Happy Friday everyone! Here’s a fun Friday Quinoa fact for you:
2013 has been declared International Year of Quinoa by the United Nations (thank you Wiki Wiki Wack Wikipedia). Looks like we were one step ahead of the game with this Quinoa Bite series eh?
Ok, enough jib jab.
One of my favorite things is when you throw a bunch of stuff together, throw it in the oven and keep your fingers crossed that it will come out delicious and it does! That’s just what happened with these Southwest Quinoa Bites. I love me some southwest flavor, as you’ve seen in recipes like Southwest Chicken Burgers and Mexican Pizza.
So why not share the Southwest wealth with Quinoa Bites?
Southwest Quinoa Bites
INGREDIENTS
*yields 12 regular muffin sized bites
2 cups cooked Quinoa
1 cup shredded, cooked chicken
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup pepper jack cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup black beans
1/2 cup canned corn
1 medium red pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 scallions, chopped small
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 eggs, lightly beaten
salt & pepper to taste
ranch dressing for dipping
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Place your Quinoa, bread crumbs, cooked chicken and cheeses in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
3) Heat your olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once the oil is heated, add your black beans, corn, red pepper, garlic, scallions, cumin and chili powder and saute for 3-5 minutes. The goal here isn’t to cook the vegetables through, but simply allow the flavor of everything to combine a bit before adding it to the rest of the mixture.
4) Add the veggie/spice mixture to the quinoa/chicken/bread crumbs/cheese and allow it to cool for a few minutes before adding the eggs (about 5 minutes). You can then add the beaten eggs and combine the mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5) Take a regular sized muffin tin (12 muffins) and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Add about 1/3 cup of the mixture to each muffin slot.
4) Bake in your preheated oven for 30 minutes. Serve with a side of Ranch dressing for dipping!
Since this was dinner, I decided to use a regular sized muffin tin vs. the mini-muffin tin, but these would certainly be great bite sized as well! Served with a nice side salad, it was a perfect, healthy and scrumptious dinner. If you wanted to add a little kick to these, you could always toss some crushed red pepper flakes in with the cumin and chili powder! I personally like when my lips aren’t on fire, but to each his own 🙂
This Thirsty Thursday is a special one – the 2011 Stanley Cup Champions, the Boston Bruins are playing their first playoff game of the 2012 season in Boston against the Washington Capitals (no need to hyperlink the competition)! Can they do it again? I sure think so!
Dave is a ginormous bruins fan – I think his first words may have been Cam Neely – or maybe 2nd and 3rd words. So last year was really special for he and his family, and me being a fan-by-marriage (or dating at that point). There’s nothing greater than seeing a person relish in such joy for a team that they’ve loved and stuck by for years and years of disappointing losing seasons.
Proud bruins fans with the Stanley Cup! (well, not the real one – but I bet that water cooler jug covered by aluminum foil had you fooled didn’t it???)
So tonight, while Dave was at his hockey game, I cheered the Bruins on from the couch (obviously flipping back and forth to Real Housewives during intermission). For kicks, I googled “Boston Bruin Cocktails” and found an article from last June in Boston.com and it featured a bunch of restaurants and bars throughout the city that were celebrating the Stanley Cup win with special cocktails honoring the Bruins. The “Stanley Cup”, featured at Met Back Bay looked particularly interesting to me – and while it listed the ingredients that it consisted of, it did not give the ratio of each, so I was on my own to produce the perfect libation.
And what better to serve with a manly cocktail? A manly pizza! We LOOOOVE making pizza – it’s a once a week meal (sometimes twice) and while we’re usually pretty boring with our selections, tonight I really wanted to shake it up, so I decided that Mexican pizza was going to be the flavor of the night.
Oooh. I want these right now….
Boston Bruins ‘Stanley Cup’
INGREDIENTS
1.5 oz (1 shot) Vodka
3 oz. (2 shots) White Cranberry Juice
1.5 oz (1 shot) Domaine de Canton (ginger liquor)
Juice of 1 lime
1) Add vodka, white cranberry juice, Domaine de Canton and juice of 1 lime to a cocktail shaker with a couple of ice cubes. Shake for about a minute, until foamy.
2) Serve in a chilled glass (perhaps a manly pint glass vs. a girly martini glass).
Mexican Pizza
INGREDIENTS
1 Ball of pizza dough (HIGHLY recommend this kind – it makes a delicious pizza)
1 cup of pizza sauce
2 cups of black beans
1 cup corn
1 lb 99% fat free chicken tenders
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
juice of 1 lime
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 cups (or so) pizza cheese (mexican blend recommended)
1) Preheat oven to 500 degrees
2) Roll out pizza dough and place on pizza stone (*note – if you don’t have a pizza stone, GET ONE – it will change your life – or maybe just your pizza)
3) Take 1 cup pizza sauce and 1 cup of black beans and puree in a food processor til’ combined. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
4) Chop chicken tenders into small pieces (1/2″-1″) and cook over medium heat in a sauce pan with minced garlic until cooked through.
5) To the cooked chicken, add the other cup of black beans, cup of corn, cumin, chili powder, and juice of 1 lime. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until all the spices have combined (about 5 minutes or so).
6) Spread the pizza sauce over the dough. Then add the chicken/black bean/corn mixture to the top of the sauce. The sprinkle the cheese over the top.
7) Cook for about 10 minutes or until you’ve reached desired level of golden-bubbliness.
Even though I had to indulge in this meal alone, it was so delicious. The Stanley Cup is a light and refreshing drink, reminiscent of a cosmo, but the Domaine de Canton gives it a little more zip – and you know I love zip! And the Mexican Pizza, while I am not a horn tooter – SO GOOD! Like a delicious taco on a pizza. The mixture of the black beans with the pizza sauce just really punches up the flavor of a plain old pizza sauce and mixes so well with the other ingredients.
Dave prides himself on being ‘better’ at making pizza then me, and when he got home at midnight for his hockey game and shoveled 2 pieces down, I felt like I had done him proud 🙂
So cheers to pizza, the ‘stanley cup’ and to the Bruins who won 1-0 in overtime! Wooooo!
And They Cooked Happily Ever After 