Quinoa for breakfast- with cherries on top!

Feeling the need to switch it up for breakfast lately. I usually rotate between eggs & wheat toast and oatmeal & yogurt. Love 'em both, but needing some more variety! I've had this recipe saved for months and figured I'd give it a whirl. Plus, it's cherry season, so I've got to take advantage! (2 lbs of cherries for 3 Euro!) At first I thought the ricotta might be a little weird on quinoa (and for breakfast) but turns out it was just the right touch! A Greek yogurt (or other thick yogurt) would probably work just as well, too.

I ended up changing it significantly so I could use what I already had- feel free to change it yourself! I'd love to hear what kind of combos you all come up with. Here's what I did:

Breakfast Quinoa with Ricotta and Cherries
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 1 Tbs oil ( I used coconut; any could be used)
• 1/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup dried dates, or other dried fruit (such as raisins or chopped apricots)
• 2 Tbs pure maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp orange zest
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
• 1/4 cup ricotta cheese (full fat recommended!)
• 1 cup fresh cherries, pitted and halved (you could also use other berries, but then you'd have to change the name of the recipe ;)

Directions

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions. Fluff with a fork then set aside.

2. In a large skillet, heat the oil. Add  walnuts and cook over low heat for about 2 minutes, being careful not to burn them. Add the dates, maple syrup, orange zest and cinnamon and stir until heated through.

3. Add the quinoa to the skillet and gently stir to make sure the nut/fruit mixture is well distributed.

4. Each serving is one generous cup of quinoa mixture, topped with 1 Tbs ricotta and 1/4 cup cherries.  Sprinkle with more cinnamon if desired.

*I made this ahead of time and topped with ricotta and cherries just before serving. Each serving is approx. 350 calories (and worth every one!)

**Recipe adapted from Food & Wine. Check it out here.

Pumpkin in the morning, Pumpkin in the Evening, Pumpkin at Supper-time

All the pumpkin in this house called for some drastic creativity! Luckily, one of my BFF's sent me an e-article from SHAPE magazine on 10 different ways to cook pumpkin. Right away I knew had to make the lasagna. What a perfect twist to a usually strong & heavy dish. The natural savory flavor of pumpkin added a new "light" element to this meal, so much so that it needed very little cheese. I was a little worried, though, that the "unique-ness factor" would be a little too much for the hubby to handle. All day I kept telling him to "keep an open mind about dinner" without telling him what he'd be eating. Turns out- my worries were for nothing! I think he liked it even more than I did! The recipe left out a few important details, and as usual the commissary here left me without a few key ingredients, so I had to improvise a bit. But I'm getting ahead of myself..let's start  with breakfast :)

First, pumpkin oatmeal to warm me up! It was cold outside and nothing sounded better than warm, creamy, pumpkin-y oatmeal.

• 1/3 c oats
• 2/3 cups water
• 1/3 c pumpkin puree
• 1/4  tsp pumpkin pie spice + extra cinnamon
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 1/2 banana, halved and sliced
• 1/2 Tbs ground flax or 1 Tbs walnuts

1. Cook oatmeal in water according to instructions. When about 80% done (or after 4 mins for 5-minute oats), add in pumpkin, spices and maple syrup.

2. Cook an additional 1-2 mins. Remove from heat and stir in banana and nuts or flax.
 

No pumpkin at lunch, but dinner time = pumpkin lasagna! The light-ness of the pumpkin went perfectly with the mild veggies and ground turkey. I used oven-ready noodles and ended up cooking longer than the recipe said to.

Pumpkin "ricotta" layer. Store was out of ricotta (xgxasjifjrixx!) so I had to use cottage cheese.
Not quite the same, but it did the job.

Turkey-Veggie layer, on top of pumpkin-ricotta layer

I always forget to take the "after" picture because I'm so excited to eat. Oops!
Next time :)

And the final pumpkin "meal" was actually the following day, but same 24 hours- so that counts right? I met my chef-friend Sherry for a lesson in pumpkin-spice doughnuts! Mmmm mmmm.

First, in order to prepare for my indulgence, I started with a low-cal breakfast:
Egg beater & Veggie "open-face" omelet-yum!

Shaping the donuts- so cute!

Fryin' 'em up!

Finishing touch: cinnamon sugar coating

Even brought a few home for Chris, who I thought would be pumpkined-out by now. But alas, he still had room for some sweets :)

Can't put my finger on it... Chocolate Granola

Sometimes I get a craving for something out of my normal realm of foods- something specific- and I drive  myself crazy trying to figure out what inspired  my momentary obsession. And I usually can't stop thinking about it until I've consumed it...and then I'm over it. (Does that sound like a problem?) Such was the case recently with chocolate granola. First, I rarely eat granola; and although I love chocolate I never desire it at breakfast time. So this one threw me for a loop trying to recall where I might have read or heard about, or saw chocolate granola. Then a few days later I was wandering through our grocery store and I saw chocolate cocoa puffs and I remembered!

When we were in France-all of 2 weeks ago- our hotel had breakfast in the mornings. They had 2 options of cereal: corn flakes or chocolate (corn?) flakes. I was a little skeptical because again, perhaps the only time of I don't want chocolate is at breakfast. So the first day I had corn flakes with a "splash" of chocolate flakes. It was pretty good so the next day I had a little more. By the third day I was going for half-corn, half-chocolate, and by out last day I was eating straight up chocolate flakes. So, I imagine I was going through some kind of withdrawl when I got home.

Needless to say the hunt for chocolate granola recipes began. I was surprised at how few I found. My preference was quite particular for cocoa-coated granola and not granola with chocolate chips. I found a blog with a recipe that sounded right up my alley, and which was inspired by a food network recipe. I  often will compare recipes to other recipe-sites that I trust (like food network) to get an idea of proportions, temperatures and cooking times to see how I can alter if needed.

Here's what I did: 

2 Tbs cocoa powder, unsweetened
2 1/4 c rolled oats
1/2 c shredded coconut
1/2 c sliced almonds almonds

1/2 t salt
1 t ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg (I'll omit this next time..)

1/2 c dried cranberries or cherries (cherries would be better- we didn't have any available here!)
6 Tbs brown sugar
1/3 c honey (see recommended changes below)
1/4 c + 2 Tbs applesauce (6 Tbs)
1 T canola oil
hot water

coffee in the picture not part of the recipe :)

1. Preheat oven to 250-300 degrees. (I recommend lower range if using a lot of honey)
2. Pour hot water over dried cherries and allow to sit for 15 mins.
3. Mix dry ingredients (cocoa powder-nutmeg). *Consider adding coconut half-way through baking. I plan to do this next time.
4. In a small saucepan, heat brown sugar, liquid sweeteners, applesauce and oil until blended and runny.
5. Add liquid to dry ingredients, along with dried cherries (drained) and toss well to coat.
6. Pour into glass baking dish or walled cookie sheet and bake 45 mins to 1 hour, tossing every 15 minutes or so.
7. Allow to cool completely. (*I made the mistake of thinking it would dry out completely in oven, but part of that happens in the cooling process. I think this is why mine turned out a little too crispy.) 

Changes/Critiques:
I cut the amounts in half of original recipe since I knew I didn't need 10 cups of chocolate granola laying around. All in all, it was pretty good. I used more honey than necessary since I didn't have agave and I think it made it a little too crispy for my taste (honey gets so hard!). Next time, I'll use maple syrup/honey combo and perhaps cook at a lower temp for longer time.

*I liked that this receipe used applesauce. I've never seen that before but it really cut down on the amount of oil needed (and therefore less fat) and had no hint of apple taste. I wonder if I can do this with pumkin puree instead of applesauce too?? But not with the chocolate..

**I will probably add the shredded coconut later next time because it dried up and was tasteless after an hour of baking.

Advice and suggestions welcome! How do you make granola??