Cheesy Quinoa

(Not my picture - got it from the website that the recipe came from)



I found this recipe on Pinterest, and tried it out a couple weeks ago. I've never baked with quinoa before, but I thought that this turned out pretty good. It's like macaroni and cheese, but with a kind of nutty flavor to it. I halved the recipe and didn't put in any veggies or bread crumbs on top, simply because I didn't have either. I like my mac and cheese with a crust on top, so next time I will definitely add some bread crumbs.

Serving Size: 8


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained

Veggies of your choice (optional)

good pinch of salt

a few grinds of seasoning salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 large eggs

1 cup soy milk or non-fat milk

1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese, more for sprinkling

Optional- Crushed Red Pepper, Panko Bread crumbs for topping

Toppings (optional)- salsa, hot sauce, sour cream, scallions

Lightly saute any veggies you would like in this dish.


Cook quinoa to packaged instructions until fully cooked. (Mine took 12 minutes, I believe.) Add salts, veggies (if adding), and garlic to quinoa.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat 13x9 inch dish with cooking spray.

Whisk together eggs and milk in large bowl. Fold in quinoa mixture and cheese. Stir very well and give the cheese some time to melt a little. Transfer to prepared baking dish. If using Panko Crumbs or bread crumbs, add to the top and bake 30-35 mins, until bread crumbs are browned.

Pics from the last week

Raegan LOVES riding her tricycle. She is bummed that we keep telling her it's too hot to go out and ride.

This is from one of the cooler days last week. She was reading her "mail" on the front porch.

Raegan is getting really good at coloring in the lines. She's gone from wild scribbling everywhere to actually attempting to color something in. Where has my baby gone?!

Jazz cat!

Beating the Heat!

Well, it's definitely summer in Kansas! Yesterday and today both topped out at 107 degrees, so we are trying to stay as cool as we possibly can. Raegan has been chomping at the bit to get outside, so tonight Luke aired up our little pool. At first all she wanted to do was walk around in it, but soon she was sitting down and "swimming" like a little fish.

Another Trumpet Player!

Raegan loves getting the chance to play Zane's guitar, and one night he let her try out his trumpet. We were all just blown away when she could actually produce sound with it. There are kids Zane's age who can even produce sound because of how you have to hold your lips. I'm thinking we may have another musician on our hands! :)

Reading Mommy's Books

This is a daily occurance. Raegan will play for awhile after breakfast, then get out a bunch of her books and sit in the kitchen and tell stories while she flips through the pages. Over the last week or so, she's been getting out my books and sitting down and looking through them forever. Sometimes she'll point out letters in them, but most of the time she just tells stories about what she's reading.

After I finished taking this video and she finished flipping through the book, she said, "I'm not going to read it backwards anymore Mommy." Smart girl! :)

Random song

One of Raegan's favorite things to do right now is walk around the house singing random songs. It's hilarious!

Big Accomplishment

A big milestone that Raegan has met in the last couple weeks is being able to pedal her tricycle independently. Now she is OBSESSED with riding her trike and asks all day every day to go outside to ride. I took this video last week, when she was still having some trouble getting over cracks in the sidewalk. Since then, she's gotten to the point where she can pedal up and down the driveway with a little extra muscle, pretty smoothly.