Pizza quinoa casserole is an easy casserole made with nutritious quinoa and inspired by traditional pizza flavors!
Allllllllll the pizza flavors you want.
In a nutritious, whole-grain baked casserole that even includes some vegetables.
Life is good when you can combine pizza flavors in a healthy vessel, don’t you agree? This is obviously a theme of our meals lately!
Oddly enough, I was really thinking that Demi would love this meal and it turned out that Richie was the biggest fan in the family. He LOVED it. I loved it. Demi liked it best when we didn’t call it pizza.
I quickly learned that toddlers don’t necessarily understand that pizza quinoa casserole isn’t exactly pizza. It’s pizza-inspired. So maybe don’t try to sell it as pizza to young children. I learned that lesson for you and all you need to know is that dinner time didn’t end well when Demi thought she was getting pizza and was then presented with quinoa. 😉
But even though the initial introduction didn’t go over well, there’s a lot to love about this meal. Besides the fact that this nutritious casserole tastes like pizza, I love that all of the ingredients are stirred together in a bowl and baked! No cooking the quinoa first, no sautéing vegetables separately…just stir and bake. It couldn’t be easier! So let’s turn on the oven and gather and your favorite pizza toppings!
Funny! I just spilled quinoa all over the wall and floor!
Not funny. But ugh, it’s hard to get mad at her. (When does that start happening?!)
Demi has reached the age where it’s appropriate to involve her in the cooking process – even if she can just stir something for a minute or two (and even if that means some of the food ends up on the floor!). Involving kids in the cooking process has so many benefits – it’s a learning activity (you can talk about what the different ingredients are), it’s a great space to sample new foods and flavors, and it gives them a little bit of ownership over meal time (they’ll feel like they contributed and be more open to eating it come meal time).
And best of all, it’s fun! Albeit, a little messy. But spending time in the kitchen WITH my daughter? It’s the best.
PrintPizza Quinoa Casserole
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: dinner, casserole
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 8 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese (about 1 cup)
- 8 slices pepperoni, chopped (optional)
- 1 cup quinoa, rinsed if necessary
- 2 cups favorite marinara sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Gather and chop all vegetables: onion, mushroom, pepper, pepperoni.
- Stir together quinoa, marinara sauce, water, seasonings, most of toppings and about half of the cheese.
- Pour mixture into an 8×8 baking dish sprayed with olive oil.
- Top with remaining cheese and toppings.
- Bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown.
- Let rest for 10 minutes and dig in!
Nutrition
- Calories: 470
- Sugar: 7 grams
- Sodium: 940 mg
- Fat: 10 grams
- Saturated Fat: 4 grams
- Carbohydrates: 78 grams
- Fiber: 11 grams
- Protein: 23 grams
- Cholesterol: 14 mg
sarah k @ the pajama chef
haha, i love your tip about not selling this as pizza to a toddler. taking note! this sounds delicious!
Emily
Haha, yup! I’ll try to learn the hard lessons for you. 😉