A Healthy-ish Brunch

I went home to visit my family for the weekend, which is always a nice treat. I get to play with my cute little puppy, his dog-girlfriend, and I also get to eat yummy, healthy, home made food that doesn't come pre-packaged from Trader Joe's or Seamless Web.


This is Cooper and his girlfriend, Pearl. Or, as I like to call them, Coo-coo and Pearly Girl.

For Mother's Day, I wanted to make something different from the usual pancake/waffle/omlette with bacon/etc. I decided to make a green juice, some broiled grapefruit, and quinoa with almond milk & dates.

Some kind of kale, ginger, cucumber, apple and pear mixture. Yum!

I haven't had broiled grapefruit in a while. All you have to do is pre-heat your broiler, cut the grapefruit in half, section them (i.e. run a knife around rim and then the little sections), top it with sugar or maple syrup if you want, and broil for a few minutes. I usually eat breakfast at my desk at work in the mornings, so this would be more of a weekend thing for me.

A healthy start to the day! And it is pretty quick and easy to make. Not to mention...yacht week is coming up, so I may start adding this to my breakfast routine.

Quinoa with Almond Milk & Dates, Serves 3 (recipe adapted from various sources)

Ingredients

• 1 cups of quinoa, rinsed 
• 2 cups almond milk (home made or store bought)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/4 cup chopped dates 
• 1/4 cup slivered nuts (almonds, walnuts, whatever you like!)
• Chia Seeds (optional)

Rinse your quinoa as directed on the package - this gets rid of the bitter outside part. 

In a medium saucepan, combine the quinoa, almond milk, cinnamon, and vanilla extra and bring it to a light boil. Reduce the heat to low, and cover the saucepan for about 10-15 minutes over medium low heat. 

In the meantime, chop up some dates. Stir them into the quinoa porridge.

Spoon into three bowls and top with chia seeds. If you would like your quinoa porridge to be slightly soupier, top it off with more almond milk.