Quinoa orange cinammon muffins

I don't know if you are a creature of habit or like to shake things up every once in a while but whatever you are, with respect to your morning breakfast, I think you are going to love this muffin. I know people that are perfectly happy to eat cereal or oatmeal every single morning. At most, adding a banana or berries. Not that there's anything wrong with that but if you want something to grab-and-go, a healthy muffin seems like a pretty good choice.

Now I know y'all are thinking quinoa.. in a muffin.. meh. or worse... yuck? Not so. I've made another version of quinoa spice muffins but I think I like this one better because of the citrus in it.  It's healthy and if you make it with whole wheat pastry flour it would be quite filling.  I made a few substitutions based on what I had in the pantry and fridge.

[Original recipe from ledelicieux.]

Ingredients:

-  1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
-  1/2 cup cooked quinoa
-  1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
-  1 egg
-  1/2 cup sugar
-  1/4 cup agave
-  1 tsp vanilla extract
-  1 1/2 tsp baking powder
-  1/2 tsp baking soda
-  1/4 cup vegetable oil
-  2 Tbsp melted butter
-  1/2 cup orange juice  (add orange zest for more intense flavour)
-  1 cup milk
-  chocolate sprinkles for the pretty factor

I know it seems like a long list of ingredients, but most are subsitutable- agave/honey/sugar ; milk/buttermilk  ; cooked quinoa/quinoa flakes.

Directions: 
1.  Preheat oven to 375F

2.  In a mixing bowl, combine flour (sifted), cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and whisk.

3.  In another bowl, whisk egg, sugar, milk, orange juice and agave, oil and melted butter.

4.  Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until just combined. Stir with a wooden spoon. Do not use a mixer. It will overmix and that means muffins hard as rocks. No good.

5.  Stir in the cooked quinoa.

6.  Line the muffin pan with muffin liners and using an icecream scoop, pour the batter into the muffin pan.

7.  Sprinkle top with chocolate sprinkles!

8.  Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Mexi-quin-oa with black beans

Sorry for the cheesy title :grin:

I was getting tired of the one quinoa creation - Upma I blogged about earlier.  Since just about any dish can take on a Mexican avatar, I thought why not quinoa.  Around the same time I learnt about this recipe posted on my running forum. So this is a take on B's recipe.

Quinoa with Black Beans


Ingredients:

- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- 3/4 cup quinoa, dry roasted
-  1 1/2 cups vegetable broth or water
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 Tbsp taco seasoning
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 jalapeno chopped or 1 tsp cayenne (depends on how hot you like)
- 1 cup corn, frozen, or can
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup salsa


I know it looks like a really long list of ingredients but a lot of it is seasoning so you could do any combination of the spices and it will still taste excellent.

Method:

I prefer to cook the quinoa separately and then mix to sauteed ingredients.

- Bring broth to a boil, add quinoa and then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- In a separate pan, sautee onion, red pepper, garlic, spices, jalapeno.
- Mix in corn and the quinoa and black beans and cook for 5 minutes till everything is combined well
- Turn off heat and add in the cilantro and lemon juice

WOW Quinoa!

Ever since I heard about Quinoa (Keen-wah) I've been meaning to give it a try. I think I first heard about it from the forum, the abode of collective wisdom.  It's packed with protein (a 1/4 cup contains 6grams of protein!!!) and is gluten free which makes it oh so nutritious.

I was shopping around in Costco and what was right there staring at me in  the face? A big 2lb bag of Quinoa. Now I usually don't buy items I've never tried before in bulk but this time I was feeling the love and picked up the bag. And so far it's not disappointed.

I've really only tried one dish- Quinoa Upma but it's captured both my stomach and taste buds so it's a regular at our house now.

Quinoa Upma

Ingredients:

- 1 carrot chopped
- 1 onion chopped
- grated ginger 1 tsp
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 1 serrano chilli or more if you like your heat
- 1 green pepper (or any other pepper) diced
Add any other vegetable like potato, sweet potato, zuchinni.... sky's the limit.
- 1/2 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 2 cups water or veggie stock
- handful of cilantro chopped

Directions:

1. Dry roast 1 cup of Quinoa till it turns light brown and starts to smell a little nutty.
2. Sautee onions, ginger, green chilli in a bit of oil till onions are translucent
3. Add the curry and cumin powder and continue to sautee
4. Add all the chopped veggies in order of the time it takes to cook.. eg. add potatoes and carrots in the beginning and peas towards the very end.
5. Add the roasted quinoa and water 
6. Cover and let cook for 25 minutes on medium heat.
7. At the very end add the frozen peas and cilantro. Fluff the quinoa with a fork. It should look transparent else it needs to cook a bit more.
8.  Serve warm (I like mine with ketchup or a bit of sourcream!)