Quinoa pizza. Make it for now, make it for later JUST MAKE THEM!

During our move we inherited a big bag of Quinoa from my mom... needless to say I am trying to find some kids friendly recipes that include Quinoa. 
One I have found that the kids **LOVE** are Quinoa pizza's.
They are easy to make, healthy, yummy and surprisingly they freeze fabulously! Oh and this takes under 30 minutes to make from scratch!  

Directions: 
Cook enough Quinoa to make 2 cups 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Grease muffin tin

Mix together: 

2 cups of cooked Quinoa 

2 eggs
1 cup of chopped pizza meat (ham salami, etc)
1 cup of other pizza toppings (chopped olives, green pepper, pineapple, etc) 

3/4 cup of mozzarella cheese

1 table spoon of minced garlic
1 table spoon of dried basil
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
pinch of salt

Place mix evenly into the muffin tin and cook for 15-20 minutes in the oven.
The tops should be lightly browned.

Remove from oven and serve warm with your favourite dipping sauce or place in a freezer bag to freeze for a letter date.

This recipe yields 24 bites


**This is a basic recipe if you want to add more ingredients remember to add in more liquid (eggs in this case) to ensure that they bind together when cooking**

Homemade Alphagettis- a meal for kids that is CHEAP & EASY to make!

Carter can definitely be a picky eater, and sometimes getting him to eat a good healthy meal is like pulling teeth!
He often refers to the food he doesn't like as "bad food" and the food he does like as "good food" (I seriously have no clue how he came to call them these names)... his "bad food" list outweighs the "good food" list by far.
With that being said I definitely have to be creative with meal times.
I am also all about making food from scratch for many reasons:

• It is cheaper the majority of the time
• I know what ingredients are going into the food
• Carter gets to help make the food that he is eating, which he LOVES

Ingredients to gather

1 box of Catelli Alphabet Pasta (or whichever brand you choose)
2 cans of Tomato Sauce - nothing with chunks, I used Western Family organic.
Water (use empty can from tomato sauce)
2 tablespoons of Sugar- I used brown Organic Palm sugar (this is completely optional)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions to follow

Cook 1 box of Catelli Alphabet Pasta as per directions on the box.
Drain and put the cooked pasta back in the pot
Mix in:
Tomato Sauce to cooked pasta
2 cans of water (use a tomato sauce can)
2 table spoons of sugar - optional

Simmer on medium heat on the stove, stirring minimally.
The pasta will absorb some of the water and will look thicker after bit.
Let cool, and serve or divide into containers for the freezer.






Want to give this dish even more nutritional value??
Consider these options:
Boil/steam carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, or anything that can be blended smooth and has more of a sweet taste to it.
Blend water and veggies together (so that you have as much of the nutritional content as possible) and add to the tomato sauce.
**Make sure that you are counting this as part of the 2 cans of water for the recipe if you are choosing to do this**

**When I was making this I halved the recipe as I forgot to get more Alphabet pasta at the grocery store. It made 3 containers full (2 servings in each container) and we of course had to taste test it too ;) **

Have you tried this?? Leave a comment about your opinion of this recipe!

 

 

**There are MANY variations out there for Alphagettis but I have tweaked this one to meet my families needs**

The Rock Wood Fired Pizza & Spirits Groupon deal *UPDATED*

If you are looking for a place to have a family meal, check out The Rock Wood Fire Pizza deal through Groupon!

Earlier this week I received an email from Groupon advertising this deal and quickly purchased one (there are four to choose from)

The cost - $33.

I have been to The Rock several times before so I know that they have great service and tasty wood fired pizza, but we have never been there with the kids.

This deal included:

• One large pizza ($27.99 value)
• One large caesar salad ($11.99 value)
• One cookie skillet ($6.99 value)
• Two beer samplers ($15.98 value)

Our server (who was awesome) brought us our drinks and both of my kids were excited to have juice boxes. My hubby and I were also able to enjoy some of the tasty selection of beer that they have there.

Juice boxes instead of cups that can spill 

Beer samplers 

The server quickly brought us out the family size caesar salad and our pizza soon followed.
(The pizza is cooked in a wood fire oven which is approximately 600 degrees)
There was plenty of food, and we even came home with some leftovers.

Family size caesar salad

Large pizza

 Lastly we enjoyed a cookie skillet which is cooked in their wood fire stove as well, and it was so yummy!

Cookie skillet

Groupon has this deal on for 2 more days and it is definitely worth the money!
Click here to purchase this or the other awesome options.
If you happen to miss this deal, still go and check them out, especially the pizza buffet lunch during the week.

**As always remember to tip for good service and to the price before the discount**

Until next time! Thanks for reading. 

~Christine~