no coffee this morning, but coconut at least
I was woken up this morning with a head butt. No, not from Misty which was surprising… from Viper. He said he was trying to hug me.
It has not been a good week in our house for kitchen contraptions. My food processor drama has intensified as it seems said crappy food processor that burns out after the first use has been lost in the mail. I feel as if I am pissing money into the wind.
Viper smashed the French press coffee plunger. Not good, not good.
Anyway crappy head butts and equally crappy instant coffee early morning aside – at least we can eat something delicious, right?
A lot of people seemed confused as to what to DO with quinoa… obvious solutions are replacing the usual rice-side dinner dish with quinoa… but I actually prefer it as a sweet breakfast. This is Misty’s favourite breakfast at the moment; he really digs dates. Good boy.
- 1/2C quinoa
- 2 small apples (peel if you like… I don’t bother) chopped into small chunks.
- 1 + 1/4C water (you could use milk here if you like)
- 1/4t sea salt
- 1/2t ground cinnamon
- 1T maple syrup (or honey/agave syrup) Add more if you have a sweet tooth.
- Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan.
- Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until most of the liquid has been absorbed.
- Turn off heat, chuck a lid on the pot, and leave steam to do the rest.
Date Paste:
(Makes a lot more than you need for this recipe, but is a great thing to have on hand for adding sweetness without refined sugar)
- 1C dates (remove pits)
- Enough water to just cover dates
- 1t pure vanilla extract (optional)
- Soak dates in water for 1 hour
- Drain dates, but reserve the soaking water.
- Place dates in a food processor and whizz, adding small amounts of your date soaking water until you reach your desired consistency.
- Store in the fridge… this paste is great for adding to baking too.
Top cooked apple quinoa with date paste and a dollop of coconut cream (0r yoghurt). Fruit-only preserves are another god topping option if you aren’t keen on dates. We all know I’m a big fan of St Dalfour’s.
Tracking back to last night’s dinner… transformed into today’s lunch. I love how sauces taste so much better the next day… all the flavours have had time to develop properly. I did my usual raw grated zucchini base, added some cherry tomatoes, and tossed through the pasta sauce. The interesting looking stuff on top was a semi-blended creation that occured after I discovered that bashing my old food processor in a certain way and flicking the on switch in perfect time with the bashing, it would work. Sort of. A little bit. I’m desperate.
Basically, I blended chickpeas with an avocado, tahini, nutritional yeast, garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper. Some sort of hummus/guacamole/pretend cheese sauce. It actually all worked really well together. Fancy that.
13 Responses to “no coffee this morning, but coconut at least”
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- - April 30, 2012
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Vegan. Stay at home Mum of Misty. Yoga teacher in training. Passionate about REAL food - creating it, eating it, sharing it. I can never stick to a recipe.
This sounds so warming, I love the idea of topping it with date paste!
I hope your kitchen troubles get better! My fingers are crossed for you
Oh thanks… in the greater scheme of things a broken/lost food processor is a pretty silly “problem” isn’t it
I LOVE date paste, such a great thing to have on hand… I add it to smoothies too for a bit of sweetness, YUM.
sorry about your kitchen troubles lately!! Hope your luck turns around and the the processor currently lost, turns up!
That Quinoa breakfast sounds yummy! Holden is oatmeal obsessed lately, so I think this would be a very nice switch
I’m kind of at that stage of giving up, ha. Maybe it’s a sign to embrace all things non-food processor related
I do miss my home made nut butters and milks though, boo.
Yeah, I’m trying to get a bit more variety in my breakfast grains, and I find that quinoa fills me up for longer? Maybe the extra protein? Plus it doesn’t feel as “heavy” as oatmeal does for me.
Yum – loving the look of that recipe! I’ve never tried a sweet quinoa number before (and I’m a sucker for dates). Cheers!
I actually never liked dates until I got my hands on some medjool ones… SO much better than those little dried up things you buy in the packet! Medjool dates are like nature’s caramel! Thanks for reading
i actually just started adding quinoa back into my life – got a little burnt out on it there for awhile but it’s back in my dinner and i love it!
speaking of kitchen mishaps, the vitamix is making some woeful noises and scaring me a bit … don’t know what i’d do without it!
Man, I should have just saved up and got a Vita-Mix! The food processor I bought had a 10 year warranty on the motor though… and it died on the first day! CRAP. Now it is lost….lost…lost – bah!
oh my gosh – our men must be in cahoots – kyle smacked my square in the jaw early this morning in bed.
i cant believe the crappy luck you are having with this new food processor. that company better “find” it in the mail. its not fair that a one day old appliance doesnt get replaced for free. now im just picturing you with the old one, banging it and pushing on in a coordinated fashion (its so something i would do with odd looks from kyle).
Yeah, doing the food processor-bash-dance
SO frustrating…. it’s pretty annoying considering I thought I was buying “one of the best” – 10 year warranty means nothing when the motor fails on the first day! I miss my home made nut butters 
What is it with men + bed bashings? Viper flails around like a crazy man some nights… I wake up with unexplained bruises all the time!
I’m all over the date paste. I really feel for you about the processor; I’d be completely lost.
Yeah, I’m really struggling without it, Annie… it’s a challenge. A challenge not to get very angry with a certain food processor company too
I am missing all my home made nut butters, milks, dips, puddings so much… it’s amazing how reliant on a silly machine I am – but they are SO handy! Bah.