Friday, October 24, 2008

What's Cooking

As many of you know, I love breakfast. Awhile back we were doing whole wheat waffles every morning. We would make them in bulk on the weekend and then pop them in the oven come morning time. I still adore them, but a couple months ago I needed a change. I had seen this idea of quinoa for breakfast at Tiny Morsels and wanted to give it a try. Our nest LOVES quinoa - loves it. It has sort of a nutty taste we really enjoy and use it in place of brown rice in dishes quite often. We initially tried it as a "breakfast for dinner" one night - aren't those fun? :) Anyway, we both loved it, so it became my daily breakfast, and wanted to share.

We add a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter (yum!), a handful or two of raisins, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a tablespoon or so of ground flax seed, and a drizzle of maple syrup - and VOILA - a yummy healthy breakfast that will fill you up and provide the right start to your day. It's delicious! Same idea as oatmeal, but healthier and yummier (to my taste buds at least). We've also added fresh fruit and some nuts, but the above is my go-to combination because we always have all of that on hand.


I've talked about the health benefits of quinoa before, but it is extremely high in protein AND is a complete protein with all 9 of the essential amino acids. Quinoa is also high in magnesium, iron, copper, and riboflavin (B2). It's generally considered a "grain" but is actually the seed of plant in the same family as beets, chard, and spinach. Another huge plus to bulk quinoa is how fast it cooks as it only takes 15 minutes compared to the 50 or so our bulk rice takes. We buy our organic quinoa in bulk from Central Market but I am sure most grocery stores have it these days.

Give quinoa a try for breakfast and let me know what you think! OH and it's pronounced "KEEN-wah" :). Have a wonderful weekend!

2 comments:

Jessy, Greg, Grace, Jack, Nora, and Lexi said...

Yum, I never thought of it as a breakfast item! My kids may actually eat it this way. They were a little weirded out by it as a side dish at dinnertime. ;) But they do love saying it's name. They walk all over the house singing, keeeeenwah, keeenwah, keeeenwah! Cutie patooties!

Allison said...

my husband used to be a chef at a vegetarian indian restaurant and they served a very similar quinoa breakfast. since you enjoyed that, you may also like it with couscous - they served a couscous breakfast cereal at the restaurant as well. both delicious!