I make these delicious grab-and-go snacks when I have vegetables that are on the verge of turning. I think we all do it. We buy veggies thinking we are going to create these elaborate healthy feasts, and then life intervenes and we end up making toast instead. Just before those veggies turn, I fry them up and make these delicious, individual spinach and mushroom quiches. My family has gone off quiche, so I make individual ones that I can refrigerate or freeze so that I have them available for myself as a quick protein-filled snack. I also have a recipe for a family-sized spinach and feta quiche here.
How To Make These Delicious, Healthy Grab-And-Go Snacks
Without making you read reams of history about my life and the invention of cheese, here is the recipe. Make these at home and keep them on standby for when you need a healthy snack, or serve it up with salad to make a meal of it. They freeze beautifully once cool, and can also be refrigerated for about three days. You can use any number of veggies for this. Peppers, marrows, onions, leeks, spring onions. The list goes on.
Ingredients – Base Of The Quiche
The base is simple. You need equal quantities of the following three ingredients. Knowing this, you can retrofit the recipe to your needs. If you want a little more pastry for your quiche, take it to 1/2 a cup of each. Just remember that this will change the nutritional information and it’s already high in fats.
- 1/3 cup of sifted flour
- 1/3 cup of mature cheese, grated (swap this out for low-fat cheese if you want a lower fat version with less calories)
- 1/3 cup of butter or margarine, softened and cut into squares (can swap this for low-fat too)
Ingredients – Filling For The Quiche
- 2 handfuls of raw spinach
- 6 large mushrooms
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 cup grated mature cheddar cheese (can also swap this out for low-fat)
Cooking Up Your Baby Quiches
Putting these lovely, little grab-and-go snacks together is also a simple process. I find it quite an enjoyable process too. Start by creating the dough, then fry up your veggies, then mix the filling and put it all together.
Before you start, pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius and place a wire rack in the centre of the oven for your delectable grab-and go snacks.
Method For The Base
- Place the margarine, flour, and grated cheese (only the amount for the pastry dough) into a bowl
- Make sure your hands are clean and rub the ingredients together, rubbing the butter into the flour and cheese
- The mixture will eventually granulate and then stick together, but even if it’s quite dry, it’s okay
- Squeeze it into a ball and leave it while you carry on with the filling
Method For The Filling
- Chop the mushrooms up finely. Since these are small grab-and-go snacks, you don’t want massive chunks of mushroom in them
- Chop the spinach into fine pieces too
- Top tip: Fold the spinach leaves into a ball and slice through multiple times to chop it quickly
- Fry them up in a non-stick pan. The less oil you use, the better. I use a non-stick pan with a splash of water for moisture
- Top tip: ensure that all the moisture has evaporated before transferring the veggies over to your pastry shells
- Crack your eggs into a bowl and whisk them up with a fork (or whisk)
- Add the milk and mix together
- Grate your cheese and have it on standby
Putting It All Together
- Divide the pastry dough into 12 equal portions for a standard muffin tray that will do 12 grab-and-go snacks
- Grease the muffin tray (or use a non-stick tray)
- Press each portion of pastry dough into a muffin mould and create the shape of a pastry shell
- Divide the fried veggies into 12 equal portions and spoon a portion into each pastry shell
- Divide the grated cheese for the filling into 12 equal parts and sprinkle a part into each pastry shell on top of the veggies
- Pour a splash of the egg and milk mixture into each pastry shell, ensuring you divide it equally between all 12
How Many Calories In These Healthy Grab-And-Go Snacks?
These baby quiches are packed with nutrition and rich in protein, perfect for muscle-building goodness. They are also quite high in fats, which can be reduced by choosing low-fat margarine or cheese. I enjoy the taste of them as they are, so I don’t substitute anything out. On days when I have these, I will just be aware of what I eat throughout the day, so that I’m not going over my total calorie intake. You can calculate how many calories you should eat per day with this TDEE calculator.
Spinach and mushroom quiche is packed with flavour and nutrition, as well as being high in protein, iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin B12, calcium, and potassium. Each one of these healthy grab-and-go snacks contains the following:
- 200 calories
- 9g protein
- 5,4g carbohydrates
- 15g fat
Give them a try at home and let me know what the outcome is. I’d love to see your photos on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, so tag me.
