Eat Your Weedies

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Does your spring garden look like mine?  Tucked in with the wintered-over garlic greens, there's dandelions and some volunteer fennel.

I'll let you in on a little secret about dandelions.  1 cup worth has only 25 calories, but 112% of your daily goals for vitamin A, 32% of your C and a fair bit of iron and calcium.

And if you pick it when your family isn't watching, you can sneak it into recipes and call it spinach.

Especially if you throw in a lot of herbs like parsley and tarragon.

I also have these great Egyptian Walking Onions.

Since our neighbor shared some eggs from their back yard chicken, I had the makings for a great quiche.

I have an appetizer recipe that was given to me as "Spinach Squares" which is a lot like a quiche, but no crust to fuss with. This is also a great way to use up little bits of cheese. My most recent  version had feta and mozzarella.  I included about 2 cups of the dandelions, 2 c of onions & garlic greens, a big hand full of parsley, and a few sprigs of tarragon and fennel.

Spring Garden "Quiche"
3 eggs
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup nonfat milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup shredded cheese
4 cups chopped veggies & herbs

Heat oven to 350.  Spray baking dish with non-stick spray.  (I use 9"x13" for appetizer squares, a pie plate for a dinner portion or 12 cupcake tins for individual)
Beat eggs in a large bowl.  Mix in flour, milk, salt and baking powder.  Add cheese & veg.  Spoon into baking dish and bake 35 minutes.   Meal portion (6 servings/recipe) = 208 calories, 23 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 6 g fat, 16 g protein, 772 g sodium, 468 mg calcium, 2880 IU vitamin A, 20 mg vitamin C.

Nutrient analysis and information from Nutritiondata.com