Hunger Challenge Day 3: Spinach Quiche Cups

Spinach Quiche Cups

Spinach Quiche Cups

Nathan and I are living off of $4.72 per day per person this week as part of the SF Food Bank’s Hunger Challenge. This includes  preparation and time… I’m blogging my ramblings of the challenge this week.

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Cravings

Sometimes, there’s an itch you really want to scratch and you can’t quite scratch it. A spot under your shoulder blade. Orangettes from Fauchon. My cravings are typical and exotic at the same time just like anyone else. This week though, they’ve taken on a more commonplace tone.

In hearing the clink of coffee cups, the swoosh of cereal in a bowl, I’m Pavlov’s creature. All of a sudden, I feel a need for dark coffee tinged with organic milk and raw honey. I hear my heart’s desire say the words “Corn” and “Flakes”. Oh dear.

Hunger does interesting things to a person.

In a room full of my peers who know me, like me and usually let me lead our motley band in sun salutations in the afternoons, I feel left out. This challenge is my choice for the week, but it gives me a small perspective on what it might feel like else-wise. I may be taking this challenge too far by not drinking the free coffee at work, but I think one of the aims is to stretch beyond my comfort zone. Interestingly, I am drinking more water than I have thought to put down in a day and that is itself a great boon. It does something to the spirit and attacks  self-worth. There are moments when I want to throw in the towel, want to join in the festivities and yet that is not my path this week. I’m feeling distracted and slightly edgy, which means to say ornery with a capital O. Yesterday the idea of a chocolate malt made with Double Rainbow Ultra Chocolate took root and I spoke it aloud, hoping its power would subside.

Eating on a restricted budget the way we are doing it chez nous, is a lot like dieting. A lot of no’s.

Would you like to come over for dinner?
Do you want to go grab lunch after our meeting?

Dieting as I knew it in my earlier years involves restriction too albeit different restrictions. Saying no with carte blanche abandon. For a week I am forced to ignore my pantry, my company foodstuffs and blithely go on the way of food set aside and purchased for this week’s consumption.

This is not easy folks.

So where I am today, what I am choosing to linger on is goodness. Boy, this kale tastes like the fields. The brightness of the flavor of lemon. The nuttiness of brown rice grains.  Crispety crunch of nature-sweetened apple slices with roasted nut butter. And so on. I’m redirecting the ship by thinking about what is possible. What I can have.

And that makes a world of difference.
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Spinach Quiche Cups

Spinach Quiche Cups

  • 6 large eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups spinach, shredded
  • 1/4 cup onion, minced
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
  • Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a six-tin muffin pan. Place a medium-sized saute pan over medium low heat. Once hot drizzle in the oil and swirl to coat. Add the onions and saute, stirring occasionally until almost translucent, about 8 minutes. Stir in the spinach until cooked, about 2 minutes. Cool the vegetables for 5 minutes. Whisk the eggs, adding in the milk, salt, and pepper to combine. Add the vegetables to the eggs, stirring to integrate. Pour the egg mixture into the muffin tin about 3/4 of the way full. Bake until the eggs are cooked through, around 25-30 minutes depending on your oven.

2 comments

  1. The part that strikes me in this post more than the restricting the food for the challenge is the recognition of why you are doing it. Not just for a challenge but remembering the reason you and Beck chose to participate.

    That malt, and the cereal and coffee will be a greater blessing remembering this later.

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