Cheesy Quinoa Bites

A new year always brings new resolutions. And I do have new resolutions (in a post to come), but this would be the same resolution I’ve had pretty much every year that I can remember – get healthier.  Hopefully this is the year that sticks.  It has to stick through January, because I’m in a group of ladies trying to lose 10 pounds by February 4th.  Even if it doesn’t stick all year, a month of healthier eating/exercising is better than nothing, right?So far this year, I’ve exercised everyday (*cough* ignore that the grand total is only two days)!  That’s a success rate of 100%!  I’m all over this exercise stuff.

But eating is the other half of the equation.  Oh, I have a hard time eating the right foods.  I love my processed, refined, fried foods with creamy white sauces.  It’s true.  My very popular response to my husband’s question, “What would you like for dinner?” is “All the french fries.”  I’m not planning on giving up all of my favorite foods.  I need fried potatoes in my life.  But I am planning to try to monitor my portion sizes and add more healthy foods to my repertoire.  Enter Cheesy Quinoa Bites.

These babies are amazing.  Quinoa is filling, so I felt completely satisfied from these.  I calculated the calories of all of the ingredients on My Fitness Pal and assuming their entries are correct, there are only 130 calories in 4 bites!  I may have eaten 8 for dinner, because they still fell under my calorie count!  Score!  And if you decide to pass on the food processor and grate your carrots by hand, then you’ve added an arm workout!

I may try to play around and sub fresh parsley for the cilantro at some point, but Daniel loved the cilantro, so he doesn’t want me to tweak this recipe!  We used Kraft’s Light Honey Dijon salad dressing as our dipping sauce, but ranch or even sour cream would probably taste great!

Cheesy Quinoa Bites
Makes ~28 bites

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup shredded carrot
• 2 stalks green onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Mix together quinoa, carrot, egg, green onion, garlic, cilantro, cheese, flour, salt and pepper.
3.  Distribute mixture into a greased mini muffin tin, filling each cup to the top (1 heaping Tbs each).
4.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.

*The dipping sauce pictured is Kraft’s Light Honey Dijon salad dressing*