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

Eire Go Brach!

I guess I'm running a bit behind on these posts. A bit later while the potatoes are boiling, I'll take a moment to figure out how many posts I need to add to catch up.



This is just a quick note to say that tonight I'll be making corned beef, cabbage, and champ. The recipe for corned beef and cabbage can be found at epicurious.com. What I like about this dish (as with much from the British Isles) is that you're basically just boiling something within an inch of its life. Literally, this recipe calls for 3-4 hours of boiling (which means I should get to the store and get home soon if I ever plan on going to sleep).



Champ, on the other hand, I learned from a lovely ginger-haired lad I dated for a while who was from Belfast. While he was staunchly loyal to Britain, I still choose to celebrate Ireland Forever (Erie Go Brach) with his recipe. It was a damp cold day when he made this for me, and it just could not have warmed me up any better. Essentially, you simmer milk (or cream...skim probably isn't the best here) with a knob of butter and some scallions. You're basically seeping out all of the scallion-y goodness and the milk becomes infused with it. You then use that oniony-milk yumminess to serve as the lubricant for mashing your potatoes. They end up being a bit soupier than traditional mashed potatoes, but they're lovely and creamy and decadent. He said his mom used to make it for him when he wasn't feeling well. It truly is the ultimate comfort food.