Lazy Girl's Spinach & Kale Strata

Hi.

I'm sorry for the messy, poorly lit photo above.  This is a pretty realistic portrayal of my brain right now, which is to say scattered.

This is one of those recipe's born from desperation. I'm calling it "Lazy Girl's Spinach & Kale Strata" because it is so dang easy to make even my lazy self can do it.

During exam time, I get kind of frantic and nuts and start sweating when I think about wasting too much time on anything that is NOT studying--> i.e. driving or cooking or laundry.  (But then I get distracted on the internet and waste 45 minutes reading blogs, sooooo, sound reasoning for sure.)

Any-who, I created this easy strata during exam--time last spring. I came home and was STARVING. Adam was gone, and I was grumpy, and I wanted to eat something right now, but we didn't have any leftovers in the fridge or freezer. We did have a hunk of hard baguette, eggs, milk, assorted bits of cheese, half a bag of slightly wilted spinach and kale, and an onion. 

I was not about to spend time sautéing anything (more dishes to clean? No thanks.) so I gave everything a rough chop, mixed it all together in one bowl, and threw it in the oven. 

Thirty minutes later, that hard baguette had morphed into soft, cheesy, eggy bread studded with kale, spinach and onions.  It was a comforting dinner that also happened to be made of all good, whole foods that would leave me full and not languishing into hungry shame spirals. (I'm looking at you, diet soda and pizza goldfish)  

I'm sharing this recipe with you now for two reasons:

(1) You might need a quick, desperate meal like this in the upcoming busyness of the next two months. 

(2) This could be used as a stuffing-like dish to serve for your friends and family for Thanksgiving. 

Growing up, we never had strong allegiances to any particular stuffing recipe, and one year my mom made a strata. It seemed like an elegant alternative to the bagged stuffing we'd had years prior, and I've loved stratas ever since.  (Nothing against traditional stuffing though! Since Adam and I got married, I've been making his mom's stuffing recipe, which includes jiffy corn muffin mix and is my very favorite.)

This strata recipe is about as versatile as they come.  Use any kind of cheese or vegetables that you like. If you've got more time, you can sauté the onions until lightly caramelized and add in the spinach and kale at the end until wilted. You could add mushrooms, or tomatoes, or fresh thyme and garlic. Let me know what you try!

Lazy Girl's Spinach & Kale Strata 

Ingredients:
6-7 eggs*
1/2 cup milk
about 1/2 a baguette, cut into cubes or torn into small pieces
1/2 an onion, diced
handful of kale, chopped
handful of spinach, chopped
1 cup shredded gruyere cheese
salt & pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425. Prepare a 9 inch pie pane or 9 by 9 square pan by spraying liberally with non-stick cooking spray.

Whisk together eggs and milk in a large bowl. Add bread, onion, kale, spinach, cheese, and salt & pepper to taste. Stir to combine. *If mixture looks a little dry, add another splash of milk or another beaten egg.

Pour into prepared pan and cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 425 for fifteen minutes. Remove foil, then cook for an additional 10-15 minutes or until edges are brown and center is firm.