Quinoa Cheese Bites (gluten free)

Quinoa Cheese Bites

The boys could not agree how to eat these cheesy little dumplings: G-man smothered his in tomato sauce and the Cadet carefully dipped each bite. Does it really matter? They were eating quinoa. Voluntarily, cheerfully even.

Quinoa Cheese Bites started with Elle's recipe for Vegetarian Meatballs, and quinoa stands in place of crackers. A few more tweaks, and voila! Gluten free and oven baked, you can serve them as an entree or as a perfect take-along snack for a party.

1 cup quinoa, cooked*
1 large (or 2 small) eggs
8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded (I have not tried it, but I bet non-dairy cheese would work well.)
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp basil

Cook the quinoa. (I added two cups of boiling water to the quinoa, stirred it until it came back to a boil, put the lid on the pot and left it for half an hour.)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a large baking dish (or two, 12" square dishes) with coconut oil or olive oil.

Mix everything together. Form one-inch balls, gently press them together and place them onto the baking dish. If you dip your hands in water first, and again every so-often, it will be easier to form the balls. Bake, uncovered, for about forty minutes, until the tops are golden.

Serve with your favorite tomato sauce, or blend the following together:

16 oz unsalted tomato sauce
small onion
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic



[For anyone who is paying attention: yes, this is a repost from 2012. :) ]

Like recipes? Check out these recipe carnivals. Bloggers from all over the 'net share recipes at Full Plate Thursday, Simple Lives Thursday, Thriving on Thursdays, the Friday Vegetarian Potluck, Foodie Friends Friday,  Fat Tuesday, the Hearth and Soul Hop, Make Your Own Monday,  Martha Mondays,  Gluten-Free Wednesdays, Foodie Friday, and Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.

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Beef Teriyaki in Fifteen Minutes without Soy Sauce! (gluten free, low sodium)

Beef Teriyaki without Soy Sauce (gluten free)

Have you ever heard of a low-sodium Teriyaki sauce? Me neither.* A quick check of the jar labels in the store can be hair raising. When I went cruising for recipes I kept finding soy sauce, and lots of it. Hmmm.... what does soy sauce taste like, besides salty? Rich, earthy (from fermentation), and a bit tangy. I played around for a while with some things we had in the cupboard, and came up with a really good impostor!

The trick here is to have everything chopped and prepped to you do not overcook anything. Your steak will be tender, your veggies will have a bit of crunch, and the sauce will marry the tastes and textures together.

1 lb grassfed beef steak, thinly sliced

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt or lite salt
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup diced onion

1 tbsp sesame seeds
3 large mushrooms
3 carrots
3 stalks celery
1/2 cup chopped cabbage

In a stainless or glass bowl, mix the balsamic vinegar, molasses, garlic, salt, sesame oil, and diced onion. Add the sliced steak and let it marinate for a few minutes while you chop your vegetables.

Heat up a wok or sauté pan. (I like an Ultimate Pan, which is sort of a halfway between.) Add the meat and sauce mixture to the hot pan and cook, stirring, just long enough to heat up the sauce. Add the vegetables and sesame seeds, and continue to stir until the meat is cooked through. Serve over cooked quinoa or rice.


*Kikkomen's "low sodium" teriyaki sauce still contains 320mg sodium per tablespoon, and LaChoy's version contains 284mg sodium per tablespoon.  You'd need at least a couple tablespoons of sauce per serving.


I shared this post with Swap-n-Share Sunday.


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Crock Pot Black-Eyed Peas and Greens (gluten free, vegan)

Crock Pot Black-Eyed Peas and Greens

It was a gorgeous afternoon to work in the garden, but too hot a day to simmer beans on the stove. That is what crock pots are for. I tossed the dry beans, chopped greens, onions and seasonings into a the crock pot and walked away for a few hours.

I must confess that black-eyed peas and greens is not an old standby meal for us, me from Ontario and Stealthy Dad from Wisconsin. One day I will find some Southerner to teach me how to make it authentically. For today, I went to what is familiar to me: garlic, coriander, cumin, and a touch of turmeric. Those seasonings work for lentils, so why not black-eyed peas? Served over quinoa, it all came together well.

[This has a really mild, kid-friendly level of seasoning. For a bit of heat, double the coriander and cumin. For a more heat, triple the coriander and cumin and add a teaspoon or two of hot chili powder.]

To a crock pot, add:

2 cups dry black-eyed peas
4 cups chopped greens (We had kale on hand.)
1 small red onion, chopped
7 cups water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp paprika

Set the crock pot to "high", and find something else to do for four hours. If you are headed off to work for the day, set it on "low" and return home to a hot, fresh meal.  Serve over quinoa or rice.

If you are into healthy recipe and homestead ideas, check out link-ups where bloggers around the world share their creations: Thriving on Thursday

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Quinoa with Veggies (vegan, gluten free)

Quinoa with Veggies (vegan, gluten free)

Quinoa and cabbage are great together. Add carrots for colour, celery for crunch, lightly sauté it all with sesame oil and aminos, and you have a hearty and delicious veggie meal. The Cadet tore into his bowl, bits aflyin', and G-man needed each bite to be assembled with at least one piece of celery. Quinoa and preschoolers can be a pretty messy combination but well worth the clean-up to have them eat lots of vegetables.

For four servings,

1 cup quinoa
2 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
1/4 head cabbage, chopped
1 cup grated carrots
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 tsp salt

Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a lidded sauce pan. (I use an "Ultimate" pan for just about everything.) Keep boiling for about five minutes, then put the cover on the pan and turn off the heat. Allow it to sit for fifteen minutes while you chop your vegetables.

In a sauté pan (or the same "Ultimate"pan,) pour the sesame oil and aminos. Stir in the quinoa until it is coated. Add the cabbage and cook for about five minutes. Turn off the heat and add the carrots, celery, and salt. Give everything a toss and serve it up.


I shared this recipe with  Monday Mania,  Meatless Mondays and Fat Tuesday.


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Quinoa Cabbage Rolls (gluten free, vegan)

Quinoa Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage rolls are kind of hard to describe. You have sweet, softened leaves of cabbage wrapping a filling, often rice or buckwheat. Since I had quinoa on hand, I thought, "why not?" That idea was a good one.

I stayed close to the recipe for Meatless Holubtsi in the Ukrainian Daughters' Cookbook,* that my Baba gave me years ago. While not difficult, cabbage rolls are time consuming because there are three steps: cooking the filling, making the rolls, and baking them. The good news is that it is a good "potluck" dish, so if you give yourself three hours 'til mealtime and have it done early, it is fine to keep warm in a covered casserole. You can also make it ahead, either at the pre-baked prepped stage or after baking and warm it up.

Quinoa for Breakfast (gluten free)

Quinoa for Breakfast

Quinoa is simply delightful dressed up like oatmeal in the morning. Topped with a bit of milk and either brown sugar or maple syrup you get a sweet warm bowl of cereal that has a unique crunch. The only downside is that quinoa takes so long to cook. I prepared a pot last night and stuck it in the fridge to heat up when we wanted it.

(The directions on the package from Bob's Red Mill indicated to use two cups of water, but I used three. I also increased the cooking time.)

3 cups water
1 cup quinoa

Bring the water to boil in a sauce pot. Add the quinoa and bring back up to a boil. Cook on medium heat until all of the water is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Allow the quinoa to sit and cool for another half an hour before putting it in the fridge.



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This was shared at Meatless Mondays.