quinoa fried rice

#freezerlovefriday is usually a breakfast or a dinner recipe, so today I thought I would offer up a lunch idea. Luke and I are typically running around all morning, either at the gym or running errands so when we come home for lunch we need something quick and easy!

I came up with Quinoa Fried Rice one day when I had made WAY too much quinoa the night before. I love fried rice, but hate spending the extra $2 to add it to my meal and the extra calories are no bueno either. This comes out with a bit of crunchiness to it (thanks to the bread crumbs) and is loaded with veggies. We love ours topped with eggs, but the possibilities are limitless with what you could top with. This is a vegetarian recipe, but I think sausage or ground turkey would be great with this!

Quinoa Fried Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups quinoa

1 ½ cup bread crumbs

½ cup mixture of thinly cut squash and zucchini

1 can of black beans (you can use ½ a can if you aren't big on beans)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Half of an onion, chopped

**Everything from here up ↑ is what you can freeze in a large Ziploc bag!

1 egg

3 tbsp EVOO or coconut oil

Pinch of salt and pepper

Optional Toppings:

Fried Egg

Scrambled Eggs

Avocado

Directions:

Prepare your quinoa per package directions and let sit 10 minutes.

In a large bowl mix together prepared quinoa, bread crumbs, veggies, black beans, garlic and salt/pepper.

Scramble the one egg in a separate bowl. Once scrambled add to the quinoa and mix well.

Heat the EVOO or coconut oil in your cast iron skillet at medium to high heat.

Once oil is hot, add in your quinoa mix. Mix occasionally and wait for the quinoa to slightly brown.

Serve under a fried egg or avocado and enjoy hot!

Luke's lunch serving with scrambled eggs!

Freezing Instructions:

Make sure it completely cools before adding to a large Ziploc bag.
It freezes nicely laying flat in your freezer. You can also freeze a few lunch size portions in small Ziploc baggies and have them ready to go for any day.

Reheating:

You don't necessarily have to let the quinoa mix thaw before adding to the cast iron skillet. If you are cooking it frozen, wait until it is thaw in the skillet to add the scrambled egg. It takes roughly 5-7 minutes to cook frozen! We will typically bring the quinoa mix out of the freezer the morning of and have it thaw while we are out running errands.

Happy freezing,