'Q' is for Quinoa

(source)

... as in quinoa egg bake!

Ingredients:
(this recipe makes 8 servings)

• 0.5 cup uncooked quinoa
• 8 eggs
• 1.25 cups milk
• 1 tbs. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. chopped thyme (0.5 tsp if using fresh thyme)
• 0.5 tsp. salt
• 0.5 tsp. pepper
• 2 cups packed baby spinach, roughly chopped
• 1 cup shredded Romano or Parmesan cheese
• cooking spray

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.  Wash quinoa and drain well and in a large bowl, whisk together quinoa, eggs, milk, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper.

2.) Stir in spinach then pour into baking dish.  Cover tightly with foil and shake dish so quinoa settles on bottom of dish.

3.) Bake until just set, about 45 minutes.  Remove cover and sprinkle with cheese.  Return to oven and bake uncovered until cheese is golden brown, about 10 - 15 minutes.

4.) Cool about 15 minutes then slice and serve.

Mini-Review
This was really good and even the boyfriend liked it!  Couple of things I would change next time:

• I would soak the quinoa in water for about an hour or two before making this dish.  The quinoa was actually cooked perfectly, but I like my quinoa on the softer side so this is only a preference.
• Before baking, I would use a spoon or fork to gently stir quinoa mixture around in the baking dish.  This should allow the quinoa to settle in a more even thickness on the bottom of the pan and disburse the seasonings more evenly.  Because I used dried thyme, it floated to the top and kind of massed together in the center of the dish so when you ate a slice of the quinoa bake, the pointed end of the slice had lots of herb flavoring, but not so much as you worked your way to the outside of the slice.

I'll definitely be making this again and probably add different kinds of veggies.