Quinoa And Sweet Potato Pancakes

Brinner is one of my most favorite meals (breakfast for dinner) it is quick tasty and it is the only time I can really eat waffles, pancakes, faux sausages and hashbrowns. Most big breakfasts are way too big for me, eating that amount of food and carbs first thing in the morning can spell out disaster. A pancake for breakfast usually means I will be returning to bed and wearing my pajamas for the remainder of the day. A normal breakfast for me consists of a banana and a larabar and then a four mile walk. So now you know why I go gaga for brinner. Tim and I had originally planned on having pancakes and a tasty tofu scramble but then we both agreed pancakes were enough.

I wanted to make sweet potato pancakes and was inspired by the Thrive diet book by Brendan Brazier to add quinoa to my pancakes. I cooked up both red quinoa and regular quinoa and added 1/2 cup to my pancake batter, but I think next time I will add more as when I was eating it I kept thinking I wish there was more quinoa in here. I also diced up a handful of medjool dates and tossed those in and once cooked they added a gooey sweetness to the pancakes. I was really bad and just eyeballed the measurements, because there is still need for some improvement but this is what I did and I thought they were fabulous.



1 cup flour
1/4 cup ground flax meal
2 tsp. baking powder
dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
2 cooked medium sized sweet potatoes
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups soy milk
2 tablespoons canola oil
4-5 dices medjool dates
1 tablespoon agave nectar


First cook peel and cut your sweet potatoes into cubes then cook. I boiled mine but as an afterthought I wish I had roasted them with some Earth Balance and a bit of brown sugar and maybe some raisins. OOOOOOOHHHHH that sounds good, huh? While those are boiling/roasting cook your quinoa, once cooked set aside to cool. Mix all of your dry ingredients together and set aside. When the sweet potatoes are cooked put into a mixing bowl with agave and mash. Add the oil and soy milk to the sweet potatoes and mix. Once mixed add your dry ingredients and mix until incorporated, do not over mix or you will end up with rubbery IHOP pancakes. Then fold in your quinoa and diced dates.




Heat up your griddle and go pancake crazy!I hope you like these, I know Timmy did he ate six or seven of these bad boys, which is really only two restaurant sized pancakes.

Taking on the V-Con Pt. 5

Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango



Today was a very busy day. I had to take my kitty Simon to the vet, clean the house, pick up Timmy from work and this evening take photos for two very lovely ladies. I will post photos later when I give them the loving Rikki finishing touches. I thought ahead to make the quinoa, but then was rushing around to get other things done that I ended up chopping and tossing the ingredients for tonight's dish into a bowl, mixing it and stuffing it into my hungry face so fast I feel I did not give it the ample love the recipe deserves. Now, this recipe is an easy one and is not time consuming at all, but I feel the simple elegant flavors deserve more from me than being shoveled down my esophagus. That being said allow me to share the Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango.


Ingredients:
2 cups Quinoa
1 Mango chopped
1 Can of Black Beans
1 cup Scallions
2T. Red Wine Vinegar
2T. Grapeseed Oil
Salt
1 Bell Pepper
1 cup chopped Cilantro

As I said earlier chop and toss. Put it all in a bowl together and mix. How easy is that? The only prep work needed is the making of the quinoa.


looks like it could use some avocado huh?


just needs the black beans

I didn't have the scallions in my house, nor did I have onions or leeks or anything of that pungent sweet nature, but the dish was still yummy without that sharp onion goodness. Next time I want to add garlic, onions of course and jalapeno peppers, and possibly more tropical fruits in there as well.

Yummy Quinoa and Spicy Tofu Salad

Normally I am not a fan of salads. To me they equal lack of creativity and they are what a vegan or vegetarian eats when there are no other options available. My grandma has always invited me over for dinner with the promise of there being salad for Tim and I to eat and though I appreciate her offer salad is just so darn unappealing. This is why I was taken by complete surprise when my little baby belly started craving the green stuff on a daily basis. I did not think I would ever wake up in the middle of the night desperately seeking arugula or biking around town with the thought of spinach following closely behind.

The other day as I worked the produce section in my grocery store I realized I was drooling. I kept eyeing the carrots and hugging the broccoli and whispering sweet nothings in the direction of the celery and cucumbers. This was enough! I was starting to go loony from lack of salads! That day I went home and pulled all the veggies out of the fridge and got straight to work, but wait, what about the pantry? There must be goodies in there too, no? This is when I found the quinoa hiding behind the wild rice and a light went on or a bell chimed or the proclamation of Eureka was shouted. Which one happened, I am not sure because I was already preparing the quinoa on my stove top before I fully understood the golden delicious salad I was going to be shoveling into my tum tum later.

With the addition of quinoa to my veggies I was ready to start building my dream dinner. Spinach, Romaine, heirloom tomatoes, carrots, pine nuts, dried cranberries, quinoa and something else, I needed something else. This is when my genius self (OK moderately smart self) grabbed a red onion, a few cloves of garlic and got to chopping. I sliced up some extra firm tofu and added it to the onions and garlic in my frying pan then for fun tossed on Sriracha and Bragg's Liquid Aminos and the end result was fantastic! A spicy delicious salad with the sweet/tart dried cranberries made my heart skip a beat. I am going to make this again, I am going to make it tonight, and eat left overs for lunch, it is that good!