Spiced Quinoa Cereal

Dylan went over to play at Lingy’s house this morning with their grandkids Maya and Blake.  He has been looking forward to their weeklong stay ALL SUMMER and was all prepared for a day of play from the second he opened his eyeballs this morning.  He came into our room carrying clothes that he picked out when he got out of bed (he NEVER does that) and said he didn’t need breakfast because he was going over to PLAY!  I finally convinced him that it wasn’t quite time to go play and to eat first.  But as soon as he heard his buddy Blake knock on the door, he was OUTTA HERE.  Which gave me some time alone in the kitchen while Avery napped!  Woohoo!  I have been wanting to make quinoa into cereal for awhile now, so I figured what better time. 

Spiced Quinoa Cereal

1.5 cups cooked quinoa (I bring 2 cups of water to a boil, dump in 1 cup of quinoa, bring back to a boil and then reduce to medium heat and cover.  Cook until all the water is gone)

2 TB Maple Syrup (the good stuff, don’t be skimpin’!)
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon

1 TB chia seeds (optional)
1 tsp vanilla

Put your cooked quinoa in a bowl.
St

ir in your spices.

Pour on the maple syyyyyrup.

Thow in some chia seeds.  Or not! Its your call!

Give it a dash of vanilla.

Stir it all together and plop it down on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

Spread it out. Drink iced coffee while you wait.  Or not.  It’s your call! B

ake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes (flipping the cereal halfway).  As you can see I ditched the parchment paper half way thru.  The cereal kinda stuck to it.  Don’t know if you could use cooking spray on it or what, but it definitely took some scraping to get it off.   Then it was on to lunch!  This is a La Tortilla Factory tortilla with Roasted Red Pepper hummus, carrot “ribbons” (just used the vegetable peeler to make them), cucumbers, tomatoes from my garden and a little bit of avocado.
  It was fab!  I added some blue cheese crumbles after I started eating it.  Hit the spot for sure!

And for dessert – a bowl of the quinoa cereal with almond milk.  It was good!  It wasn’t overly sweet, so I guess if you wanted it to be sweeter, you could always add brown sugar or sucanat to the mix.  I like it though!  Good stuff.

And right now, Avery and I having our daily dose of green via the Green Monster – I swear, its the only way to get her to eat veggies lately.  Whatever works!   We’re heading back over to Lingy’s house for more play time and then burgers tonight at Harding.  Its much too hot to cook! Later!