It's been awhile since I tackled anything in the kitchen. I can easily survive on salads, canned fish and peanut butter smeared on pretty much anything. It also helps that there's a chipotle 10 minutes away that's easy to walk to and Robert makes dinner a few nights a week when he's around. We're busy people, and most days I'll happily pick family time, writing, librarying, and tennis over cooking or tinkering around in the kitchen.
But I do love to cook. It just happens to be at the bottom of the very long list of things I love.
Today I carved out a little time to try out a new porridge. I am a hot cereal fanatic. Oatmeal, farina, quinoa, grits... You name it, I love it. When I read about amaranth porridge in Lucid Foods I was instantly intrigued and knew I had to try it. It has a lot of protein and fiber and is easy to cook. After three different grocery stores, I finally found it at Whole Foods.
I soaked a cup of amaranth in two cups of water overnight. Though I googled it and discovered many people thought the soaking was unnecessary, I went ahead and followed the recipe from Lucid Foods.
This morning I brought the amaranth to a boil in the water I soaked it in. From there I let it simmer for 12 minutes, and it was ready to go.
Because I like different toppings on each of my hot cereals (brown sugar and milk with oatmeal, chocolate chips and milk with farina, cashews, honey, chocolate chips, banana with quinoa) I knew that I needed to try the amaranth many different ways. So I set up a taste test and experimented for awhile (I had way too much fun doing this).
I tried it with chocolate chips, banana, peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla and butter in a myriad of combinations. I quickly discovered that the banana, chocolate chips, peanut butter combination was the best. Though I liked none of the brown sugar combinations, I did notice that the vanilla really popped. So I added a dash of vanilla to the banana, chocolate chips, and peanut butter and it was delicious. I'll definitely make this again, and am feeling pretty confident that the remaining servings from today can be warmed up and will taste just fine.
While making the amaranth porridge I also made a green mojito smoothie recipe from an unknown source. It was delicious and I highly recommend it.
For the green mojito smoothie:
1 cup water
handful of spinach or mixed greens (I used frozen)
1 cup pineapple
1 lime (recipe calls for half, but I'm definitely tossing the whole lime in next time)
1/4 cup mint (Robert's mom, Audrey, has a mess of it in her garden right now, so thanks Audrey!)
handful of ice (I like to pour my smoothie over ice rather than blending it, but that's up to you)
It was such an awesome breakfast!
Three Words - Peanut Butter Powder.... Add that to your list of ingredients. It is so yummy on hot cereals. Is it good for you? Yes according to Consumer Reports: "Powdered peanut butter is made from roasted peanuts that have been pressed to remove most of the oil and then ground into a fine powder. Some brands contain a little sugar and salt. With most of the fat gone—powdered peanut butter has about 85 percent less than regular—you’re left with protein and fiber. A tablespoon has about 25 calories, 1 gram of fat, 3 to 4 grams of protein, and 1 gram of fiber. Regular peanut butter has the same protein and fiber counts, but has 96 calories and 8 grams of fat per tablespoon."
ReplyDeleteIt is also good in Fat Bombs.
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