Spinach Quinoa Bake

Life.  That is my only answer as to why I didn't get this posted yesterday like I promised.   I am loving the evaluation of this blog, from meals I cooked for my family, to food I could eat without getting ill to foods that were low fat, and gluten free, and mostly vegetarian.  The next step to this blog is gluten free, vegetarian, dairy free meals!  However for all my non health freak friends out there I will continue to post an occasional meat filled, fatty, gluten meal!  However I encourage everyone, food allergies or not to try these meals because honestly I every meal I post on here I would eat, healthy life style or not.

 

I thank pinterest and the Internet and other food blogs for my inspiration.  Very few of these meals are actually 100% of my own creation.  Most I mess and play with a bit though.

 

I love green beans however 98% of the time I just steam them and eat them.  However the other night I roasted them, and loved them.  I am a fan of roasted veggies.

 

Roasted Green Beans

 

Ingredients:

• 12 oz green beans, trimmed (make sure they are dry)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum for easy clean-up.
2. Lay green beans out on the baking sheet and drizzle oil over them. Season with salt, pepper and toss to evenly coat.
3. Spread them out on the sheet so that they all lay flat and place on the lower third section of your oven. Bake 10 minutes, shake the pan to turn and add fresh garlic; bake 5 additional minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with grated cheese.

 

 

Quinoa Spinach Bake

 

Ingredients:

• 1 pounds of spinach leaves
• 2 tsp olive oil, plus a little extra for your pan
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 gloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp thyme leaves
• 1 tsp finely chopped rosemary
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 cups of cooked quinoa
• 1 cup cottage cheese (once again I was short on cottage cheese, so 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt and 1/2 cup of Gorgonzola cheese)
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8-by-8-inch glass or ceramic baking dish with olive-oil spray. Coat with breadcrumbs; set aside.
2. Fill a large bowl with ice and water; set aside. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add spinach; blanch until bright green, about 10 seconds. Transfer to ice bath. When spinach is cold, remove from ice bath, squeeze out all water, and finely chop; set aside.
3. Heat the olive oil in a medium saute pan. Add onion, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and red-pepper flakes, and saute until translucent, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat; transfer to a medium bowl.
4. Add spinach, quinoa, cottage cheese, pepper, and eggs to the onion mixture, and stir until well combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish, and place in the oven. Bake until set and edges are brown, 60 to 70 minutes. Slice, and serve warm or at room temperature.

 

 

 

Along with the quinoa and green beans I made some Roasted Broccoli.  Yummy :)

 

 

Bry