Sunday, May 31, 2009

Breakfast for Dinner


A while back, while browsing one of my favorite things I came across this quinoa recipe. My only experience with quinoa up until that point was simple & savory, so I was intrigued. I made a couple of teeny tweeks and:

Sweet Breakfast (dinner) Quinoa

1 cup quinoa
1 cup water
1 cup soymilk
(or other non-dairy, I used half almond, half soy- mostly cause I ran out of soy)
1/2 tsp of salt
1+ tsp cinnamon (I love me some cinnamon)
A healthy squeeze of Agave (a couple of tablespoons, to taste)
Sliced almonds, to taste
Blueberries, a bunch of
Extra milk of choice

It's optional, but I like to toast the quinoa in a dry sauce pan. Keep your eye on it though. Try and keep it moving til you smell it (kinda toasty), it'll pop a little bit. Burn it, and you'll know. You'll know for days.
Add the salt, cinnamon, agave, water, & soymilk and stir.
Turn the flame down to low and cover. simmer lightly for 15 minutes, or until quinoa appears translucent. It will have absorbed most/all of the liquid. Watch for boil-overs, they're sneaky.
Stir in almonds and top with blueberries.
I like to add extra almond milk at the end, as I like it porridge-y.

Sundays are for baking

For a long while, cornbread & I were at odds. It seemed I tried each recipe I could get my hands on, and at every turn, was greeted with dry, bitter, sad cornbread.
Until one hungry Sunday morning, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I set out to make biscuits, but instead wound up with happy sunshiney muffins.
They were moist, sweet, and basically everything a Sunday morning needs.


Sunshine Corn Muffins

1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup melted earthbalance margarine
1/4 cup maple syrup
1cup soymilk (or non-dairy of your choice, almond could be good)


Pre-heat the oven to 375 °F and line your muffin tin.
In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients until well combined (technically, sugar is a wet ingredient, I forget why, but include it in here. Just this once, I won't tell.)
Add the melted margarine, maple syrup, and soymilk, and fold gently until just combined. Be careful not to over mix, or they will get tough like the dickens. They will.
Divide the batter equally into muffin cups
Bake 17 to 19 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
This gives you about 12-14 reasons to wake up in the morning, I mean, muffins.