Baked Quinoa Patties

Tonight's recipe is a recent result of a friends' cooking night! Paige and I decided to try yet another new recipe: Quinoa patties! The original recipe called for eggs as a binder, but since I'm not an egg fan I decided to try a replacement... tomato paste! Wait... tomato paste? I was skeptical too, but the internet said it would work! As a dedicated food blogger, I decided it would only be right for me to test drive this miracle ingredient before you do! It worked, in case you were wondering. In addition to holding everything together, the tomato paste added great flavor and color to the quinoa.

Don't just take my word for it, though! Try out these quinoa patties to dip, top salads, or as a quick and easy snack. They're great hot or cold.

Baked Quinoa Patties

By Caroline Mac

Makes 24 small patties

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c uncooked quinoa

5T tomato paste

1/2 t salt

1 sprig of fresh rosemary, chopped 

1/6 c chopped fresh dill

1/2 c frozen chopped kale

1/2 white onion, finely chopped

1.5 cloves minced garlic

1/2 t cumin

1/6 c crumbled feta cheese

1t olive oil

Step 1: Cook quinoa according to the directions on the package. Set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Step 2: Lightly grease a baking sheet. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir until evenly mixed.  

Step 3: Form quinoa mixture into small patties about 2 inches in diameter. Place them on the baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes until bottoms are browned. Flip patties and bake for another five minutes. 

Enjoy!

~Caroline~

Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

My friend Paige and I were overdue for a cooking night. Our choice? Stuffed bell peppers! Since neither of us had ever made this dish, we decided it would be safest to follow a recipe. Next time I'll definitely create my own! This yummy recipe is protein packed and was really delicious. I added a little extra heat to up the Mexican-style feel of the dish. It would still taste great without the spice, which I why I put "to taste" next to the cayenne. I can't wait to create my own fillings in the future!

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
Adapted from Vegetarian Times

Ingredients:
1 medium sweet onion, finely chopped
2 T olive oil
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
1 T ground cumin
Cayenne pepper, to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced

10 oz frozen chopped spinach, partly thawed
2 15-oz  cans fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
15 oz can black beans, no salt added, rinsed and drained
3/4 c dry quinoa
3 carrots, peeled and grated
1 c shredded cheese (I used vegan cheese)
4 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs removed

Step 1: Heat oil over medium-high heat and saute onion, celery, and garlic until tender and fragrant. Add cumin and cayenne and saute for another minute. Reduce heat to medium, add tomatoes and spinach and cook for 5 minutes or until liquid is mostly evaporated (there will still be some, which is ok).

Step 2: Stir in beans, quinoa, and carrots, as well as 2 cups water. You can use a little less water is there is still a lot of water from the spinach and tomatoes. Bring this to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Quinoa should be tender. Stir in cheese.

Step 3: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour tomato juice in the bottom of a baking pan. Fill each pepper half  as full as possible with quinoa mixture and place in baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before eating.

Enjoy!

~Caroline~

Veggie Quinoa Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce

One of my goals for my blog this year is to start creating more of my own recipes. I thought a good first one would be a classic tomato sauce. I decided to make it a little more interesting than your average marinara by adding basil and a kick of chili pepper. I made a meal out the sauce by adding veggies, beans, and some protein-packed quinoa pasta! 

Veggie Quinoa Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce

By Caroline Mac

Ingredients:

Sauce

6 oz tomato paste

3/4 c fresh basil

2 cloves garlic

2 fresh tomatoes, peeled

1 t olive oil

1/2 T Italian seasoning

4 pinches salt

1/4 t plus 1 pinch chili pepper

Veggies

1 squash, diced

1 zucchini, chopped

1/2 onion, diced

1 1/2 c mushrooms

1/2 c great northern beans

Olive oil to sauté veggies

Chosen amount of quinoa pasta 

Step 1: In a food processor, combine all sauce ingredients and puree until relatively smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Step 2: In a medium saucepan, sauté onion and mushrooms in olive oil until tender and onions become translucent. Add squash and zucchini and sauté until tender. 

Step 3: Add beans and sauce to pan and stir until everything is evenly coated. Cover and set heat to warm until pasta is cooked.

Step 4: Cook pasta according to directions on the package. Top with sauce and serve warm.

Enjoy!

Fig and Apricot Quinoa Salad

What happens when Caroline plans on making a recipe and then loses the link? She completely improvises and creates her own version! This turned out to be one of my favorite recipes yet. This dish is great both warm and cold and tastes so refreshing!

Fig and Apricot Quinoa
By Caroline Mac
Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup chopped apricots
6 fresh figs, chopped in large pieces
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
3 T lemon juice
1t minced ginger

Step 1: Combine quinoa and vegetable broth in a sauce pan and heat until boiling. Lower heat and let simmer until all broth is absorbed by quinoa (about 15 min.). Remove rom heat and fluff quinoa with a fork.

Step 2: Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, and ginger until thoroughly blended.  Set aside.

Step 3: In a large bowl, combine quinoa, apricots, figs and parsley. Stir until evenly mixed. Drizzle with dressing and stir until dressing is evenly mixed in.


Enjoy warm or cold!

Simple Cold Quinoa Salad

In my opinion, lunch is the most easily monotonous meal. At lunchtime, I almost always seem to be in a hurry, out and about, or don't feel like making something super complicated and gourmet. I tend to find myself consistently eating veggies and hummus, some kind of whole grain, and some kind of fruit. Consistently, meaning it's what I had for lunch nearly every school day this past year. That's a lot of veggies with hummus. Don't get me wrong, I still love that combination and am not opposed to having it, but there must be more options to make lunch a little more interesting, right?

The answer is yes. Last night, I decided I no longer wanted to have the same-old same-old for lunch. I'm in the middle of a ballet intensive at my studio, which means packing a lunch every day or buying it from the food co-op near my studio. Even though I could easily get something new and exciting for lunch there each day of the week, I don't see the point in buying more food when there's plenty in my own kitchen to work with! So, I threw together a quick little cold quinoa salad for my lunch today. It was incredibly refreshing to have after class and was packed with protein to last me through a few hours of rehearsal.

I wasn't planning on posting this recipe at all, since it's so simple, but one of my friends tried a bite, liked it, and asked for the recipe. This one's for you, Lucas!

Cold Quinoa Salad
Ingredients: You can mess around with quantities until you find a balance you like. You can't really go wrong here!
1-1.5 cups cold, cooked quinoa
1-2 T sun dried tomatoes

1/4- 1/3 cup edamame (fresh or frozen and thawed)
Balsamic vinegar and olive oil to taste (About 1 T each)

Step 1 (the only step!): Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix until evenly coated with olive oil and vinegar.

Enjoy!

Everything Energy Bars

        For the past six months or so I've been experimenting with making my own energy bars. I first got hooked when a friend recommended the blog Anja's Food 4 Thought. She has amazing recipes for healthy bars and I've been referring to her site ever since. I am also a huge fan of Barres, an energy bar developed by two dancers with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. The story behind Barre really inspired me to start making my own! Lately, I've branched off and have begun putting together my own combinations of fruits, nuts, and grains to discover what I like best. As a result, I've managed to create bars that sustain me through an intense workout. This particular recipe that I came up with yesterday even lasted me through and entire Franz Ferdinand concert! The recipe tends to be different each time I make a batch of bars, but I actually recorded my ingredients/ quantities this time so I could share it here! I call this bar the everything bar because I literally picked most of the ingredients at random and threw them all together until I found a combo I like. In the future, I plan to make more specifically flavored ones like carrot cake, piña colada, or snickerdoodle. If you have an flavor suggestions or requests, leave a comment!

Everything Energy Bars
By Caroline Mac
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Sun Butter (Sunflower seed butter)
1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/4 cup uncooked quinoa
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup cranberries
1/4 shredded, desiccated coconut
1/4 cup fresh blueberries
1t cinnamon

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine oats, quinoa, raisins, cranberry, and coconut in a food processor and blend until fruit has been roughly chopped and all ingredients are fully mixed

Step 2: Add Sun Butter and blend until evenly mixed. Scrape down sides with a spatula if necessary. Add blueberries and process until fully mixed. Mixture should be moist and doughy.

Step 3: Cover the inside of a medium square/ rectangle pan with parchment paper. This makes for easy cleanup and keeps the bars from sticking to the pan. Spread dough across the bottom of the pan, trying to keep an even thickness throughout, bringing mixture all the way to the edges of the pan. Depending on the size of your pan the bars will vary in thickness. Ideally, the bars should be no thicker than 3/4". The thicker the bar, the more time you will need to bake.

Step 4: Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until top is slightly browned and crispy. Cook time can vary by preference as well. If you prefer a chewier, moister bar, I would suggest a shorter baking time. If you want a crispier consistency, go for the longer time. Again, cook time will also depend on the thickness of the bar.

Step 4: Once baked to your satisfaction, remove the large slab of bar from the pan and let cool for 15-20 minutes. Once cooled, cut into individual bars and store. I usually keep mine in the fridge if I plan to keep them for multiple days.

Enjoy!

Quinoa, Mixed Veggies, and Sun Dried Tomato and Artichoke Pesto

Since I'll be living away from home this year, I'll be cooking for myself and occasionally my roommate. Because of this, I've been cooking a LOT at home so I'll have a wide variety of tasty recipes under my belt. After all, there's nothing worse than boring food! I also want to make sure I'm eating as healthy a diet as possible, with a good balance of whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, and good sources of vegetarian protein.

I'll start by sharing my most recent recipes, and will supplement them with the recipes I've done in the past. I've gotten most of my recipes off of other blogs, with some modifications based on what was in the fridge.

Tonight, I made a Quinoa dish. Quinoa is definitely one of my favorite grains, as well as a great source of protein. I'm always trying to find new ways to get protein since meat isn't an option. Originally, I planned to make a kale and sun dried tomato pesto sauce. However, my plans were thwarted when I discovered my kale was covered in bugs! Honestly, I was just way too grossed out to use the buggy kale. Thus, I decided to resort to a recent technique I've adopted in my cooking: Improvisation! I substituted the kale with the artichoke hearts I was planning to mix in later on, and messed around with the other ingredients until I found a sauce I liked. I ended up sautéing some veggies adding them to quinoa and mixing it all in with the pesto! I suggest making the pesto first, and then making the quinoa and veggies at the same time, combining it all at the end. I served it warm, topped with some more sun dried tomatoes and a few walnuts.

Enjoy!

Sun Dried Tomato and Artichoke Pesto
Ingredients:
1 can of artichoke hearts, reserve liquid
1 cup sliced sun-dried tomatoes (Not in oil)
3 T olive oil
2 T Walnuts
2 large cloves of garlic
Lemon Pepper to taste (Mine is from Trader Joes)

Step 1: Combine the artichoke hearts, olive oil, garlic, and reserved liquid in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Step 2: Add the sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, lemon pepper, and remaining liquid and blend until smooth.

Variations: You can add less of the artichoke liquid to create a thicker, more dip-like consistency. This can then be used in the same way as hummus with veggies, crackers, breads, and anything else you can put it on! 

Quinoa with Shallots
Ingredients:
1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups Low-sodium vegetable broth
1 T diced shallots

Step 1: Combine quinoa, shallots, and broth in a medium-sized saucepan.

Step 2: Over high heat, bring pot to a boil. Stir the quinoa mixture, reduce heat to low, cover, and let sit for approximately 15 minutes.

Step 3: Once quinoa is fluffy and has absorbed all of the broth, remove from heat and fluff it with a fork.

Mixed Veggies
Ingredients:
Mixed vegetables of choice
        My Choice: 2 Cups peas
                            1 Zucchini, thinly sliced or chopped
                            1 bunch of asparagus, cut into small pieces and then cut diagonally across
2-3 T olive oil
Italian seasoning to taste

Step 1: Heat oil in a large pan at medium- high heat. Add veggies and seasoning.

Step 2: Constantly stirring, saute veggies until tender.



Once all of the components are made, Combine everything in a large pot or bowl, making sure the veggies and quinoa are evenly coated. This recipe makes quite a bit of food, but it was a good amount for my parents and myself. I'd say it makes 3-5 servings.