Sundays are dedicated to spending time planning our meals for the week, mainly our dinners. I swear, it's all about planning and taking the time to realize the importance of it for staying on track with your nutritional program during the week. I tell my clients this all the time. If you left your dinner plans till the last minute, say a half hour before dinner time each night, you most likely won't be making the most nutritious and fulfilling decisions.
My go to weekly dinner recipe is our Quinoa Patties. We love them. Well, except everyone but Price but at least that's 3 out of 5:) They are packed with veggies and other nutritional foods like Quinoa. Quinoa is an ancient grain that is very high in protein. We like having a lot of quinoa because we don't eat a lot of meat but love the vegetarian source of protein. These patties are baked and topped with a very easy to make homemade Tsatsiki Sauce. Yummers. If you haven't tried this one, it's worth the needed time to chop the veggies (unless you have a food processor) to make the patty mixture. Let me know what you think....hope you all enjoy!
Quinoa Patties
(makes 6, 8oz. burgers)
1 cup dried quinoa
2 cups water
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 small carrots, grated
1 small zucchini, grated
1 (10oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and
squeezed dry
1/8 c. unbleached all purpose flour
½ teaspoon
baking powder
1 Tbsp. plain yogurt
1/8 cup tahini
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/8 cup chopped fresh dill
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons dried Italian herbs
Olive oil for brushing parchment paper
Place the quinoa, water
and olive oil in large sauce pot, and bring to boil. Lower to a simmer, and
cook the quinoa, covered and stirring occasionally for 20 minutes, until tender
and all the liquid is absorbed. Cool the quinoa.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place the cooked quinoa into a large bowl with the onion, carrots, zucchini,
spinach, flour, baking powder, yogurt, tahini, salt, pepper, dill, lemon juice,
and Italian herbs and mix well.
Line a baking sheet w/
parchment paper. Lightly oil the paper. Using an 8oz scoop to measure, place
the scooped grain mixture on the paper and press down lightly to form 6 (1 inch
thick) patties. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Tsatsiki Sauce for Quinoa Patties
(serves 2)
1 cup plain greek
yogurt
½ to whole grated cucumber
1 small garlic
clove minced
1 tsp lemon juice
(or more if you’d like)
Dill to taste
Mix it all together
and put on patties.
