Easy Quinoa Pizza Bowls

Valentine's Day. The first one without Terrence since we met. Last year he brought sunflowers and made steak and said "right here, with you." This year he's in Atlanta and I'm in Hermitage and the sunflower on my wrist is just a tattoo, not a destination — wait. I don't have the sunflower tattoo yet. I'm twenty-seven. The tattoo comes at thirty. The sunflower is on my wrist in three years. Right now, my wrist is bare and my apartment is full of a baby's kicks and my Valentine is a gallon of ice cream and the Hallmark channel.

Chloe made Valentine's cards for school. Jayden made them at pre-K. He made one for Diego (the fire truck friend), one for Mrs. Gonzalez, and one for "the baby" — a heart drawn on construction paper, placed on my belly, delivered by hand to the skin above the place where the baby lives. My four-year-old made a Valentine's card for his unborn sibling and delivered it through the mail system of my abdomen. I don't know if the baby received it. I choose to believe the kick I felt afterward was a thank-you.

Terrence texted: a photo of the fire helmet on his nightstand with a sunflower drawn on a Post-it Note stuck to the wall behind it. The sunflower. He remembered. He drew a sunflower and put it next to Jayden's helmet and sent me the photo and the caption said: "Growing toward the light." Growing toward the light. From Atlanta. Through a phone. Through a Post-it Note and a borrowed helmet and a memory of a Valentine's Day when the future was something we planned instead of something that happened to us.

The virus — COVID-19, they're calling it now — is in more countries. It's not here yet. Or it is here and we don't know. The news is getting louder. The worry is getting closer. I'm twenty-three weeks pregnant and the world is doing something I don't understand and can't control and the only thing I CAN control is the kitchen and the food and the children and the way I show up every morning and brush my teeth (with one of three toothbrushes) and go to work and come home and make dinner and be the anchor.

I made heart-shaped pizza. For the kids. Pink dough (food coloring in the pizza dough — Chloe's idea, my execution). The pizza was objectively ridiculous — a pink, heart-shaped, slightly lopsided pizza with pepperoni that I arranged into smaller hearts because at some point I stopped being a practical cook and became a woman who arranges pepperoni into hearts for her children on Valentine's Day. This is what love looks like. Not sunflowers. Not steak dinners. Pepperoni hearts on pink dough for two kids and a baby who kicks.

The pink heart pizza was a little lopsided and absolutely perfect, and it reminded me that pizza night doesn’t have to be traditional to be meaningful — it just has to be made with intention. These Easy Quinoa Pizza Bowls carry that same spirit: all the flavors of pizza night, built in a way that lets little hands help and big feelings get a little quieter. On a Valentine’s Day when connection was happening through belly mail and Post-it sunflowers, the best thing I could do was pull the kids into the kitchen and let the food do the talking.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup pizza sauce (store-bought or homemade)
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup mini pepperoni slices
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Fresh basil leaves, for garnish

Instructions

Cook the quinoa. Combine rinsed quinoa and broth in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Season the base. Stir Italian seasoning and garlic powder into the cooked quinoa until evenly combined.
Assemble the bowls. Divide the seasoned quinoa evenly among four oven-safe bowls or ramekins. Spoon about 1/4 cup pizza sauce over each, spreading to the edges.
Add toppings. Layer each bowl with bell pepper, olives, and red onion. Scatter mini pepperoni over the top — arrange them into small heart shapes if you’re feeling festive (you are).
Add the cheese. Sprinkle each bowl with about 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella, covering the toppings evenly.
Broil. Place bowls on a baking sheet and broil on the top rack for 3–5 minutes, until the cheese is melted, bubbly, and lightly golden at the edges. Watch closely.
Garnish and serve. Remove from the oven and top each bowl with a few fresh basil leaves. Serve immediately, directly in the bowls.

Nutrition (per serving)

Easy Quinoa Pizza Bowls — Because Some Valentines Are Made of Pink Dough and Pepperoni Hearts