Apple Cinnamon Quinoa Breakfast Bake

I bought a bunch of quinoa and we haven't been using it as frequently as I thought we would. I love it as a side with our dinners instead of having rice all the time, but to switch it up a bit I decided to make something sweet with it. Not sure how healthy this is, but it's probably better than cake, right?

Here's what you need (I used this recipe from POPSUGAR and modified it a bit based on our tastes and what we had in the pantry):

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 1-2 apples, depending on their size (I used 1 huge Honeycrisp)
• 1/4 cup Craisins
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups almond milk (use whatever kind of milk you like, you just need the liquid)
• 1/4 cup agave (recipe called for maple syrup)
• 1/3 cup almonds, chopped

It was really easy to put this together:

• stir together quinoa, cinnamon and nutmeg
• pour into greased 8x8 pan
• add layer of diced apples
• add layer of Craisins
• in a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and agave/syrup and pour into the pan
• stir a bit to make sure everything is saturated
• sprinkle chopped almonds on top

Bake at 350 degrees for an hour - when you take it out it should be mostly set but there may be a little bit of liquid that will disappear as it cools.

Once it cools to room temperature, cover and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, cut a piece, throw it in the microwave and enjoy!

I hope you enjoy it, because I didn't. Quinoa has no flavor - it's all about what you add to it - so if I make this again, I'd throw everything into a bowl and combine so the quinoa is coated with all those delicious flavors. Assembled according to the recipe, the egg/milk mixture didn't penetrate the quinoa layer - so it tastes like apple/craisins/egg/milk/almonds on top of baked quinoa rather than one cohesive "breakfast bar". Blech.