Upside-Down Nuttiness and Other Tender Mercies

I had breakfast with my friend Sara this morning, and Sara has a goal to try at least one new recipe each week -- which is a great aspiration for a busy & single master's degree student who has to eat a gluten-free diet.  Today's breakfast was her idea and  based on a recipe from her collection ("Florentine Cake with Tomato-Garlic Gratin" from Cooking for Isaiah: Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Recipes for Easy Delicious Meals by Silvana Nardone and Rachel Ray, 2010, p. 181).  I chopped and sliced, but Sara was the chef. We both loved it so much that we decided to share it...  we think it probably fits a lot healthy eating plans.  Enjoy!

Upside-Down Nutty Spinach Quiche

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chopped raw nuts (we used a combination of walnuts, pecans & almonds)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1 1/4  tsp. salt, divided

1 Tablespoon EVOO, plus one more for drizzeling

8 large eggs, slightly beaten

1 (10 oz.) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and wrung dry

1 medium tomato, sliced thinly

What we did:

1, Preheated the broiler.

2. In a small bowl we combined the chopped nuts, garlic, red pepper flakes, and 1/4 tsp. salt.

3. In a medium ovenproof skillet, we heated 1 Tablespoon EVOO over medium-low heat.

4. Meanwhile, in a larger bowl we whisked together the eggs, spinach and 1 tsp. salt.

5. We poured the egg mixture into the skillet and topped it with the tomato slices.

We let it cook without stirring it, until is was set around the edges and beginning to set on top (it was about 5 minutes for this).

6. We sprinkled the nutty-garlic mixture over the top and drizzled the other Tablespoon of EVOO over the top of the tomatoes.

7.We put it under the broiler until it was set and golden (and just barely before the nutty topping burned! About 4 minutes).

8. We took it out of the oven and let it "rest" for about 4 minutes, then sliced it into 6 servings.  (We each ate one, and froze the others).  As you can tell, we were very pleased with our efforts...  (the nutty topping looked like sausage, but tasted better!).

So, a yummy, legal breakfast was one tender mercy today.  The other one is that I'm getting a lot of miles out of my current tank of gas...  and yet another tender mercy for me is that, while it didn't snow here last night, we did receive beautiful ice-covered trees during the night, and they glistened in the morning sun.  All is not exactly well... but enough to get me to post a new blog today.