Quinoa Meatball Pizza Cups

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Farm Rich for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Dig in to these gluten-free Quinoa Meatball Pizza Cups at your next party or family dinner!

I love the holidays, but you have to agree that they can be a lot of work. Shopping, wrapping, Christmas cards, baking, parties… All that fun is pretty time consuming! There are some things I won’t skip like individually wrapping ever present to put under the tree for a magical Christmas morning. For other things, I love to find shortcuts to make my life easier! Here’s one holiday hack idea: Instead of buying pre-decorated holiday goodie bags, just use paper lunch sacks and get the kids to stencil holiday shapes onto them with cookie cutters. You’ll save money and keep the kids busy while you’re at it. Your friends and family will love the homemade touch! I especially take advantage of shortcuts when it comes to entertaining. It’s hard enough for me to keep all the toys picked up and keep the kids out of the food before guests arrive. I love serving a table full of a wide variety of party foods, but it is hard to find the time or energy to everything from scratch. There is nothing wrong with adding a few delicious frozen appetizers to the mix! Farm Rich Snacks come in really handy in this case, like their Loaded Potato Skins and Pepperoni Pizzeria Bites that bake up beautifully and will be real crowd pleasers! They also have gluten-free meatballs, which I have used in today’s recipe. Let me just talk about how much I love frozen meatballs for a moment. They have to be one of the most versatile shortcut ingredients I know. Sure, you can throw them in spaghetti sauce for a quick dinner, but you can also make cheeseburger pockets, meatball and pasta skewers, or the classic grape jelly meatballs with very little effort! It can be hard to find gluten-free meatballs because most of them contain bread crumbs, so I was excited to find out that Farm Rich meatballs are gluten free and are available as turkey meatballs too! These cute pizza cups are really quick and easy and are perfect for a party food or fun dinner. Here’s how to make them:

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Quinoa Meatball Pizza Cups

These easy, delicious, gluten-free pizza cups are a perfect party food or dinner!

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Rating: 5
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Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

60 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

MetricUS Imperial

Ingredients

• 1 c. quinoa rinsed
• 2 c. water
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 c. grated parmesan
• 2 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1 c. pizza sauce plus more for dipping if desired
• 12 Farm Rich frozen meatballs any variety
• 1 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese

Cuisine Italian Prep Time 60 minutes Cook Time 30 minutes Servings MetricUS Imperial Ingredients 1 c. quinoa rinsed 2 c. water 1/2 tsp. salt 3 eggs 3/4 c. grated parmesan 2 tsp. Italian seasoning 1 c. pizza sauce plus more for dipping if desired 12 Farm Rich frozen meatballs any variety 1 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese

Votes: 1 Rating: 5 You: Rate this recipe!

Instructions

1. Bring quinoa, water, and salt to a boil in a small saucepan. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes. Remove cover, fluff with a fork, and allow to cool. (I cooked my quinoa in the morning and left it on the stovetop until I was ready to make the pizza cups.)
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin generously with cooking spray.
3. In a medium bowl, beat egg, and stir in parmesan, Italian seasoning, and cooked quinoa. Stir until well combined.
4. Place 1/4 c. of quinoa mixture in each muffin cup. Scoop a tablespoon of pizza sauce in a round-bottom measuring spoon, and press the bottom of the spoon into the quinoa to make a little well. Fill with the sauce. Repeat for all 12 cups.
5. Press a frozen meatball into the sauce for each pizza cup. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of cheese over the top of each meatball, and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Carefully sprinkle a little more cheese on top of each one for the last 10 minutes of baking if you like extra cheese.
6. Allow muffin cups to cool almost completely in muffin tin. Run a knife along the edge of each pizza cup, and carefully lift out of the muffin tin. Serve with more warm pizza sauce for dipping if desired.

Recipe Notes

As a shortcut, you could simply spread the quinoa mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 13" baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Make straight lines of indentations filled with pizza sauce and meatballs, and sprinkle cheese over the entire casserole.

What are some of your favorite holiday shortcuts?