April 26th, 2019

For Easter this year we were a small group of four adults. Traditionally, our family likes ham for the holiday. Last year and this, I purchased a delicious spiral cut Wellshire Farms ham from Whole Foods for $3.99/lb. (prime member price). Although I selected the smallest ham I could find, there is still quite a bit leftover.

What was one way I could re-purpose this ham? How about a quiche Lorraine, but low fat. I checked the internet and found a recipe by Joy Bauer, nutrition and health expert from NBC’s Today show. Her recipe replaces the normal quiche crust with frozen chopped spinach, shredded cheddar cheese, eggs and a bit of Parmesan cheese. The filling uses eggs, egg whites, reduced fat milk and reduced fat Swiss cheese. I did skew the fat by using some of the spiral ham from Easter in lieu of turkey bacon.

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The recipe was quite easy to prepare. The recipe has a prep time of 10 minutes and a total time of 57 minutes. I cooked my frozen spinach on the stove top in a steamer pan to defrost. Ms. Bauer’s recipe also said to use a spring form pan in which to cook the quiche. I didn't think a spring form pan was necessary. I a 10-inch round French White Corningware dish; it worked perfectly. I used a trick I saw on an old cooking show where you save your butter wrappers and use them to grease your bake ware or cookie sheets. I also used a bit of olive oil spread in the dish to make sure I could easily slice and remove a piece of quiche.

The spinach crust is prepared first and cooked. While that is baking, you make the filling. By the time the filling is complete, the crust is out of the oven and is ready for the filling. Another 30 minutes in the oven and dinner is done. I served mine with a salad, which made for a perfect light and filling meal. This was a good way to use up some of the Easter ham.

On sale until next Tuesday, April 29th,  at Whole Foods for prime members are bone-in pork loin chops at $4.99/lb. I purchased two beautiful looking 1” thick pork chops for supper the other night. Again, I relied on the internet to help me find a new preparation twist on this standby cut of pork. On epicurious.com I came a across a recipe from The Sopranos Family Cook Book for pork chops with vinegar peppers.

Using a medium hot cast iron pan, I seasoned the pork chops with salt and pepper and seared them for approximately 5 minutes on each side, or until brown. Instead of putting the vinegar peppers in right afterwards, I par boiled some cut Yukon Gold potatoes and browned those in the pan along with sliced garlic.  Once those were done, I returned the chops to the pan, added the vinegar peppers with a bit of their juice and covered the pan until the peppers were heated through and the flavors melded together.

Again, I quick supper with lots of flavor and a bit of a twist on pork chops. Overall, two quick and easy meals with minimal effort and enjoyed by my husband and I.

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