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These quinoa pizza bites are protein-packed bites that make for the perfect healthy snack for kids and game day snacks!
In my opinion, these are, hands down, the best things I think I’ve ever cooked. Each bite is packed with pizza flavor and I can’t get enough of them! I brought a friend a few to try and they polished them off in a matter of seconds, immediately asking for “30 more, please!”
These would make a great healthy snack for a Super Bowl party, perfect for a kid-friendly pizza night snack, and a great high-protein lunch for lunch boxes.
Quinoa Pizza Bites
The fresh basil adds a big flavor punch, but the combination of the basil, oregano, paprika, garlic, and onion seemed to meld perfectly to bring all of the pizza flavor in a tiny little bite.
You could definitely sub turkey pepperoni to make them a tad healthier, if you were so inclined, but I used the regular pepperoni and these babies are still only 35 calories per bite. Not bad at all, especially with the protein boost from the quinoa!
It would be easy to adapt these to fit whatever your favorite pizza toppings are – bell peppers, mushrooms, sausage, etc. Just make sure to chop the pieces small so that the bites stick together!
These are kid-friendly, adult-friendly, and make for the perfect party food, especially for watching the big game! You can also make these ahead of time – they freeze great!
I love to grab these for a lunch on the go, fun afternoon snack, or a dinner side.
I may need to start making these on a weekly basis.
Healthy Make-Ahead Snacks
I used to make quinoa bites in a mini muffin tin, but I have since found it much easier to use a cookie scoop to make these bites and bake them on a cookie sheet with a Silpat. Silicone baking sheets are way easier to clean than mini muffin tins!
Looking for more flavor combinations? Here are some more popular quinoa bite recipes!
- Barbecue Chicken Quinoa Bites
- Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bites
- Cheesy Quinoa Bites
- Tomato Basil Quinoa Bites
- Ham & Cheese Quinoa Bites
Quinoa Pizza Bites
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Yield: 40
Yield:
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
- 2 cups cooked quinoa (cook in low sodium chicken broth for extra flavor)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
- 1 cup chopped pepperoni slices (~1/2 of a 7 oz bag)
- 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp dried crushed oregano
- pizza sauce for dipping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix together all ingredients, except pizza sauce, in a medium mixing bowl.
- Distribute mixture into a greased mini muffin tin, filling each cup to the top (1 heaping Tbs each), and press down gently to compact.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Notes
Instead of using a mini muffin tin, you can also use a cookie scoop to form your bites on a cookie sheet to bake.
Nutritional Information for 5 bites per My Fitness Pal: Calories – 175, Fat – 10g, Protein – 9g, Fiber – 2g, Calcium – 10mg, Carbs – 12g
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Thanks so much for sharing!
but chicken is not a vegetable. :)
I went back and double checked the info for the mozzarella cheese on My Fitness Pal and compared it to the package and you're right! It should be 320 calories for a cup!
I have no idea what to tell you on why the recipe yielded so few bites for you, though! I've made this recipe quite a few times and always come up with 30-40 bites...I'm sorry about that!
Also, I only got 24 bites out of this using my mini-muffin tin. (I cooked 1 c quinoa in 2 c water and used all of it in the recipe and followed the recipe exactly.) How'd you manage to get 40 bites out of this by filling your muffin tins to the top?
Of course, since I got fewer bites and since my mozzarella has more calories, mine came to a little more than 250 calories for five bites even though I substituted the turkey pepperoni, which has about half the calories of regular pepperoni.
Thanks!
thnaks so much Love these!
They were amazing. Thank you :)
You're so welcome! My husband was pretty hesitant about quinoa, too. Thankfully, it went over really well and now he begs for me to add some sort of quinoa bites to our weekly menu! I hope it goes over well with your husband!
2 cups cooked quinoa - 444 cal
1 cup part skim mozzarella - 240 cal
1/2 pkg Hormel Original Pepperoni - 490 cal
2 large eggs - 140 cal
1 cup chopped onions - 60 cal
minced garlic - 10 cal
all the herbs together - 16 cal
total = 1400 cal, then divided by 8 = 175 cal per 5 bites
Is there a chance you input 2 cups uncooked quinoa instead of cooked? That's the only thing I can think of that would up the calories that much! Hope that helps!
Thank you so very much for posting this recipe. My toddler and I eat gluten-free foods, and are trying to get my husband on board. He's a bit reluctant but seems to like quinoa, so this is going to be perfect.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I also used a big muffin tin so that may have had something to do with it. However, to answer a few peoples questions I got exactly 12 out of the mixture in the big muffin pan.
Another option is to just mix in some nutritional yeast to give it a cheesy flavor, but you won't get the cheesy texture.
austin Monday, March 5, 2012 3:26:00 PM MST
Allergy free mother of three, I just substituted soaked chia seeds for the eggs. Worked great! If you're not familiar, soak 3 tbls of chia seeds in 1/2 cup water for 20 min. They seeds form this goo and works great as a binder in cooking loafs, casseroles, pizza bites, etc. you can use ground chia seeds too.
Heidi, I didn't think I'd like quinoa, but both my husband and I have completely fallen in love with it! I hope you guys do, too!
thanks for the recipe!
Traci, WI.
Nantucket Daffodil, you can absolutely share it on your blog! Thank you so much!
May I share on my blog if I credit you and give a link back? It's a keeper!
Hope that helps! :-)
Austin - I've been wanting to try chia seeds!
"Anonymous said...
how important is the cheese? I'm vegan but this sounds super tasty!"
Awesome recipe!!
I just went to check the recipe and there are 12g of carbs for the 5 bites. I'll add it to the post! Sorry about that!
That's so interesting, because everything I've read so far about quinoa says that it doubles! I Googled it and saw the one website that I'm assuming you saw as well, but everywhere else says it doubles... I'll have to pay more attention next time! I'll add a little disclaimer on the recipe that I used 1 cup uncooked quinoa. Thanks for pointing that out to me!
So I only used 1/2 cup uncooked. I'll try again using 1 cup uncooked and get more bites!
DawnyAngel, I suppose you could make almost a cookie sheet-shaped full pizza and then cut it to serve? I'm not sure! Putting them in the mini muffin tin and gently pushing the mixture down compresses it and helps it keeps it's shape, so I'm not sure if it would fall apart or not on you!