January 26, 2013

Overnight Hot Oat, Dried Cranberry and Quinoa Cereal

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My meal plan got thrown-out the window this week. With a Monday holiday and very cold weather, dinners haven't gone as planned. I utilized a lot of leftovers and baked a little more than usual. My youngest somehow ate an entire batch of brownies by himself. Luckily for me I was able to eat one before the rest went into his hollow stomach. Breakfast is still a struggle with my youngest son. He would rather eat anything, except something healthy. Oatmeal is the one breakfast food that I can almost always convince him to eat, he loves it. The only problem I have is that the steel cut oats that he loves take a long time to prep when he is hungry in the morning. Therefore I have been trying a variety of overnight oat recipes. Last week I made a new recipe from Bon Appetit magazine for Overnight Hot Oat, Dried Cranberry and Quinoa Cereal.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 10 minutes of prep, an overnight soak and then 5 minutes in the morning and makes 4 servings. I decided to double the recipe in order to have enough for everyone in my family. For the dried fruit I used dried cranberries. For the toppings I added pumpkin seeds, a small amount of vanilla and maple syrup. I have never been able to find cardamom at my local stores so I left it out. Make sure to rinse your quinoa very well. If you have never used quinoa before rinsing is a very important step. The rinsing gets rid of the bitter taste and without the rinse the quinoa will have a distinct bitter taste, that is not appetizing. Even if the brand that you buy claims that it is pre-rinsed, still rinse the quinoa again. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My youngest son and I both liked the idea behind this recipe. However, it needs a few changes. The taste of the quinoa was very strong. My husband wasn't a fan of the quinoa taste at all, so this recipe as written would have to be for somehow that really likes quinoa. I would suggest decreasing the amount of quinoa to 1/4 cup and increasing the steel cut oats to 3/4 cup. Adding additional fruit for sweetness might also help. The recipe suggests using barley instead of quinoa, which if you can eat gluten would be a great change and I think make the dish even better.

For the recipe go to Hot Oat and Quinoa Cereal.

6 comments:

  1. Looks yummy! I've heard of recipes like this before but never tried one yet. I am intrigued though. Will have to to try it!

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    1. It's a nice way to save time in the morning. I am always running late :)

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  2. I keep hearing about quinoa, but I still have yet to try it.

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    1. If you rinse it first it can be great in cooking and baking. Just make sure to do the rinse or it can taste very bitter!

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  3. This sounds delicious! I eat hot cranberry oatmeal nearly every morning so this would make a nice variation to that!
    -Jamie
    http://chatterblossom.blogspot.com/

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    Replies
    1. I love oatmeal too, this is nice and easy to prep and cook which I like :)

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