Instant Pot Quinoa "Cereal"

"You KNOW I only like the squares!"

Ever since my 2 year old first discovered cereal, he's been intrigued. In his defense, it was Cinnamon Life. Everybody knows how tasty that stuff is.

My father loves it. My nephews call it Life Squares and at one point would only accept full squares and express extreme displeasure if he was given a bowl of broken pieces.(There was a meltdown where, "you know I only like the squares!" was exclaimed by one of my nephews.)

I love the stuff too. I'd eat it every morning, if that were healthy. But it's not. So, we look to other options.

quinoa after being
cooked and stirred

Recently, I decided to try a recipe in my beloved Instant Pot. And, spoiler alert. It's a keeper for sure. My almost 2.5 year old loves "quinoa cereal." So that's a win right there.

I followed this recipe from Pressure Cooking Today (yes, that's a real website) pretty much to a T the first time I made it, and, it turned out pretty well. But it needed more umph. So, I amped things up for my second attempt by doubling most of the flavorings and adjusting some of the instructions. I also shifted the instructions to be specific to the Instant Pot. Below is the resulting recipe.

This time around, the result was more flavorful, but definitely wasn't too sweet. It was a great improvement on something that was already pretty dern tasty to begin with.

Instant Pot Breakfast Quinoa

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups uncooked quinoa, well-rinsed
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 4 tbsp maple syrup (real maple syrup is best)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/8 tsp salt
• Optional (read: recommended) toppings:
• milk
• pecans
• fresh berries

the fixins

Directions:

1. Put your quinoa in a fine mesh strainer/sieve. Rinse the quinoa thoroughly.
2. Add quinoa, water, maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt to the Instant Pot
3. Press "Manual" and make sure it is on high pressure. Adjust the time to 2 minutes (yes, you read that right...just one minute).
4. When the beep sounds, turn the Instant Pot off completely, and wait 10 minutes before releasing the remaining pressure through the Quick Release valve.
5. During these ten minutes:
1. Heat up the milk in a sauce pan on low
2. Toast the pecans on medium heat (put them in a pan with no fat - they've got enough fat in them). The key to toasting pecans is to move them around a lot (including flipping them) and not let one part of the nut get burned. 
6. When the Instant Pot is done releasing pressure, open the Instant Pot away from your face. 
7. Stir the quinoa with a fork to make sure that all flavors are fully distributed and to fluff up the quinoa grains.
8. Put quinoa in a bowl, pour some milk over the bowl (the amount is purely up to you), add some toasted pecans, and toss in some fresh berries (I'm partial to blueberries). 
9. Enjoy

That new year enthusiasm

As with many other people, I start the new year with an enthusiasm that is, let's face it, bound to wear off. That said, I'm celebrating my small wins.

Today, I didn't have too many wins on the breakfast or afternoon snack front. In my previous post, I mentioned my work is having a celebration where we had free breakfast tacos and free cupcakes. I had two of each.

However, the wins began shortly after work. I had worked too late to get to my pilates class on time, but that didn't stop me. I went to the gym and made sure to sign up for pilates classes on each of the Tuesdays and Thursdays for the rest of the month (it's a sign up class at the gym).

But signing up was not the win. I got on the treadmill. It wasn't the world's best workout, but let's be honest, I usually bite off more than I can true, so slow and steady is my new motto. I did 30 mins: a 5 min walking warm-up and then did 3 minutes running and 1 minute walking. I didn't remember to look at the distance I covered, but all in all, I was pleased.

The wins continued at the grocery store where I didn't buy too much (a SERIOUS win), I didn't have any impulse purchases (unless you count pickles and soy sauce), and everything I purchased was healthy.

Another win was dinner. Super healthy. Preheat oven at 350 (ahhh...the good ole all-purpose 350). Two packets made from foil - one had a
salmon fillet (technically larger than I'm supposed to have, but hey), seafood seasoning, and slices of lemon. The other had two medium zucchini sliced in 1/4 inch slices, a little bit of olive oil, and some herbes de provence. The two packets stayed in the oven for 20 mins and came out perfect. Delicious.


The last win of the evening (b/c clearly going to bed early isn't happening) was preparing my meals for tomorrow. 
In my Oots lunch box (as shown from top to bottom), I packed breakfast, lunch, and a snack.  Breakfast is Fage fat-free Greek yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, wheat germ, and ground flax seed.  Lunch is three beans (black, kidney, and green) and brown rice with a bit of italian dressing on it.  Hearty, tasty, and full of fiber. On the left is one of my latest favorite "desserts"...it's really just apples and dried cranberries in a skillet with some water and cinnamon stewed down until the apples are really soft and the cranberries are somewhat rehydrated.  It's so delicious.  And, technically, the only bad thing for you is the sugar in the cranberries. 


The next row down is the snack row.  18 (one serving) of All-bran crackers and two pieces(?) of Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss.  Each of those are only 35 calories and they're super tasty.  Lastly, one of my favorite things is dill pickles.  This is two spears of Vlasic dill pickles.  Recently my boyfriend read that they have a lot of potassium (some runners/bikers drink pickle juice to avoid cramping), and since I'm getting back into working out, why not eat more pickles?  (In truth, I just like them.)



I also prepared (somewhat) for tomorrow night's dinner.  It will be chicken and brown rice stir fry. I've got chicken breasts in the fridge defrosting, I've got brown rice in the pantry, and tonight I purchased three different bell peppers, an onion, and some shredded carrots. I'm excited to make dinner tomorrow night. ...with my impulse buy...soy sauce. :-)

Yay new year enthusiasm!  And with that, good night.