scallions and pancetta. I die delish.
SPRING GREENS | Peas, pancetta, mushrooms, scallions, perfection. This is the classic quiche you want to serve girlfriends at brunch. But omg does it taste good at all other meal times, holidays and seasons. It may or may not beg for a mimosa. But I'll let you decide how you feel about day drinking on a Tuesday.
I was talking to a friend the other day about mommy life. About how hard it is to find time. Time to eat right. Time to get fit. Time to take care of yourself.
Though Quiche Week started at the request of my hungry teen manchild, it's become a wonderful way for me to meet a number of needs. Finally, we have homemade food in the fridge, and I don't feel like a failure when there's nothing but time to grab fast food. Finally, the weekly grocery shopping is simplified and semi-automated. Finally, I can work myself to the bone, then run into the kitchen and grab a slice of something protein-and-veggie packed and savory (instead of motorboating a box of empty carbs in an attempt to soothe my raging hunger).
While sitting here, prepping this post, my 15-year old daughter came walking into the studio, plate perched atop her hand like a waitress, giant slice of quiche on top, fork poised to take her first bite. "Mom, I was so hungry. Opened the fridge and remembered: QUICHE."
Yep. Quiche.
FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY GEEK-OUT MOMENT
These images were shot with a Canon 5D Mk IIIpaired with a Canon 24-70 f/2.8 . The camera was placed on a Manfrotto Sidearm Boom, screwed to a Slik Pro 700 Tripod. To secure the boom arm to this tripod, you'll need a 1/4" to 3/8" adapter screw.
See my setup and discover even more tricks with my 90-Minute Food Photography Crash Course.
The backdrop was created by spraying pre-cut white boards (from Home Depot) with semi-gloss spray paint. 2-3 layers helps achieve a nice even look.
