Monday, December 8, 2014

Quinoa "meatball" spaghetti pasta - postrun meal

Today, I rounded off my 600 miles for the year.

About a year and a half ago, I was hitting a rough patch in grad school. Experiments weren't working. Days didn't feel productive. The manuscript was nowhere near done. My overall mood and self-esteem was at an all time low. I needed an outlet, anything. Grad school can sometimes feel too abstract to feel like real accomplishments are done. There are also too few milestones to rejoice and celebrate.

So I decided to make concrete goals, just to feel more accomplished, and boost my overall mood. Goals that weren't so far away, like the idea of graduating, etc. I decided to run 300 miles less than half a year. When the new year rolled around, I met the goal and decided to up the challenge and do 600 miles in one year. Tonight, I ran the last stretch!

For 2015, I'm going to try for 700 and slowly make my way up - we'll see how far I get.

What better way to celebrate this little achievement? Gorge on pasta and yogurt.


Post-run eating should always include a good source of protein. Your body needs more protein to make up for all the hard effort your body has endured and helps boost recovery time for your body to heal itself and prep for the next activity.

One of my favorite protein loaded dishes is quinoa "meatballs." The meatballs are made with a combination of quinoa, mushrooms, garlic, onions, basil, and some parmesan. Simply bake these bad boys up in the oven and serve on top of your pasta of choice. They're a nice change from your usual meatballs, and in some ways, I prefer these "meatballs" to the original (bad episode of food poisoning, another story, another time).

The prep for these balls is super simple - you'll notice that my instructions are eye-balling, but that just means that it's open for your favorite substitutions!


I think the one thing to worry about is getting your quinoa to be just the right texture. I have found that if you give a little more water initially in the cooking, the quinoa ends up slightly mushier, which makes for a great binding agent for your meatball.


If you have just regular cooked quinoa, you can use an egg for a binding agent.

I personally like red sauce, but I like to make my sauce thick with lots of vegetables (I used eggplant, zucchini, onions, mushrooms and garlic). The end result reminds me of a red ratatouille-esque sauce that you can put on top of pasta or even a bed of greens for a low carb choice.


Perfect way to start my week off!

Have a great week everyone! Until next time, happy eating!

Ingredients:
For quinoa:
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 onion finely chopped
- 6 mushrooms finely chopped (the onion and mushroom amount is equivalent here, but you can adjust)
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1/4 cup basil chopped
- Parmesan cheese

For pasta sauce:
- Any pasta sauce of your choice (or even homemade if you're so inclined!)
- 1 onion coarsely chopped
- 1 zucchini chopped
- 1 eggplant chopped
- 3 garlic cloves chopped
- Pack of mushrooms chopped (~10 mushrooms?)
*I also like to use celery, tomatoes, or broccoli sometimes too

Protocol:
1. Soak quinoa with water (I like to do overnight, but a couple hours is OK)
2. Boil quinoa with water over low heat once water initially boils - should take about 20 minutes
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
4. Once quinoa cooked, add in onions, mushrooms, garlic, basil and stir to evenly mix
5. Sprinkle parmesan amount of your choice and mix
6. Line baking pan and form little meatballs from your quinoa mix (I like to use a ice cream scooper or cookie scooper to just make it go faster)
7. Bake quinoa until browned, roughly 30-40 minutes - should appear crisp
8. While waiting for quinoa, make pasta sauce (or use sauce of your choice). If you're making the sauce that I have listed, it's simply adding in vegetables as soon as the stock red sauce is boiling!
9. Stir and cook vegetables and when done, lower heat until quinoa balls ready
10. Once quinoa balls cooked, either place into red sauce, or eat separately!








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