Banana Quinoa Breakfast

Tired of oatmeal and cereal for breakfast? Try this recipe for an interesting twist on porridge. If you're like me, you always make extra quinoa to have on hand. It's an easy ingredient to add onto any meal, from dinner to a lunch salad. Now it can star on it's own platform. 

Imagine a breakfast that you fall in love with over and over again. I have been making this since I found out about quinoa. The great thing about this meal is that you can use whatever fruit you have on hand. The reason why I'm posting about bananas is because I have found the texture matches perfectly along with the quinoa. You can smash the bananas in to make it extra sweet, or you can just slice them up and stir them in like I have here. Other variations include adding in raisins, roasted walnuts, or fresh berries. Imagine...Get Creative!

What You Need
Equal parts of:
cooked quinoa
non-dairy milk- unsweetened soy milk
I used one cup of each
agave nectar (to taste)-I used three tablespoons
sprinkle of sea salt

What You Do 
Heat milk and agave in a medium sized pot on medium-high until simmering. Add in quinoa and cook until most of the liquid is dissolved. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent agave from burning.

Pour into a bowl and place in your slices of bananas, or fresh fruit on hand. Stir in bananas, drizzle with agave, and sprinkle on some cinnamon.

Clean-up Tip: Place hot water and soap immediately in the pot when done to prevent the quinoa and sugar from sticking. 

Creative note [10/5/11] Today I added superfruit jam into my leftover porridge from yesterday. It turned the whole bowl a pretty purple and tastes amazing! No fresh fruit? Use Jam! 

Simple. Healthy. Delicious

Juicer Day!

I used to think that juicing was just another trend diet and people were losing all their fiber by sticking their fruit in a juicer and drinking the sugar result. Little did I know that a juicer can be way more than a pulp-eating machine. After weeks of researching juicing, and reading 21Pounds in 21Days I had to get a juicer. I learned how juicing vegetables can give you more nutrients than you could possibly chew. I eat salads, veggies, and fruits all day in my mostly vegan organic diet, but adding a fresh juice will benefit me that much more. Plus, the machine you see below is not solely a juicer. It makes wheatgrass shots, nut and seed butters and milks, strings pasta (something I'm dying to try), churns out frozen desserts, minces, and chops my worst enemy: the onion! (Aha! Take that onions. I've finally found your match!)

I researched them for about two weeks before deciding on the all-encompassing one below. I already love to prepare healthy organic meals but now I get to add the drink from scratch as well. It seemed a little daunting at first, and the research was quite overwhelming, but I found my way to an Amazon 5-star rated nutrition center.

Omega 8006 Juicer

It came with all of these fun parts which look complicated, but are totally easy to use! 

The first thing I knew I wanted to make (since it wasn't the day of the farmer's market) was banana sorbet. All it takes is a frozen banana:

After it came out tasting delicious, I decided to run it through again to increase smoothness, but added frozen raspberries and green grapes this time. It added a nice tartness but took some of the sweetness away from the banana. 

I had sorbet for breakfast that only contained frozen fruit. It was so good, and surprisingly filling. The spoon you see in the bananas is my boyfriend coming over to share the morning goodness. We couldn't resist!

After I visit the farmer's market I will post pictures of my first juicing experience. I can't wait to get some wheatgrass shots going!

Dr. Roni De Luz has taught me that detoxing is very healthy, and pretty much mandatory in the polluted world that we live. Since I don't consume the normal western diet, I believe in doing a daily detox. Instead of only devoting 21 days, or every weekend, or even a 7 day run to a full on detox, I've decided to do it daily. Eating organic, drinking live juices, and staying away from pesky processed junk 99% of the time is going to make me live ten years longer (or at least that is what my doctor tells me). I have not, and probably won't, indulge in colonics, but everything else that cleanses the body is under my belt.

Juicing vegetables will hopefully become a daily habit that I can't put down. I got addicted to eating healthy, now all I needed was to add on delicious raw drinks and desserts. I'm always searching food blogs for the next best healthy dessert, but now hopefully I (and you) will be returning to mine to ask, "Mm how did I make that?"