Quiche-tastic Monday: Green pea, bacon & monterey jack quiche

We love quiche (or egg pie, as Lily's calls it) around here. Quiche is sort of like grown-up breakfast for dinner--it is easy, you can toss anything in and it is super filling. And you can easily double this recipe and make two at once. Bake them both and freeze the second one for dinner in a couple weeks.

I love this combination of sweet peas, salty, crispy bacon and creamy monterey jack. Peas just seem like they belong in a chicken pot pie--so they make this quiche extra hearty.

I typically don't make my own pie crust. Even though homemade pie crust is wonderful and relatively easy, it is just another step. I like to get things done quick--since the quiche takes a little while to bake, I compromise with store bought crust.

The stuff

1/2 cup peas (fresh or frozen. If frozen, take out of the freezer first thing, to thaw slightly)

Premade pie crust (grab it in the refrigerated section in the grocery store, take it out of the refrigerator with the peas to warm up slightly)

8 slices turkey bacon, diced (a staple in this house. Substitute any kind of bacon-pork, veggie, whatever)

Olive oil

4 eggs, beaten until they are frothy

1 cup milk (I used whole, because we had it. Use what you've got, just not skim milk)

1 T. dijon mustard

1 T. fresh chopped parsley

1 T. fresh chopped chives

4 oz (or 1 generous cup) shredded monterey jack cheese

Kosher salt

Fresh ground pepper

Get cooking

Preheat oven to 400F.

Grab a skillet and heat a swirl or two of olive oil over medium heat. Add the diced turkey bacon (if you use pork bacon, you can forgo the

olive oil. For low fat turkey bacon, the olive oil makes it extra crispy). Cook bacon until crispy, about 5 minutes. Crack some fresh black pepper into the skillet.

Remove bacon and drain on paper towels.

Carefully unroll your pie crust into a pie pan. Pinch the edges. Indent the bottom of the crust with a fork (let's steam escape). Add the greens peas and bacon as the first layer, on top of the crust.

Beat in 1 cup milk, dijon mustard, parsley, chives and salt/pepper to taste into eggs. Then stir in shredded cheese.

Pour milk/egg/cheese mixture into pie pan (on top of peas & bacon)

Pop into oven and check after 30 minutes. In my oven and with my pie pan, the quiche took about 45 minutes to finish. You know it is done when the quiche is puffy and slightly browned on top. You can check the center with a toothpick as well.

Eat it

Let the quiche stand for 5 minutes before cutting. Serve with a green salad or fresh fruit kabobs. Leftovers make a great lunch to take to work the next day.