Small Town: Banana Bread Quinoa Breakfast Bowl

I must admit something at the moment….I’m bored. (Don’t tell my boss.) I love love love my job (seriously, John  my boss, I do.) but sometimes it is hard to drag yourself to your summer internship well when…it’s summer. And get ready for quite a bit of blogger name dropping (semi-accidently.)

Another issue I must constantly deal with is staying alert at work around 2:30-3:00pm when all I want to do is sleep. But as I’m busy almost every minute of the wok day, I must stay alert.

I am definitely going to have to figure out how to make Carrie at Bakeholic Mama’s Ice Coffee manageable in an office setting. As my London Blogger pal Kara says, work food (she was referring to lunch) must be office appropriate:

·         No strong odors or aromas

·         No need to heat up

·         Preferably no need to refrigerate if you can get away with it

That can be difficult when you usually go the leftovers route from the night before.

For me the best way to stay focused is to eat healthy before, during, and after work.

This leads me to the Banana Bread Quinoa Bowl. I’ve mentioned this baby before when I made my apple pie quinoa bowl, this being the original recipe. But the original from Heathly. Happy. Life. is still my favorite.

It is kind of amazing how long quinoa for breakfast keeps you full and focused. It is definitely a good way to get your superfood in to the daily mix. If you have a hard time staying full between breakfast and lunch, try this and you will notice a difference (take it from over-active-metabolism me.) Because quinoa is a little time consuming, I recommend making a batch the night before for the next few days as cooked quinoa does not develop nasty bacteria like cooked rice and will keep for a few days.

I love bananas, but not everyone, my mother included does. If you like this idea but want a non-banana option, try my apple pie quinoa breakfast bowl recipe…

The banana and nut combo is so great and of course just adds to the healthful factor of the breakfast while tasting like much more indulgent banana bread. Now of course the original recipe is vegan-tastic and mine is meant for the rest of us…who also buy quinoa.

 In this version I used the ultra addicting TrueNorth Almond Pecan clusters chopped up but raw nuts are more accessible so I am listing them as the ingredient.

Banana Bread Quinoa Breakfast Bowl: 2 Servings

(Adapted from Healthy.Happy. Life.)

Ingredients:

For the quinoa:

¾ cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and dried

1 ½ cups water, salted

1 cup fat-free milk (or vanilla soy milk)

Splash of vanilla extract (if using regular millk)

Cinnamon

Raw sugar

For the Banana Bread topping:

1 1/4 cups raw walnuts, roughly chopped
2 bananas, diced into chunky cubes
2-3 Tbsp maple syrup or raw sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp. butter

Optional: dollop of almond or peanut butter

Directions:

Add uncooked quinoa to a medium pot over medium heat. Slightly toast the quinoa for no more than a minute.

Add water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. (no peaking!!) Take off heat and do not open for five minutes, then gently fluff with a fork.

Set aside.

(If night before, Refrigerate until ready to use. Before adding banana topping, add milk, desired cinnamon, splash of vanilla, and dash of raw sugar. Heat up if necessary to heat milk, but not too much since quinoa is already cooked.)

Meanwhile, heat pan over medium heat and add butter until sizzling hot.
Toss your bananas and walnuts with the sweetener, cinnamon and vanilla. Add to hot pan.

Allow to sauté for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Stirring so that the nuts don’t burn.

Remove from heat. Cool slightly. Add to quinoa and serve immediately or store both separately in the fridge until ready to be used. The mixture will become sticky in the fridge.
If you are reheating in the morning, heat quinoa and topping separately and then mix adding dollop of almond butter on top and a little extra cinnamon.



Enjoy you lovely, hearty breakfast!

Love,

The College Cuisiner