Maple Cinnamon Buckwheat Crispies lead to Cereal Addiciton

Hi friends! Finally, the weekend!

I am not generally a big cereal eater. Mostly because I could eat half the box and still want more. I went through about a week during my first trimester where I wanted cereal all. the. time. So I ate it. Many times a day. And it was glorious! My diet is generally very well rounded, but especially now that I seem to crave certain things (kale and avocadoes and watermelon come to mind) and then eat them non-stop for several days, I’m trying to make sure I eat enough nutrients – especially carbs. Most of mine come from veggies and fruit. Buckwheat is a pretty amazing little grain: it’s gluten free, cooks quickly, tastes good raw, can be made into flour pretty quickly.

I basically followed the recipe from Raw Food Real World. Here’s what it looks like after dehydrating for awhile:

And after breaking into bite-size cereal pieces!

So good with organic blueberries and raspberries:

adding the almond milk:

The best part about this cereal is it is super-filling and satiating thanks to the protein in the buckwheat. One bowl is actually enough to keep me full all morning! I bet this would even be good without dehydrating, eaten like breakfast porridge – the texture of the raw, blended buckwheat is chewy and creamy.

When I was a kid, I loved Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs. Now all the weird ingredients freak me out and I'd rather eat buckwheat! Funny how that happens.

Are you a cereal eater? What's your favorite kind?

Succotash Dreams

Ever since Mama Pea posted this recipe, I have not been able to get the idea of Summer Succotash Quesadillas with Nacho MMM Sauce out of my head! I pretty much followed the recipe, using these Brown Rice Tortillas. For the nacho mmm sauce, I used this jarred Chipotle salsa:

Xochitl is awesome. They make the best tortilla chips ever (love the blue corn) - they are thin and crispy and gluten-free! The mmmm sauce is so tasty - i want to swim in a jar of this stuff! It's like liquid gold.

I'm not sure if it's better than original mmm or peanut mmm (haven't tried that one yet, but the sauce + noodle salad looks scrumptious). Don't make me choose. If it has mmmm in it's name, you'll be moaning "Oh My Peas!" no matter what you put it on :).

Veggies all prepped and ready to go:

The veggies sweating out in the pan:

The Daiya pepperjack cheese was awesome in this - melty, ooey, gooey with a great kick of flavor. I cooked my quesadillas on a cast iron skillet and it was perfect.

My hubby loves the Daiya too (he can't eat dairy) - he says it tastes buttery and cheesy. How could that be bad?

I love to pack up my lunch for work while I'm cooking dinner. It saves so much time and I don't have to rush around in the morning. Tomorrow's lunch - spring mix, romaine, kalamata olives, 1/2 avocado and vinaigrette: (I bring salad 99% of the time)

What a perfect meal for the end of a long day! This morning, Baby Spice (my bloggie nickname for the baby in my tummy!) and I ran / walked 6 miles. It wasn't very fast, but it. felt. amazing! I spent my first trimester being so tired, and the heat and humidity are ridiculous right now (even at 5am!), but to me, nothing beats the feeling of a good run. I signed up for the Disney Wine & Dine half marathon months before I was pregnant (did I mention this pregnancy was, um, not planned? at all? We wanted kids some day, but I thought it'd be in a few years! Surprise!), and because I'm cheap and stubborn, I want to run it anyway. I'll be 22 weeks at that point, but hopefully still high on the second semester energy. I figure I can always back out if I'm just not feeling it.

something to think about: I read this article today, and for some reason, it really hit home with me. Maybe it's because of the baby on the way, but lately I've really been re-evaluating my life - my job, my time, what I'm spending money on. It really is so true that you already have enough and are enough - it's only a matter of seeing it that way. Perspective is everything :)

Have you learned anything new by adjusting your perspective? Have you tried Mmmm sauce yet? Go do it. Now!

Making Mustard Greens Edible

The other day, I was picking up kale. 4 bunches of kale, to be exact (like all normal people do, right?) :). Except one bunch wasn't curly leaf kale. I discovered after I got home that it was....

mustard greens! Oh how I dread mustard greens. I've tried a few times to like them, but they always just seems so... potent. Too spicy, or peppery, or intense. I've juiced them, made salads, but to no avail... I couldn't like them. Maybe it was because I never tried cooking them? I generally don't cook my greens (and I love eating raw collard wraps! that's a pretty intense green to most people :)), but as I looked up recipes, I found quite a few that were appealing. In the end, I went with Susan's recipe for Balsamic-Glazed Chickpeas with Mustard Greens. By the way, if you don't already read her blog, go check it out! She has tons of easy, fast recipes and it's all vegan and delicious.

Of course, I added fat to the fat-free recipe and used Earth Balance (sooo buttery and yummy!) and a splash of extra virgin olive oil. Cooking the onion, garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes and carrots:

Adding the greens:

It looks like a lot, but they wilt down quite a bit. After 2 minutes:

I love how colorful this dish is!

After I took the greens & veggies out of the pan, I added balsamic, coconut aminos (soy-free, GF, vegan, to replace the soy sauce - if you haven't tried this stuff yet, you must - sooo delicious!), agave and chickpeas:

After the liquid reduced and the chickpeas had some nice color on them:

The finished product:

You know what? I actually like mustard greens. Maybe they are like tofu and you just have to cook them the right way. I love changing up the greens I eat (kale, spinach, spring mix, romain, red leaf, boston lettuce, arugala, watercress, chard, collards) to make sure I'm getting a variety of nutrients. Of course, kale almost always is in the house. I can't get enough! But now mustard greens can come home with me too.

In not-so-favorable cooking, I tried these new veggie burgers (bought with my own money, or more accurately, my hubby's since he picked them up for me):

Frozen meat patties in the wrapper: (the wrapper may have helped the flavor)

Of course, after making Angela's amazing veggie burgers, and Mama Pea's veggie burgers (seriously, these recipes are all amazing and I have made them all, most more than once. try them now!), any frozen patty is subpar. But these were terrible! They taste chalky and underseasoned and ... just gross. Sorry veggie burgers, but you're a no go. Score: husband = 1 for buying veggie burgers. New veggie burgers = 0 (major fail). Naturally, I can't get the Yucon Gold White Bean Basil burgers out of my mind. Sarah - you amaze me. I want your book to show up on my doorstep now!

Any awesome food finds or major fails for you? Tell me about it!