Slow Down Saturday and Q-Balls

Happy Saturday everyone!
Its the weekend! Its nice to finally have two days to settle down, prioritize, and spend some time with my boys. My folks are coming to town on Tuesday for a short visit so I need to get our place cleaned up and finish my spring cleaning (that I started about 4 weeks ago...). I've taken a few days off of working out mostly because I am just feel very run down. Today is the last day of my antibiotic (root canal next Friday - yay...) so I hope once that works its way out of my system, I'll start feeling better.

So a goal as of late is to start using everything I have at my disposal before replacing. This means using almost everything in my cupboard and fridge before going to the store and REALLY focusing on only going to the store once every 10 days or so. This has forced my hand at creative ways of preparing food that will be both healthy and edible (especially to the discerning palates of my husband and toddler).
My husband and I have been eating healthier and recently discovered the amazing powers of Quinoa. But really, I only had one recipe and I can only eat so much chicken so I made up this recipe for Quinoa bites - "Q-Balls" (as my husband dubbed them). The troops devoured them so they were a hit. So many people asked me for the recipe that I'm going to start something new and share it on here.

Not the best angle for a picture but these are finished and in the pan

Ingredients

1 Cup water (or chicken stock for extra flavor)

1/2 quinoa

1 large to extra large egg

1/2 Cup Parmasean Cheese

1/2 Cup diced, raw onion

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 oregano

 

Hardware

Saucepan

Large Mixing Bowl

Mini Muffin Pan (Sprayed with olive oil or Pam)

Preheated oven at 350*

 

Directions

1. Prepare the Quinoa by bring the 1 cups of liquid and 1/2 cup of quinoa to a boil in a saucepan and then reduce it to a simmer and cook, covered, until the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa is tender. Cool to room temperature
2. In a separate bowl, mix the onion (keep it raw), cheese, egg, and herbs together. This will be pastey and chunky but this is ok.
3. Add the room temperature quinoa to the mixture. You want this at room temp so you don't prematurely melt the cheese or scramble the egg.
4. Dish your mixture into a lubed mini muffin tin. This will be sticky and will definitely stick to the muffin tin if not sprayed thoroughly. *You can use a muffin liner but not metallic - use paper.
5. Put in the middle rack of the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until slightly golden on top.
6. Remove from the muffin tin (if a little sticky still, run a knife along the side of the muffin tin to release).
7. Let rest for at least 10 minutes before enjoying so they set up a bit.

These are good alone or what I did was make a marinara to dip them in so it was like a little Italian bite of deliciousness. My husband ate 9 of the 12 so I think they were a hit.

Enjoy!!!