This post is a old one but I am re-posting it for Mizzzzzz. Meeka! Here ya go girl! I am just giving you some easy ideas for breakfat that you can make! Hope you enjoy!This morning, after a much needed rest I feel great! I am so glad that over the weekend I decided to just take it easy and recover. It is amazing how once I get on a roll of exercising I can just go day after day without realizing that I have worked out for two weeks straight without a break. Of course, the way that I know I need a break is by listening to my body. My body on Friday was saying "Hey now, give me a break!" I decided that Friday would be my rest day. Saturday morning I woke up sore. Sometimes you need more than just one day to get the recovery time that you deserve, especially if you train the way that I do. So even though it wasn't planned, Saturday was a rest day as well. Sunday morning I woke up STILL soar. This was a huge sign to me. I needed this a rest day as well and it showed that I have been way over doing it. I was shocked that after three days of rest I was still recovering.
Happily, this morning I woke with no soreness and feeling as though I am 100% again. It just goes to show you that allowing more recovery time when you train really hard is necessary. This morning my feelings are rested, energized and ready to take on the cardio that I missed over the weekend. A change in my workout days will be needed since I took a few days off. Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's are usually lifting days but this week it will be Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday. This should change things up a bit and keep my body guessing.So see, everything works out!
Over the weekend I made something quite special! I made Quinoa Breakfast Bread!
I was sitting around thinking and said to myself...."I need a better breakfast." Yes, I LOVE oat bran and oatmeal more than cake any day but for some reason after I eat it, a hour later I am HUNGRY. I started to seek out a new and different starter. I have been seeing quinoa flakes in the blog world and have yet to try them. To be honest, it doesn't sound pleasing to me. What does sound good though is just plain Quinoa. I thought "Surely, Quinoa could be made into some sort of hardy breakfast". It is packed with so much goodness. I feel that it would almost be even better than oats. How dare I??? I know.
Well fellow breakfast eaters, I give you the most amazing thing since oat bran or oatmeal. I give you:
Quinoa Breakfast Bread
-1 cup of cooked Quinoa (I blend mine in the majic bullet to make a flour of sorts, try this in a blender)
-1 cup Almond Milk (Vanilla is best)
-Two hand fulls of rolled quick oats (about one cup)
-1/2 cup of chunky apple sauce
- 1/2 cup of egg whites
-2 chopped pears
-1/2 cup of raisins
- one little container of flavored greek yogurt (or plain)
-1/2 cup of Agave or stevia to sweenten
Cinnamon and All spice to taste.
This recipe is SO easy and SO filling. You can have this for breakfast, a snack or desert. Versatile, just the way I like it! 8 ingrediants and you have yourself a protein packed breakfast that will stay with you for hours. This is the perfect on-the-go meal that is easy to stick in your bag too! This is not a sweet sweet bread so if you like yours to be sweet add some stevia or even flavored protein powder!
-First you want to cook one cup of Quinoa. I cooked 3/4 cups of Quinoa and 1/4 cup of wheat berries.
This is the cooked Quinoa with a few cinnamon sticks thrown in for added holiday flavor!
After you have your cooked Quinoa, get a oven ready bowl.
In the bowl Mix in two hand fulls of oats.
(about one cup)
1 cup of almond milk, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of raisins, a teaspoon of allspice and 2 chopped pears.
Then I mixed it all together.I tasted it and boy did it taste great. Something was missing to me...
I knew that it needed to be sweeter. So what did I do??? I added the key ingredient!
Musselman's apple sauce!!!I added in 1 cup of chunky apple sauce and 1/2 cup of agave.
Mmmmmm, look how chunky!
With added cinnamon, I knew that this was just the finishing touch that my Quinoa Bread needed. This is the best apple sauce to eat by itself or mix with just about anything to give it that moist consistancy.
I placed it in a baking dish and set the oven for 350 degree's. Your oven may cook faster so the best way to cook this is to stick a fork in the middle and if it comes out clean, it's done. You know how it should look!
Here she is all warm and ready!
I could not believe how well this dish came out!!!
One more close up!
This is exactly what I wanted this morning when I was FEELING well rested and energized. I knew that I wanted something that would keep me this way and also get me through my intense cardio session today. This was amazing! It made 8 bars and just enough for me to have one every morning for breakfast this week. Of course, I had to have the extra bar last night as a warm desert, which by the way was the perfect Autumn snack. You can add nuts or seeds to the mix as well for added staying power.
Before I leave you on this wonderful Monday, I would just like to give you some info on the lovely Quinoa. It has so many wonderful properties! If you are active, you need this added to your diet. This gain is truly a super food!
Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wah) is an ancient food that is not yet well known in North America. It has been cultivated in South American Andes since at least 3,000 B.C. and has been a staple food of millions of native inhabitants. The ancient Incas called quinoa the "mother grain" and revered it as sacred. Each year at planting time it was traditional for the Inca leader to plant the first quinoa seed using a solid gold shovel! Quinoa was used to sustain In can armies, which frequently marched for many days eating a mixture of quinoa and fat, known as "war balls." Beginning with the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, there was a 400-year decline in the production of quinoa. It became a minor crop at that time and was grown only by peasants in remote areas for local consumption.
In Peru, Chile and Bolivia, quinoa is now widely cultivated for its nutritious seeds, and they are referred to as "little rice." The seeds are used in creating various soups and bread, and also fermented with millet to make a beer-like beverage. A sweetened decoction of the fruit is used medicinally, as an application for sores and bruises.
Quinoa has been grown outside of South America for a relatively short time. It is grown in Canada and has been grown in the U.S., in Colorado since the 1980's by two entrepreneurs who learned of the food from a Bolivian. They developed test plots in high arid fields in the central Rockies and began test marketing in 1985. Quinoa can be found in most natural food stores in the U.S.
Technically quinoa is not a true grain, but is the seed of the Chenopodium or Goosefoot plant. It is used as a grain and substituted for grains because of it's cooking characteristics. The name comes from the Greek words, chen (a goose) and pous (a foot). This is due to a resemblance of the leaves of the plant to the webbed foot of a goose. The leaves are lobed or toothed and often triangular in shape. The succulent like plant grows from 4 to 6 feet high and has many angular branches. The flower heads are branched and when in seed looks much like millet, with large clusters of seeds at the end of a stalk. The plant will grow in a variety of conditions but favors a cool, arid climate and higher elevations. Beets, spinach, Swiss chard, and lamb's quarters are all relatives of quinoa.
Quinoa grains range in color from ivory to pinks, brown to reds, or almost black depending on the variety. There are over 120 species of Chenopodium, but only three main varieties are cultivated; one producing very pale seeds, called the white or sweet variety; a dark red fruited variety called red quinoa; and a black quinoa. The seeds are similar in size to millet but are flat with a pointed oval shape and look like a cross between a sesame seed and millet. Quinoa has a delightful characteristic that is all it's own: as it cooks, the outer germ around each grain twists outward forming a little white, spiral tail, which is attached to the kernel. The grain itself is soft and delicate and the tail is crunchy which creates and interesting texture combination and pleasant "crunch" when eating the grain.
Quinoa has a fluffy consistency and a mild, delicate, slightly nutty flavor that borders on bland. The leaves of the Goosefoot (quinoa) plant are also edible and make a pleasant vegetable, like spinach. A quinoa leaf salad is generally more nutritious that most green salads.
Before cooking, the seeds must be rinsed to remove their bitter resin-like coating, which is called saponin. Quinoa is rinsed before it is packaged and sold, but it is best to rinse again at home before use to remove any of the powdery residue that may remain on the seeds. The presence of saponin is obvious by the production of a soapy looking "suds" when the seeds are swished in water. Placing quinoa in a strainer and rinsing thoroughly with water easily washes the saponin from the seeds. In South America the saponin which is removed from the quinoa is used as detergent for washing clothes and as an antiseptic to promote healing of skin injuries.
The quinoa seed is high in protein, calcium and iron, a relatively good source of vitamin E and several of the B vitamins. It contains an almost perfect balance of all eight essential amino acids needed for tissue development in humans. It is exceptionally high in lysine, cystine and methionine-amino acids typically low in other grains. It is a good complement for legumes, which are often low in methionine and cystine.
The protein in quinoa is considered to be a complete protein due to the presence of all 8 essential amino acids. Some types of wheat come close to matching quinoa's protein content, but grains such as barley, corn, and rice generally have less than half the protein of quinoa. Quinoa is 12% to 18% protein and four ounces a day, about 1/2-cup, will provide a child's protein needs for one day. The 6-7% fat of quinoa is relatively high when compared to other grains, but it boasts a low sodium content and also provides valuable starch and fiber. Quinoa also contains albumen, a protein that is found in egg whites, blood serum, and many plant and animal tissues. The seeds are gluten-free which makes this a nutritious and flavorful alternative grain for those with gluten sensitivity. Quinoa would be a worthy addition to any one's diet, supplying variety as well as good nutrition. The seed is also excellent feed for birds and poultry and the plant itself is good forage for cattle.
Quinoa can be found in most health food stores.
WOW! I know. I bet you are running out to go get some after reading this! I sure hope so. I feel like I have been missing out.
I hope you try this festive dish and enjoy it as much as I have! This will be making many future appearances for breakfast!
See you tomorrow with more food and feelings!
-Heather
