Leftover Quinoa Pancakes

Some mornings, I wake up ravenously hungry.  You would think I had put in a long run the day before but nope, it's just my new lap swimming and walking routine and oh yes, growing twin girls!

Yes unfortunately I'm no longer allowed to run for the duration of my pregnancy, but it has been a surprisingly easy adjustment to slip into swimming laps a few times a week, and maintain gentler yoga and barre-type workouts combined with long dog walks and the occasional easy bike ride.  I'm definitely moving slower these days and at a lower intensity, but I'm pretty much hungry all the time.

heading out to walk and swim...all the while thinking of what to eat for lunch

Often I lay in bed a few minutes after I wake, dreaming up what I'll have for breakfast.  This morning, I couldn't be bothered to cook anything, so I ate a leftover organic veggie patty and spinach from last night's dinner, followed by an umeboshi onigiri an hour later (Japanese snack of sushi rice, seaweed and umeboshi that I could eat everyday).

Yesterday though was a different story.  I wanted pancakes, and as I pondered what kind to make, I remembered the leftover quinoa in the fridge.  I wondered if I could do an easy eggy quinoa pancake, and it turns out--yes!  It's easy, fast, nutritious and pretty filling.  So whether you're toting around a baby or two, or just heading out for your typical active day, you'll appreciate this easy quinoa pancake.

Quinoa Pancake
yields 4

Ingredients:
1-1/4 cup leftover cooked quinoa
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon crystallized honey or date sugar (optional)

Directions:
1.  Mix all ingredients into a bowl.
2.  Heat a pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat and add a spritz of coconut oil or avocado oil or oil of choice.
3.  Spoon batter into the pan, in a circle shape.  I cooked two at once, and ended up with 4 medium pancakes.  Flip once batter is set and golden brown, about 3-4 minutes, and flip for the other side for a remaining 2 minutes.
4.  Serve with honey or syrup or fresh fruit.  Enjoy!

*I drizzled mine with raw honey.  These pancakes soak up moisture fast, so it ended up being a fluffy spongey honey quinoa taste, which I loved.

By late afternoon, it's pretty much reading, resting and cuddle time with Yogi...we're both wishing we had more pancakes

Recovery Rice Crispies

Eat up after your workout with a protein-rich delicious and filling rice crispy treat.  Healthier than your childhood favorite and way more rewarding.  I used Wild Friends flavored sunflower seed butter (they now have organic sunflower seed butter!) but feel free to use whatever nut or seed butter you have on hand.

This is a great post workout treat as it contains carbs and protein (and tastes good, of course).  Many sports and fitness nutritionists support that eating an appropriate amount of carbs in the 20 to 30 minute window following a workout restores muscle energy stores, and that a smaller ration of protein helps with recovery and repair.

Recovery Rice Crispies

Ingredients:

1/3 cup Wild Friends Honey Sunflower Seed Butter
1/3 cup Wild Friends Chocolate Sunflower Seed Butter
2 tablespoons water
1/2 mashed banana (about 1/4 cup)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
2 tablespoons water
2 cups Rice Cereal*
2 cups Erewhon Crispy Rice Cereal*

*any sort of rice/crispy rice cereal should do!

Directions:

1.  On low heat, heat sunflower seed butters in a small pan.  Once melty and warm, add in water until slightly runny.  Stir in protein powder of choice and add the last 2 tablespoons of water.

not so pretty, but so delicious!

2.  In a medium bowl, pour the mixture over the rice cereal.

3.  Line a 9" pan with wax or parchment paper and spritz with coconut oil.  Press mixture into pan and freeze until set, then slice and serve!  Stores well covered in the freezer.

The best deal on Wild Friends: trio of organic sunflower seed butters in the best flavors!  They also do great nut butters.

In a pinch, use plain seed or nut butter in the recipe, and add in honey and cacao powder and a dash of maple syrup and sea salt to taste.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rice Crispy Treats

I know, right?  More rice crispy treats?? Well, I purchased gluten-free brown rice cereal and I realized it is way more fun and tasty to create a bar out of it than eat it blandly in a bowl.

Check out my previous post if you still don't care much for pumpkin: it is so good for you!  So is cinnamon, for that matter.  This recipe is easy, tasty and sneakily healthy, like so many of my "desserts" are.  While my husband pointed out that I haven't had a real rice crispy treat in years and that they cannot truly compare, I disagree.  Because these rice crispy treats taste great and yet still provide nutrition through healthy ingredients to fuel you on your day or workout, they win over a traditional buttery marshmallow dessert, hands-down.  Plus they are gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, nut-free and corn-free for those of us with extreme sensitivities.  Perhaps best of all, they are very fast and simple to make.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rice Crispy Treats

Ingredients:
1/3 cup sunflower seed butter or almond butter
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon Red Ape cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon lucuma powder* optional
sprinkle of sea salt
3-1/2 cup brown rice cereal (I used Erewhon for this recipe)

Directions:

1.  Heat seed butter, honey, pumpkin and water together in a saucepan over medium heat.  Remove from heat after it bubbles and gets pretty liquid-y.  Stir in vanilla, then cinnamon and lucuma.

2.  Pour over brown rice cereal, then pack mixture into a lined or greased 8" pan.  Freeze 15 minutes to firm up before cutting and serving.

Why add lucuma powder?  You can reduce sugar or sweeteners in recipes by adding lucuma.  Lucuma is a great natural sweetener.  If you add lucuma to this recipe, you can even increase it to 1 teaspoon and reduce the honey to 3 to 4 tablespoons. Lucuma is a dry and starchy fruit native to Peru, and has a low glycemic index despite its sweet taste, and it has high amounts of beta-carotene, iron and vitamin B3.

By the way, most of these ingredients are found on Vitacost.com; they have tons of organic ingredients and ship in one day, which is hard to beat.  If you sign up through this link, you'll receive a $10 off coupon, and when you're order ships, I'll get a $10 coupon too--it's a win-win for both of us, and I'll have a reason to buy even more delicious organic ingredients to play with.