Easy On-The-Go Snack
Sometimes snacks can be one of the hardest meals of the day. Not because they go uneaten, but rather because it can be tough to keep them interesting. Trying to come up with new ideas and keep adding variety to meals isn't always as easy as I want it to be.
And days out can be the toughest if you don't want to feed your kids whatever happens to be available at the nearest shop. For me, preparation makes life so much easier. Having healthy snacks ready to go takes stressful moments during days out and makes them nothing moments instead.
These quinoa vegetable muffins seem to hit just the right balance of tasty, nutritious, filling, and perfect for little hands! Give them a try and let me know what you think.
Quinoa Vegetable Muffins Nutritional Stuff
Quinoa is high in protein, complex carbs, and full of essential minerals like zinc and magnesium.
Carrots add carbohydrates to the muffins as well as antioxidants such as beta-carotene which helps keep your eyes healthy.
Zucchinis (or courgettes) are really nutrient-dense (meaning high nutrient-to-calorie ratio) of which the most abundant are vitamins A and C. They are also rich in the minerals manganese and potassium.
Eggs are a great protein source and provide plenty of B-vitamins, as well as the essential micronutrient, choline.
Apart from being a good source of protein, yogurt and mozzarella add calcium to the recipe. And if you choose the full-fat ones they also provide additional healthy fats.
Quinoa Vegetable Muffins Preparation Tips
Ideally, choose full-fat yogurt and mozzarella for the recipe if serving to a child who is younger than 2 – the additional fats are great for their growth and development.
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Quinoa Vegetable Muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup quinoa, uncooked
- 1 cup water
- 1 splash olive oil
- 1 medium-sized carrot grated
- 1 medium-sized zucchini grated
- 2 eggs
- 4 tbsp mozzarella shredded
- 2 tbsp yogurt
- 2 tsp oregano dried
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 360°F
- Put the quinoa and water in a pot, bring to boil and then simmer until the water is fully absorbed; then allow to cool
- Wash, peel and grate the carrot and zucchini
- Heat olive oil in a pan and add the grated vegetables to cook for ~10 mins; then allow to cool
- Add all the ingredients to a mixer and blend into a smooth batter
- Pour the batter into a muffin tin (should make about 6 muffins)
- Bake for ~20 mins
Dora
Hi!
Glad you liked the recipe and instrucitons!
If you've followed the recipe they probably need more time in the oven. Pretty much every oven is different and works in its own way so it's important to keep an eye on the food when baking especially if you're making the recipe for the first time.
The temperature and time mentioned in the recipe is what works for our oven but probably your's needs more time. If the tops were fully baked and the inside was a bit runny then I would suggest to lower the temperature a bit and leave it longer in the oven. If the top was not baked then leave the temperature as it was and just leave it in the oven a bit longer. The trick is to stick a clean butter knife in the middle and once it comes out clean the muffins are done.
Let us know if it works and the comment was helpful!
Dora
Alison
Not sure what I did wrong but these did not cook into a muffin. They just ended up being very cooked on the outside and slop on the inside, even with cooking them lower and longer (over an hour!)
What did I do wrong? Should flour be added as an ingredient?
Dora
Hi Alison!
One of the reasons I can think of is the fact that maybe the quinoa was not fully dry after cooking. And by dry I mean it hadn't soaked up all the water from the cooking leaving it a bit soggy which can make it harder to cook (or impossible for that matter). So if you're not sure with the quinoa, what I would suggest is when cooking the quinoa to add less water than you would normally and then once the quinoa soaks up all the water check if you need to add just a bit more if it's not yet cooked.