Light and healthy Doritos Mexican casserole

Ok, I didn't actually make Doritos Mexican casserole, nor have I ever done such a thing, but I agree with a dear friend who suggested that some things are so wrong, so easy, and so good.

Things like La Madeleine's tomato basil soup, which is 670 grams of fat per serving (I know! That's unbelievable! Look it up!*), and requires a total of 4 ingredients not including salt and pepper (plus an immersion blender, which of course is a staple of a soup- or puree-making kitchen - mine was $25 5 years ago and is still going strong). The recipe I use doesn't include the 'juice and/or stock' ingredient - I made it with chicken stock once and it was too salty and too thin and only 450 grams of fat and what's the point of that??

My version of the Doritos casserole is Mexican cornbread casserole, courtesy of someone in my family (Mom? Laura? Jess? ha! just kidding about that last one!) who brought it to a holiday brunch years ago. I've made it maybe 50 times since that fateful day, and as I was about to write that everyone important in my life has sampled it at least 5 times I learned that I have not yet prepared the casserole for Joe - while I could certainly remedy this oversight, I'm pretty darn sure he would politely eat a small serving and tell me how wonderful I am but secretly wish he was eating steamed broccoli and lentil soup. The recipe's more or less this, except Heaven forbid you use banana peppers instead of jalapenos and, oh look, the lovely cook (lady? gentleman?) who posted the recipe won a prize for the dish!


And my final contribution to this category is quiche. I've experimented a bit with tofu versions, but what I've found so far is, well, just like veggie quiche or quiche lorraine or tomato quiche, the ingredients that make tofu quiche delicious are the eggs and cheese, and that sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?


check out those orange eggs! that's the farm-raised difference!
The other night, in our quest to both empty the fridge/pantry/freezer before moving to our new place, and to use the massive amounts of kale from the CSA the week before (there was more coming the next day! space had to be made!), I found a basic, profoundly modifiable quiche recipe and threw everything in our fridge into a pie plate or 2 and we had delicious, ridiculously unhealthy kale-broccoli quiche for dinner, with many servings to spare. Dinner tonight? Quiche and carrots, with strawberries in balsalmic vinegar for dessert. Dinner tomorrow night? Quiche and... swiss chard? red russian kale?


Broccoli-kale quiche

•Pie dough for one 9-inch crust (yeah, right - 1 of the quiches got a sad-looking HEB deep dish shell and the other was crustless)
•2 cups of cooked vegetables, leaving them crisp tender (lots of kale, a little broccoli)
•1/2 cup of cooked chopped ham, crumbled bacon, prosciutto or sausage (bacon), optional
•1 to 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese (leftover Gouda and a shredded swiss-gruyere package)
•1/2 cup ricotta, crumbled feta, cottage or goat cheese (leftover goat cheese, with some sort of herbs)
•5 eggs
•1/2 cup cream
•1/2 cup whole milk (erm, we didn't have any milk, so I kinda substituted more cream - I'm so ashamed)
•1/4 teaspoon sea salt
•1 teaspoon dried or 3 teaspoons fresh dill

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place dough in pie pan. Sprinkled grated cheese on dough and then vegetables and meat on top of the cheese. In a large bowl mix soft cheese, eggs, cream, milk, sea salt and dill. Whisk until well combined. Pour into pie pan. Bake for about 55 minutes or until the top is golden and the center is no longer jiggly. Cool 5-10 minutes before serving.


*Ok, I did look it up now. 23g per serving. 223 calories, 88% from fat. For real this time.

I should also say, just in case you are still curious, dear reader, that 'light and healthy Doritos Mexican casserole' is an oxymoron. There is no such entity. The only light and healthy Mexican dish is green salad with salsa as salad dressing, a la my adorable mother. And no, that is not a dish you will find in Mexico. Unlike Doritos or cornbread casserole, which are both classic recipes from the Chihuahua region. OK, I need to stop now.