Cheese and Spinach Tart with Glazed Carrots

{Meatless Monday}

I got these recipes from Parents Magazine.  They were both a hit with my family!

I only got a before shot of the carrots.  They were simple but very tasty.  All my kids love them.  They like carrots in the first place...so who wouldn't love them with a little butter and brown sugar?

  

The recipe calls for frozen carrots, but I found these carrot "chips" in the fresh produce and thought they would be perfect.

Glazed Carrots:

1 12 oz. bag frozen carrots

1 T. butter

3 T. brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

Place all ingredients into skillet or small pot and bring to a boil.  Cover.  Reduce heat to medium for 7 minutes.  Uncover and cook another 10-12 minutes until liquid evaporates and carrots are tender.

Cheese and Spinach Tart

1 tsp. olive oil

2 cups diced onion (I used just over 1 cup)

1 9 inch pie shell

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed out

Preheat oven to 350.  Heat oil and onions in skillet on medium for 10 minutes to carmelize the onions.  Set aside.  Whisk together milk, eggs, cheese, garlic,  Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.  Add onions and spinach.  Pour into pie shell and bake 45-50 minutes or until knife comes out clean.  I recommend putting strips of foil on your pie crust for at least 15 minutes of the baking time, so they don't get too dark.  

Here's how mine looked when it came out of the oven:

I've been using my whole wheat flour for pie crusts and they are so flavorful!  Just use a little less flour so that they don't get too tough.  I've been really pleased with how flaky and tender they still are!  Of course, I still do the cold butter trick, so that probably helps a lot. (Reduce shortening by 2-4 T and add 2-4 T. of sliced cold butter).

**I actually made more filling by using 5 eggs and 1 1/2 cups milk and just adding a little bit more of the seasonings.  I wanted my "tart" to be a little bit thicker.  Depending on the size of your family, you can easily increase the amounts.  Don't worry too much about it, as long as the egg to milk ratio is roughly the same...it will cook up fine!

I've made a lot of quiche in the last few years.  This was REALLY good.  My whole family liked the entire meal.  No complaints, no whines, no exclamations of "Gross!"  It was a beautiful evening!

We were given a bag of GIGANTIC potatoes from our neighbor, so I microwaved one really quick and made hashbrowns to go with our meal.

Wow...I'm hungry right now and that looks really good!  I think I'll go have the last leftover calzone in the fridge.  I love leftovers!

Have a great week!