As most of you know, I’ve been doing P90x for the last five weeks. Not only has this involved a big shift in my daily routine to fit in hour long workouts, I’ve also begun tracking calories successfully for the first time in my life using the Calorie Counter at MyFoodDiary.com.  I think this is going to have a huge impact in my long term success with weight loss.  I mentioned on Facebook that in the first 4 weeks I’d lost 8 pounds and almost 20 inches.  Well, last week I started tracking my calories and now my total weight loss is 13 pounds!  (I haven’t done the measurements yet!)  I think most of us who think we eat healthy and struggle to lose weight can benefit from becoming more conscious about exactly what we are eating. I know I am making better decisions now!

Now, you are probably wondering what this has to do with quinoa, or more specifically these baked quinoa patties.

You all know I am just crazy about quinoa patties, quinoa burgers and veggie burgers.  But, I’ve really been trying to limit the total fat in my diet that comes from oil and instead get my fat from things like chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds, avocado, and olives.  I can’t say that I’m oil free, but I am doing my best to look for ways to cut the oil when I can.

So I was excited to see one of my favorite websites 101 cookbooks talking about baked quinoa patties.

Now I’ve had baked veggie burgers a couple of times and to be honest…I was underwhelmed.  So the idea of baking quinoa patties is something that I had never tried.  I kind of doubled that I would be able to get any type of crust at all, but after seeing photographic proof I decided to give it a try!

Of course, I’ve made some adjustments to the recipe.  The original recipe called for 5 eggs, which I’m sure made for a much moister quinoa patty.  As I’m saying away from eggs and such, I used flax seeds and water.

The original recipe also called for 1/3 cup of feta – which I omitted completely. I did add in a little nutritional yeast and am going to be playing with other flavor add ins in the coming weeks.

I’ll admit that these didn’t rock my world in the same way that the original quinoa patties. (Keep in mind- those are simply one of my all time favorite recipes…it would take a lot for something remotely healthy to rock my world like those did….) But, I think that had less to do with baking and more to do with the absence of egg and cheese. Next time I will probably take a hint from these vegan quinoa patties and try adding in a little avocado or tahini for moisture.

All in all, for me the trade of was more than worth it and I thoroughly enjoyed my guilt free meal! I served them with this tahini dressing….yumm!

Recipe adapted from 101 cookbooks