Modern health rules meet French classic

From what I know about French cooking, it is neither low fat nor low carb.  It is about using real ingredients and not cheating with premade convenience foods.  I love the idea of classic French cooking, but then there is real life.  And in real life, we are supposed to be eating mostly fruits and vegetables, organic if you can find and afford them, complimented by lean proteins and whole grains.  So when these worlds collide, you end up with either a masterpiece or a disaster.  Perhaps a new trend of Health Food/French Fusion?

I found a great cheat at the Sunseed Food Coop in Cape Canaveral:  premade whole wheat pie crusts.  I have not mastered pie crust and have spend hours laboring with Martha Stewart’s pate brise recipe (as I suspect even Martha would do, if cooking in the heat and humidity of the South). As a student of the new rules of healthy eating, I also am always glad to find a whole grain option,  so I grabbed these premade crusts without hesitation.

I make quiche about once a month, I guess.  No two are the same.  Often,it is an exercise of cleaning out the fridge.  Sometimes with fresh veggies, always with some sort of cheese, sometimes with leftover roasted chicken, deli meats, or bacon.  The French may find this offensive at worst, or unauthentic at least.  But surely, they also have hungry kids to feed and spinach in the fridge that needs to be eaten?  I will tell myself so.

Whatever the flavor du jour….I start with 4-5 eggs, 2 cups of half & half, fresh ground salt and pepper, and fresh grated nutmeg. (I credit the quiche recipes in the La Bonne Soupe Cookbook for my quiche base.)

The filling in this particular attempt was the egg mixture plus fresh chopped spinach and cubed low-fat feta.  The filling was delicious; the crust not so much.  I found the whole wheat crust to be very dry and heavy.  I haven’t bought it again.  I’m not sure if it was dry from being frozen or something else.  I would say that I’m going to try making my own crust with whole wheat flour and Martha’s recipe, but the idea of waking up on a lazy weekend morning and having to roll out crust is contrary to my weekend anti-stress regime.  This is where the new health guidelines and our family priorities often struggle –

• making fresh, healthy options at home,
• introducing and reintroducing organic fruits and vegetables in new forms,
• keeping out all high fructose corn sweeteners,
• replacing all refined flour with whole wheat, etc.

Store bought crust doesn’t really fit in.  Mea culpa. Perhaps I need to try a frittata?