Breakfast Quinoa

Quinoa {pronounced keen-wah} has been all the rage in the last couple years. I've seen countless variations on how to prepare it, mostly savory. While I'm not the most experienced cook with it, I have enjoyed incorporating it into our meals occasionally.

When it comes to breakfast, I can't help it, I have a major sweet tooth and love everything from muffins to cinnamon rolls. Of course those will not typically leave me feeling full for too long. When I was planning out our menu for the week, I thought it might be fun to try a sweet quinoa dish, specifically for breakfast. Why not, right?

We love oatmeal in our house and I figured it might turn out quite similar. Plus it gave me a chance to use up the last of our strawberries that we picked last week. In a word, yum! Seriously, very good and simple.

It was just enough for two people, our oldest and I split the small batch. The other two little ones, well I couldn't interest them in it just yet. We'll keep trying! I cooked the quinoa in coconut milk and I really believe, even if you don't like coconut, you'll like this. You won't be able to taste it. If not, substitute almond milk.

There's a subtle sweetness and the fresh berries were the perfect addition. We did end up drizzling just a tad bit of honey over top, it made the whole dish very delicious. And of course, we were full, like really full. I felt satisfied all morning long and didn't have the urge to grab a snack at all. I definitely think we'll try incorporating breakfast quinoa into our menu more often, there's so many more variations we can try that I'm sure it'll never get old.


Breakfast Quinoa

Ingredients:
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
2 tbsp water
3/4 cup coconut milk
pinch of salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
desired toppings such as: toasted coconut, fresh berries, bananas, honey


Directions:
Rinse quinoa in water using a fine mesh sieve. Do this a couple times, this will help to remove the bitter taste that coats the quinoa. Add quinoa, water, coconut milk, salt and brown sugar to a small saucepan; combine well. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil.  Then reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed. You'll want to constantly stir mixture during the last one-two minutes of cooking.

Once all liquid is absorbed, fluff the quinoa using a fork. Cover pan with lid again and let set for about 10 minutes while you prepare your desired toppings. I found this to help the quinoa dry up a bit more so it wasn't mushy.

Divide quinoa into two bowls, top with fresh fruit, coconut or almonds and drizzle with honey if desired. Serve warm.  Serves 2.