Savory Quinoa Breakfast Bake

I love making my breakfast for the week on Sundays, it makes the mornings sooo much easier. I know that no matter how much of a hurry I am in, I can grab this out of the fridge, heat it up and have a nice hearty meal to start my day. This was a great recipe since it was easy to throw together in a casserole dish and had a great mix of carbs, protein and fat. I really like quinoa because it is a complete protein, but is not a meat…obviously. It keeps me full until lunch time and adding some Tabasco to it really makes my day. I have also found that by not eating anything sugary for breakfast I don’t crave anything sweet later in the day. I don't normally eat dairy (except for goat products) so if you want to replace the dairy substitute, you can use cottage cheese!

​Servings: 6
Prep/Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa
• 2 16-oz boxes of frozen spinach, thawed
• 1 cup kitehill almond milk ricotta (or any other higher protein dairy/dairy replacement)
• 4 eggs
• 8 green onions
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• Tabasco (optional)*

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 11×7 inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Cook the quinoa according to the package.
3. Place the spinach in a clean dish towel and squeeze out all of the liquid. Add spinach to bowl with quinoa along with the ricotta, eggs, green onions, salt, pepper, cayenne and paprika. Stir until well blended.
4. Spread quinoa mixture in prepared pan, smoothing top.
5. Bake 55 to 65 minutes until set and golden brown. Transfer to cooling rack. Cool at least 20 minutes or completely, then scoop out 6 servings and store in separate containers in the refrigerator/freezer.
6. When you want to eat it throughout the week, just reheat it in the microwave until warm and add Tabasco (optional).