So here's the first one in the new collection. Don't know what I'm gonna call the new collection yet. I started writing a cookbook in high school and it's simply called the blue book. LOL Eh, we'll see...
First Up...
Quinoa Meatloaf Cups
Ingredients
1 lb ground meat (beef, chicken, turkey)
1 egg
3/4 cup cooked quinoa (cooking instruction below for virgin quinoa cooks)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup purple onion, chopped (or what ever color you have)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 heaping teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 heaping teaspoon garlic powder
BIG pinch red pepper flakes
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
favorite pasta/pizza sauce
Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine meat, quinoa, egg, rolled oats, onion, parsley, cumin, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic powder and red pepper flakes and stir until thoroughly combined.
Scoop filling evenly into the bottom of prepared muffin cups.
Bake 30 minutes or until baked through.
Remove from oven, top each meatloaf cup with a tablespoon or more of pasta/pizza sauce and sprinkle each with cheese.
Heat broiler; return loaves to oven and broil cheese until bubbly and melted, about 2-3 minutes.
Remove from oven; cool 1-2 minutes before removing meatloaves from tin.
That's it. I used a standard six muffin tin and divided it between the six. The mix filled each cup nicely and after adding the sauce and cheese each cup was right at the top of the tin. The hubby loved them and that's all that matters! LOL!!!
**Cooking Quinoa**
Basically, you cook it much like you would rice. 2:1 ratio. Two parts water, stock, broth, whatever liquid you choose to one part quinoa.
Rinse your quinoa well, a fine mesh strainer helps with this greatly, but if you don't have one fine enough, cause these seeds are tiny, line a colander with paper towels or a dish towel. Gentle rub the quinoa around to get the outer coating off. There is a natural coating on the quinoa seeds that can cause a bitter taste. Lots of brands will already come rinsed. There have been times that I have forgotten to do this step and never had any problems. But it's always a good step to remember.
Some say toast your quinoa in a hot pan with a little oil before cooking. This will add to it's nutty flavor just like toasting any nut but is not a required step but hey, if you have time, by all means give it a whirl.
Like I said earlier, I do it pretty much just like rice. Bring my liquid to a boil, add a little salt or seasoning (1/4 tsp per cup of quinoa), stir in the quinoa, cover, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. After the cook time, I turn it off and left it sit for 5 minutes, then fluff gently with a fork.
Others just put their liquid, quinoa,and seasonings together in a pot, bring them to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Find what works best for you.
You can leave your quinoa there, if you are using it in a recipe or you can take it a step further and enhancing the flavor while it cooks. Stocks and broths are good for that, adding seasonings or herbs to the liquid before adding your seeds is awesome. Smash a garlic clove or toss in a sprig of rosemary and thyme. Toss in a pinch of pepper flakes or I have this grinder of "Cuban Seasoning" it's mostly red pepper flakes, salt and who knows what else I like to toss in. Experiment, make it your own and find what works for you and what you like.
Now, this is just an FYI. I have seen this "issue" in a couple of places, but I don't see it a lot, so I figured I'd share it anyway, in case someone runs into it so that you know it's a possibility so that should it happen you don't think you did something wrong or messed something up.
I have seen suggestions of "draining" your cook quinoa. The little seed does soak up a lot of water, I mean come on, those things are tiny, but I've never had a issue with having too much fluid after my cook time, but should your reach your 15 minutes of cook time and still have a lot or an excessive amount of fluid left, drain it off, same as you did to rinse it before cooking. Then return it to the hot pan to rest for the remaining 5 minutes.
LOL and yes, if you suddenly have little sprout tails you've done it right. I notice these more when using red than I do in the white quinoa.
I know that probably seems like a lot, but it's really not. If you can cook rice, or sorta cook rice or noodles, you too can cook quinoa.
For more info on the awesome little super quinoa check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
