To me, that's not nearly enough cheese or cream for 5 eggs. I would have at least 3 cups cheese and 3/4-1 cup cream for 5 eggs. But I don't know how to do low calorie quiche that is good!

LPink, both my mom & I have baked just the filling for our family recipe's spanakopita. And with good results. Nowadays, when I make it (with or without the fillo), I use low fat cottage cheese. In fact, to make it lower in sodium, I use the no-salt-added cottage cheese from Safeway (which is very low fat too). I also cut the feta from 8 oz. down to only 4 oz.

Here's just the filling portion of the recipe:

Spanakopita Filling:
2 packages frozen chopped spinach
4 - 5 eggs
1 large carton cottage cheese
8 ounces. Feta cheese
1 bunch green onions
1 tablespoon dried mint
1 tablespoon dried dill weed
2 tablespoons dry, unflavored breadcrumbs

Filling Preparation:
â¢Thaw spinach; drain & squeeze dry
â¢Beat eggs
â¢Chop green onions (my mom always sauteed the green onions for a bit; I'm too lazy)
â¢Chop/crumble Feta cheese
â¢Combine spinach, eggs, cottage cheese, Feta cheese, green onions, mint, dill weed, and breadcrumbs in large bowl. Mix well.

Bake pita at 350ð for 45 - 60 minutes; pita should be light, golden brown.

When baked by itself, the fillilng is very spinachy and pretty dense, but that's how I like it. Also, regarding fillo preparation, my mom & grandmother only brushed butter on the top fillo layer. They said it helped the pita to brown. But all the other layers were brushed with olive oil. Several times when I found myself in a hurry, exceptionally lazy, or overly calorie conscious, I used PAM olive oil spray for most of the fillo layers. The pan was brushed with real olive, as well as the first couple of layers. Then PAM spray, and finally a good dousing of butter on the top layer. FWIW, we hardly ever make spanakopitakia (the triangles). We much prefer pan pita.

I've made the recipe below several times too, using the same no-salt-added/low fat cottage cheese. I usually omit the butter since it doesn't seem necessary -- the cheddar cheese exudes enough fat on its own.

Deep Dish Spinach Cheese Bake
MQmoi via Woodie2

1 lb cottage cheese
3 eggs, beaten
1 C cheddar cheese, grated
3 T butter, cut into bits
1 pckge frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained
3 T flour

Lightly combine cottage cheese, eggs, grated cheese, & butter. Add spinach flour, & salt to taste.
Place in buttered casserole dish (6.5x8.5x2 in deep).
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 mins. to 1 hr. until golden brown.
Pour off butter that has risen to surface.

And, finally, I've made the Bisquick spinach pie a few times too. I use my own homemade baking mix and the Safeway no-salt-added cottage cheese. I usually flavor it with dill, so it tastes more like spanakopita. It's linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bisquick Impossibly Easy Spinach-Parmesan Pie

I make crustless quiche, using my standard quiche recipe (my kids don't eat crusts?!)

And I use Egg Beaters instead of eggs and I use evaporated milk instead of half & half, and it comes out fine. (I have to keep my girlish coronary arteries clear) I add some interesting cheeses, and usually some chopped prosciutto.

No one can tell the difference - I love to bring it to work for our occasional breakfasts, because no one can tell the difference.

Well, they can tell the difference between quiche and doughnuts, but not my quiche and the "regular" quiche another person brings.

I usually make it in a square pan, easier to serve squares.

If you're using a Pyrex dish (clear or white) you really shouldn't have to grease it, and a stoneware dish should be fine too, if the glaze is slick. Rather than cream, you can use evaporated milk, though the non-fat can shed water. You can also use normal milk, scalded. My Auntie's old recipe says "3 eggs, well beaten to 1 2/3 c. milk, scalded", for a 9" pie plate for something more like a crustless quiche.

It'll cut the excess liquid if you blanch the spinach first. You could probably just zap it, or steam it, so it won't get wetter. Ricotta, cottage cheese and chevre (if that's the kind of goat cheese you meant), are all pretty wet, too, and you probably don't want to bother with pressing or straining them (and chevre isn't that wet), though if you have a dehydrator, that would probably work. However, you can think of them as a straight substitute for the milk/cream for making your custard. I've done that and it's come out fine. I just substitute the quantity of ricotta or cottage cheese for the milk/cream in any quiche recipe. Adding some hard cheese, like gruyere, which is traditional, or anything that comes in a block before it's shredded (i.e, cheddar, manchego, gouda, asiago, not softer things like mozzarella, havarti, etc.) helps hold it together and makes a nice top crust.

If you really want more of a pie/casserole/kugel thing, you can just do eggs instead of a custard: 4 eggs to 4 cups of vegetables, plus some stickum. I use matzah meal, but you could use rice or rice flour or tapioca or potato flour, and something like ground chia seeds would probably work really well, but I've never done that. Or you could increase the proportion of eggs and make it more like a frittata without the carbish binder. If you do it as an egg bake, you can separate the eggs for loft, and cheating it with 1/4 tsp. baking powder can help if your veg are heavier than spinach. :)

Crustless milk quicke is good if you're expecting something light. Light custards are a whole different thing from cream custards. They're fluffy and free, rather than dense and rigid. And if that's what you want, it can be delicious. Especially if full of yummy stuff. :) Other than ease of serving and the whole people think crust is yummy thing, the only thing missing, as far as I'm concerned, from going crustless is the saltiness against the natural sweetness of the dairy in the custard. Since there isn't all that unctuous cream, however, having the crust to break the texture isn't necessary.

This is not a crustless quiche but more of a baked rice and egg casserole. For a filling meatless meal as in the photo, I often make it without the tuna. You can used cheddar cheese on top instead of the mozzarella.

TUNA-SPINACH FRITTATA

2 Tbs. butter or margarine
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry *
3 cups cooked white or brown rice (1 cup uncooked)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 (6 oz.) can tuna, drained and flaked
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

Melt butter in large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until soft but not browned. Remove pan from heat and add spinach, rice and Parmesan cheese and mix well. ##At this point, mixture can be refrigerated for a day or two and finished up on another day.

Mix tuna into rice mixture. Mix together eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour over rice mixture and gently stir to blend. Turn into a greased 9 inch square or shallow 2 quart baking dish. Top with Mozzarella cheese. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and then slice into squares or wedges to serve.

* Note: 1 lb. fresh spinach, cooked, chopped and well-drained (about 1 1/ 2 cups) can be substituted for the frozen spinach.

I only have aluminum and non-stick coated steel pans at my new apt. and am not going to be able to get anything different right now. Not my faves by a long shot, but must do for now. My nice pyrex, glazed cast iron and pottery pans and I are separated for right now.

Ruthanna that casserole takes me back to my college days. Not sure where my old spinach rice casserole recipe went, but it was on of my staples! I think my recipe came from "Diet for a Small Planet" which dates me and then some!

Thanks for the recipes and tips!

Ah. Then grease would be quite useful, I'd think. :)

Spinach and rice casserole with lemon, dill and feta sounds awesome in my head. :)

You CAN have a crust!!! Use filo - just don't brush it with butter. You can use a tiny spray of oil over the top to help it crisp in the oven.
Can you get "brick"? It's a north African equivalent. You can brush that with egg white. Crust doesn' have to be heavy with fat and calories! A sheet of brick has 50 calories. And it's much easier to handle than filo and goes really crispy.
Another alternative for a quiche base is a slice of lean ham in the base of an individual pastry case.

Back in the day when we couldn't find ricotta out in the hinterland, we used cottage cheese as a substitute for ricotta in lasagna. So, if you can tolerate cottage cheese but not ricotta, I'd stick with using the CC.

I'd also suggest using custard cups instead of a larger pan. The individual servings would bake faster & might help solve the overbaked rim/ underbaked center problem.

And don't neglect garage/ rummage sales for killer bargains on kitchenware/ gadgets. I seldom buy anything new but I'm always finding all kinds of goodies for the kitchen at rummage sales. It's hit & miss. Some days, I don't find anything. Another day & I might find half of the things on my 'To Look For' list (at a fraction of new retail price.)