Broccoli Bacon Quiche

Apparently I've been eating quiche the Weight Watcher's way my whole life, thanks to my mom. I had no idea this was a "light" version of a quiche until I asked my mom for her recipe last week. Normal quiche recipes call for heavy cream and lots of eggs, but this recipe only uses 4 eggs total and 1 cup of evaporated milk.

We've been eating variations of this quiche for brunches and holiday breakfasts as long as I can remember. Sometimes we use chopped leftover ham instead of bacon, and you could use different vegetables like red pepper or spinach instead of broccoli. I don't know what the Points+ value is for this recipe; the original cookbook is from 1981 which used an entirely different method of tracking. You could easily enter the ingredients into a recipe builder yourself if you wanted to figure it out. What is nice about a quiche is that you get to decide how many servings you want it to be, based on how you slice it, so you can raise or lower the Points+ as you'd like.

Broccoli Bacon Quiche
adapted from Weight Watchers 365-Day Menu Cookbook
Makes 1 quiche

Notes: My mom has made many tweaks to this recipe over the years. For example, it originally calls for imitation bacon bits, but we use either real bacon bits or chopped cooked bacon. You'll notice that it calls for 1 cup of evaporated milk, yet most cans are 12 ounces. I don't know what to do with extra 4 ounces of evaporated milk. If you have a deep pie pan, you could probably use the whole can. Sometimes my mom would just buy two cans and just make three quiches (8oz x 3 = 24oz). We usually made at least two if it was for a family gathering anyway, and it makes great leftovers so having an extra one was nice.

1 standard prepared pie crust (I used a frozen one, placed in the fridge to thaw that morning), or make your own from scratch
1 cup steamed broccoli (from fresh or frozen), chopped into small pieces
2-3 heaping tablespoons cooked bacon, chopped into small pieces, or bacon bits
2 green onions, sliced
8 ounces shredded Swiss cheese
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup (8 ounces) evaporated milk, regular or low-fat
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Prepare the pie crust in a pie baking dish according to package directions, if applicable (mine came in an aluminum pie plate so I just baked it in that).

In a medium bowl, combine the broccoli, bacon, and green onions.

Sprinkle half of the cheese over the bottom of the pie crust. Top with the broccoli-bacon mixture.

In another medium bowl, mix together the eggs, evaporated milk, salt, and pepper. Pour over mixture in pie crust.

Top with the remaining cheese.

Place the pie baking dish on a baking sheet (in case there are any spills) and bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.