Quinoa Pizza Bites

Lately, I've been trying to experiment "outside the box."
I love finding new foods and trying them.
What I love even better is when they're healthy foods.
And what I even love more than that is when I find that I actually like those foods.

After trying out the Cauliflower Pizza Crust, I had some extra pizza sauce left over.
Now I know I told you before, but I could eat pizza everyday.
I had found this recipe online and wanted to try it out.

I changed it up a bit to suit what I had on hand.

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups chicken broth (optional)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup chopped green onion (you can use other onion...and more if you like onion)
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a mexican blend, the recipe called for mozzarella)
1/8 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
some salt
pizza sauce

Directions:
Measure and rinse the quinoa well.  Add 2 cups liquid (I used chicken broth for a tastier flavor, but you can use water if you don't have chicken broth on hand) and the quinoa to a medium sized sauce pan.  Boil.  Cover and reduce to a simmer.  Let simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add all ingredients (except the pizza sauce) in a mixing bowl and mix together.  Spray a mini-muffin pan with non-stick spray.  (I had a medium sized muffin pan.)  I also packed my each "muffin" down pretty well.

Cook at 350 degrees for roughly 20-25 minutes.  Grab some pizza sauce and dip away!  

These are super easy to make!  They're also delicious AND healthy!! :)

Happy cooking!

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

It's no secret that I've been changing my eating habits during that last few weeks.

I want to put healthy things in my body, rather than feeding it crap.

So when I found a recipe for a healthier pizza crust, all systems were a go.

I LOVE pizza.  I could seriously eat it everyday.

That's how much I love it.

I will preface this to say that this pizza isn't like regular pizza.

It's a softer crust, so I ate it with a fork.

However, it doesn't taste like you're eating cauliflower.

It's just different.

I will also tell you that my husband loved it.

He said, "This is on the 'yes' list."

Meaning he would love to eat it again!

Ingredients:

*1 cup of cauliflower, cooked and riced

*1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

*1 egg, beaten

*1 tsp dried oregano

*1/2 tsp crushed garlic

*1/2 tsp garlic salt

*olive oil (optional)

Directions:

To "rice" cauliflower, I cut the stems off and cut them into florets and grated it with a cheese grater.  It worked better than I imagined.

But if you have a food processor, you can stick the head of cauliflower in there and pulse it until it looks like a grain.  Don't over-pulse it because then you might puree it.

Put the riced cauliflower in a microwavable bowl and cook it in the microwave for 8 minutes.

One large head creates about 3 cups of riced cauliflower (and I actually used it all).

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

Stir together the cauliflower, egg, and cheese (I used what we had on hand).

Add oregano, crushed garlic, and garlic salt.  Stir.

Transfer to the cookies sheet and pat out making a 9 in round.

(As you can see, mine was a little bigger than 9 inches since I used all the cauliflower.)

Brush olive oil over the top of it to help it brown in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and add the toppings.

Place in the broiler on high for approximately 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

*Since you will be broiling it, all pizza toppings need to be fully cooked.*

Enjoy your healthy pizza!

Pepperoni Pizza Quesadillas

I can't believe it's Friday again!  This week has just gone by in a blur.  We had a low-key week, which I'm okay with.  Today's recipe I want to share with you is from Pinterest, yet again.


At first when I saw the name, "Pepperoni Pizza Quesadillas," I thought it sounded disgusting.  But I pinned it anyway.  Tyler and I ate at The Global Quesadilla Company, which isn't too far from our apartment, and they had all sorts of things in their quesadillas.  I decided to try this recipe after that visit.


Ingredients:

• 8 flour tortillas  (I used low carb, low fat, whole wheat tortillas)
• 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/3 lb pepperoni
• 1 (16 oz) jar of pizza sauce
• 1 small can black olives, optional
• 1 small can of mushrooms, optional

Directions:

• Heat a skillet over medium heat, and fry the pepperoni until they are crisp.  Transfer to a paper towel and let them drain.

• Brush each tortilla with a thin layer of pizza sauce.  It should be so thin that when you turn it over, it won't run.
• Sprinkle cheese on top of the sauce and the bottom tortilla.  Add pepperoni, black olives, and mushrooms.  Sprinkle more cheese on top, then add the other tortilla to the top (sauce side down).

• Pre-heat a medium skillet over medium heat.  Lay the quesadilla in the skillet and cook for 3-5 minutes on each side, until the cheese is melted and the tortilla is crispy.

• Cut into quarters.  You can serve with more pizza dipping sauce if you'd like.

These were so yummy!  They even are fantastic as leftovers!  I thought that between Tyler and I we could eat the 4 quesadillas.  I was mistaken.  One quesadilla filled me up!  Each quesadilla turned out to be 292 calories, which I didn't think was too bad. :]

Happy cooking!