Quinoa Tuna Cups {my brain needs fooood}

Tags

brain food, high protein snack, low calorie meal, mini frittatas, pescetarian, quinoa cups, tuna, vegetarian

Guess what I did this weekend? Studying till my head started to spin. I mean – seriously, my headaches are the worst. Just bought an extra packet of headache pills today (and I hate taking pills – H.A.T.E it!). There are just few things that calm me down when the anxiety is rising with every passing day of studying and exams coming closer and closer. Having my boyfriend around is definitely one of them, when my furry friend lies down on my lap, that’s another – but truth to be told, the most soothing activity in the world must be cooking/baking for me.

So, after my boyfriend left for university this morning and Lou had her crazy 5 minutes (every cat owner knows what I am talking about), I decided to spend my time creating a batch of those quinoa cups, which were floating around in my head for a couple of days now. Inspired by this recipe, I decided to make my own pescetarian and diet friendly version of Kristin’s mini frittatas.

Quinoa Tuna Cups

makes 8 muffin sized cups

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 cup quinoa (cooked)
• 1 egg + 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup grated zucchini
• 1 medium sized carrot
• 1 tin tuna (in water – not oil) *for vegetarian variation scroll down
• 2 heaping tbsp nutritional yeast
• sea salt, fresh ground pepper, red pepper flakes
• herbs *optional (I used some oregano)

First cook the quinoa and prepare the veggies – wash and grate zucchini and carrot, peel and chop/press onion and garlic. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Take a bowl and mix all the dry ingredients first; quinoa and veg, nutritional yeast and the drained tuna. Next, beat the eggs with the olive oil and add them to the mixture. Season to your taste and preference – I used a lot of oregano, since it always reminds me of pizza and what recipe can turn out bad as long as it tastes like pizza?!

Take some muffin tins – I used my silicone, flower-shaped tins, if you use a different kind you should probably consider to oil them first – and fill them with your mixture. The cups will not raise in the oven, so make them full to the brim and use your fingertips to press the filling down.

Place the cups on a baking tray and transfer into the preheated oven. They should be good in 15-20 minutes. Just take a glance here and there – you can take them out as soon as they are nicely browned.

To my surprise they did not fall apart in the slightest, when taken out of the muffin tins. But to be sure, you should better wait until they are slightly cooled down.

Taste test: YUM! Those little skinny-veggie-heads were a delight when they were warm. Fluffy and salty and filling, with a pizza-like after taste. I bet they will also make a great cold snack to bring to work.

*Plus, for all the vegetarians out there: just replace the tuna with another vegetable (bell pepper, eggplant, leek, kale …) or more zucchini/carrot and do not omit the second yolk.

By the way -

Cheers to 40 WordPress followers & over 200 tumblr subscribers – you are all so dear to my heart and I am one lucky girl to share my stories and worries with you!

About these ads