Repli-Kate: Quinoa Pizza Bites

Lately, the only thing going on in my life (besides job hunting) is dieting. And, by default, it's become pretty much the only thing I've been writing about on my blog.

Sure, for people trying to lose weight it's interesting to read about another person's journey. But I am sure there are plenty of you who just don't care, so I want to mix things up a bit. Yesterday, I posted a movie review - which I will continue to write from time to time. Today, I am introducing another new segment: Repli-Kate!

Repli-Kate posts will be where I take something I find online (why lie, it'll almost certainly be from Pinterest) and try to replicate it myself (get it?!). I love crafting and desperately need to broaden my cooking horizons beyond the microwave - so this will be fun :)

And now, for my first edition of Repli-Kate:

Quinoa Pizza Bites

 Click here for the original link

Joe convinced me to try quinoa about a year ago, and I love it. What's not to love? It's a superfood that is a great substitute for rice or potatoes as a side dish (Joe makes an excellent quinoa pilaf!) and you can actually use it to make a ton of foods from pizza crust to burgers to chocolate cake! (Recipes for said foods can be found in this awesome cookbook).

So when I found a pin for quinoa pizza bites, I knew I'd have to give them a try. Since my diet started, I've been seriously jonesing for pizza. With just 265 calories in 12 bites, this seemed like a great compromise! Plus, I got to experiment with quinoa, which is always fun :) 

Ingredients for 24 pizza bites:

 

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

1 large egg

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup fat free shredded mozzarella

1 teaspoon minced garlic

4 teaspoons Italian seasoning

pinch of salt

pizza sauce for dipping (not included in calorie count)

Directions:

• Cook your quinoa! Add 1/2 cup of quinoa and 1 cup of water to a medium pot. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover the pot, reduce heat to low, and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. Do not remove the lid until you think the quinoa is done. You'll know the quinoa is ready when the water has been absorbed and the quinoa is tender

• Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees

• Combine cooked quinoa with the rest of the ingredients (except sauce) in a mixing bowl and mix well 

• Lightly spray the bottom of 2 mini-muffin tins with olive oil spray and scoop 1 tablespoon of the quinoa mixture into each cup

• Bake for 15-20 minutes and let cool. Serve with pizza sauce for dipping!

Nutritional Info (per 12 bites):

265 Calories

6 grams Fat

33 grams Carbs

18 grams Protein

Kate's Notes:

Although the recipe specifically states to use mini-muffin tins, we don't have any and I wasn't about to drive 35 minutes to Target (yes, that's how far our closest Target is, pity me) to get new tins just to try out a recipe. Instead, I used regular muffin tins and tried two different approaches that worked:

Approach 1: The Packed Tablespoon Approach

My first attempt at baking the quinoa bites in the too-big muffin tin was to dump a tablespoon into each cup. I quickly realized that if I did that the bite would just fall apart (see bottom left cup in the picture on the right - not pretty). So instead, I packed the tablespoon like I was packing brown sugar - see the picture on the left.

This worked pretty well. The bites held together enough to get them to the plate (see below). They did break up a little bit when dipping, so I wanted to try to find a way to make them stick together more without adding more calories or changing the flavor by adding another egg or some other kind of binding agent.

Approach 2: The Flattened Disc Approach 

This was an attempt to get them to bind together better, and to have more crustiness. Yes, the word "crustiness" isn't very appetizing sounding, but I don't know how better to describe what I was going for ;) On the original bites, the bottoms were deliciously crusty and I wanted more surface area of the bite to have that quality, so I decided to pack the cups of the muffin tins and make discs.

This worked well, and they stayed bound together better. The crustiness was also awesome ;) They were almost like chips or crackers. See that picture above on my hand? That's the bottom of the bite and it's the best part.

Kate's Final Thoughts

Overall, will these help with your pizza cravings? Yep. I think so. The flavor is definitely there. They weren't as amazingly delicious as I expected, but they are definitely a solid snack or can even be a side dish in lieu of potatoes. Neither Joe nor I could taste the mozzarella cheese, so next time I am going to try making them without. Why not save those calories?

If you have anything you'd like to see on Repli-Kate or if you try this recipe and have ideas to make it even better, feel free to comment :)