Over the weekend, a good friend celebrated her birthday with a potluck brunch. We enjoyed a smorgasbord of delicious food and drink including mimosas, Bloody Marys, baked French toast, truffled hashbrown casserole, breakfast pizzas, bagels and lox, and more. I brought an easy to make spinach and mushroom quiche 'cause what's a brunch without quiche, right?

Spinach and Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients
1 frozen pie crust
4 eggs
1 cup half and half
4 ounces button mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 shallot, diced
10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cover edges of pie crust and bake for 7-10 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add shallots and saute for a few minutes. Add mushrooms and saute a few minutes more. Remove pie crust from oven and cover bottom with half the shredded cheese. Top with spinach, shallots, mushrooms and then the remaining cheese. Beat eggs with salt, pepper, and half and half. Pour eggs over the top of the pie. Bake at 360 degrees for 50 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

The greatest thing about quiche (other than the fact that it's super easy and yummy!) is that you can fill it with basically anything! If you're a carnivore, throw some crumbled crispy bacon in there. Don't do spinach? Try broccoli. You get the idea... Also, feel free to substitute whatever dairy you prefer or have on hand. You can use anything from heavy whipping cream to skim milk!

Serves eight. Makes good leftovers.

I came across this recipe a week or so ago on Real Simple and decided to give it a go. It has yet to be hubby tested and approved but the bestie and I thought it was delish! Exactly as you'd imagine: spinach and artichoke dip with pasta plus a kick. Do it!

Some time ago, the hubby decided that we should give pescatarianism a shot. For no other reason than he wanted to eat more healthy stuff and less junk and felt he needed some set guidelines to hold himself to it. Now, I love me some fish and I love me some veggies so I was 100% on board with it.

And we did pretty well. For about a week or so. But for whatever reason, I had the hardest time coming up with easy and delicious vegetarian or seafood dishes every. single. day. It felt like we were eating the same meal over and over. And, let's be honest, fish doesn't typically make for great leftovers and we're kind of a leftovers-for-lunch-the-next-day type of family. So I started throwing a little meat back in the mix. Long story short, it wasn't but a minute before we were eating meat with almost all of our meals again.

Anyway, after our failed attempt at pescatarianism, I instituted what I like to call "Meatless Mondays." As the name implies, once a week, we make an effort to eat a vegetarian dinner. (Not quite as lofty as our original goal, but it helps us to eat a bit healthier!) As such, I'm always on the lookout for tasty new vegetarian recipes. The other day I stumbled across this one for Quinoa and Black Beans:

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped 
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped 
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup frozen corn kernels
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
2. Add bell pepper and saute for a minute more.
2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with chicken broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.
3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and cilantro.

I modified it a tiny bit by adding the bell pepper and upping the amount of corn. Next time, I'll probably double the quinoa too.

Serves four.