Mediterranean quinoa bake
Here we are, meal three of four of my freezer meal dinners I made for my friend due tomorrow to have her first baby!! Thoughts on quinoa? Sometimes my kids are not interested in it at all, and other times they scoop it up right up like macaroni and cheese, which is pretty spot on with how they are with everything they eat. One day they like it, one day they don’t. Lucky (or maybe unlucky for them) when I write out our weekly menu they know what day I’m make it , whether they eat it or not it’s where it’s unpredictable. This quinoa bake though usually ends up being picked at regardless of their moods.
This dinner is an easy, prepare ahead of time, meal that can either be eaten during the week for frozen and eaten on a night when you really just don’t feel like cooking! There are only 2 ingredients you need to cook ahead of time, the quinoa and the zucchini, so all in all this meal, if not frozen, will take about an hour to cook.
Ingredients
- 2 cups quinoa
- 1 jar roasted red pepper
- 1 jar marinated artichoke hearts
- 10 sliced kalamata olives
- 10 sliced green olives
- 2 zucchini
- 1/2 block feta cheese
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350*
- 1st prepare the quinoa, you’ll need 2 cups of water per 1 cup of quinoa, so for this you’ll boil 4 cups of water. Once the water is bowling add your quinoa and bring back to a boil, cover and reduce the temp to low and cook for about 20 minutes, basically the same way you cook white rice (make sure you occasionally stir it so the quinoa doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan)
- Next, slice up the zucchini into rounds and then cut those into quarters, and toss them in some olive oil, salt and pepper. Then place them in a fry pan and sauté on medium for about 7 minutes.
- While the quinoa and zucchini finish up cooking cut up all your jarred ingredients and put them in a casserole dish , I usually slice up my olives and red peppers and then quarter the artichoke hearts.
- Dump all the ingredients you just finished slicing into your casserole dish and add the zucchini and quinoa. Then, crumble in your feta cheese and stir everything around.
- Place in the oven and cook for 35 minutes, enjoy with a crusty warm baguette and some yummy red wine and you have yourself a not too difficult Mediterranean dinner!
- If you’re taking this straight out of the freezer to cook the dish it’ll take about an hour in a precooked oven, if you’ve defrosted it it’ll take about 45 minutes.