Asparagus, mushroom, and kale egg casserole with quinoa crust

Remember when I told you guys about my party planning skillz? Surprisingly, this was the one recipe I didn’t test prior to my party, and it was a real winner. It’s a GD miracle that it not only turned out, but was a favorite!

Here’s the amazing thing about this recipe: You don’t have to cook the quinoa beforehand. In fact, it falls to the bottom and makes a crust. Oh, quinoa: What will that sassy little minx think of next? Cleaning it’s own dishes!?!

Before we get to the recipe, though, I have to thank Mia for giving me a Liebster award nomination! A Liebster award is given to blogs with less than 300 followers as a way of making them more well-known. The rules for the acceptance are:

1) Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you
2) Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and link back
3) Answer the 10 questions posed by the blogger who nominated you
4 ) Select 3 – 5 bloggers for the award
5) Pose 10 new questions to the new nominees
6) Post the award on your blog

Here are my questions and answers from Mia:

1) Why did you start blogging?
I took a few photography classes as a graduation gift to myself when I finished grad school. I was following a few food blogs and started taking pictures of my own recipes as a way to keep practicing my photography when it was too cold to shoot outside. Nothing keeps you honest like a little public humiliation, I decided to post the pictures on the internet.
2) What is the most important thing you have gotten out of your blog?
Meeting other bloggers!
3) Favorite memory from childhood?
One summer night my family was coming back from dinner and we passed an office building that had the sprinklers on watering the lawn. We stopped the car and all ran through the sprinklers in the dark. Fun times.
4) Favorite song?
Hard one! My ipod says that Flight Test by The Flaming Lips is the most played, so that must be my favorite song!
5) Favorite thing to do in your free time, if you have any.
Take Ruby to the dog park and watch her get mad at dogs that try to hump her.
6) What book could you read over and over?
This is a hard question. I hate reading books or watching movies more than once (exception: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation) because the list of things I want to read/watch is too long. But I would re-read any of Michael Pollan’s books again, especially Omnivore’s Dilemma.
7) Worst subject in school?
I feel like I had to try way harder than everyone else in Biology.
8) What was the first thing you wanted to be when you grew up?
Cliché alert! Veterinarian.
9) First thing you would buy or do if you won the lottery?
Pay off the mortgage? That’s boring, so I’d pay to have Avon Barksdale brought back to life.
10) If you could meet anyone from history, who would it be?
Elvis. Obviously.

Let’s do this:

Add the cheese.

Bake uncovered for 10 more minutes. Leave the casserole in the oven but turn the oven to broil. Broil for 3 minutes to brown the cheese and remove from oven.