breakfast of champs

I love all grain-like, warm breakfast cereals. Oatmeal, oat bran, buckwheat...you name it, I love it! So when I saw this post on Joy the Baker, it sparked many ideas. Sometimes on weekends when I don't have time to get groceries, I scrounge my fridge and cupboards to see what I can manage to pull together for breakfast. This morning, with quinoa in mind, I realized I has some coconut, cinnamon dusted pecans {amazing, btw!} and apples that I could saute up in butter and cinnamon. Oh yea...and don't forget the maple syrup. It was awesome! Not quite the same as Joy made, but I figure, that's the fun in cooking sometimes. With quinoa, you could experiment and have so many different variations, depending on the season and what's in your cupboards. Here's my version if you're curious:

Breakfast Quinoa {or I like to call Breakfast of Champs}

1 cup of quinoa {you can make it with red, yellow etc.}

2 cups of water

pinch of salt

1 whole apple, chopped

1 tsp butter to sauté with

3 tablespoons of cinnamon-dusted pecans

1 tsp nutmeg

cinnamon {to taste}

coconut {to taste}

maple syrup {to taste}

Rinse dry quinoa.  Place quinoa, salt, and water in a medium pot.  Bring to a boil over medium heat. While quinoa is boiling, add butter to small saute pan. Once butter starts to simmer, place apples in and dust with cinnamon. On low-medium heat, saute apples until soft. Simmer the quinoa until all of the water is absorbed.  Stir occasionally.  Turn off element and allow quinoa to cool slightly.

After quinoa has cooled slightly, sprinkle in 1 tsp of nutmeg, and 1 tsp of cinnamon and stir. Add in sautéed apples. Spoon into any size bowl you like. Sprinkle with crushed pecans, coconut and maple syrup to your liking! Enjoy!

Note: You could toast the coconut, I just got lazy! If you'd like to, follow Joy's instructions I've copied here.

*Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread coconut in a single layer across the sheet.  Toast the coconut.  Keep a close eye on the coconut, it could burn quickly.  Coconut will be browned and fragrant after about 6 minutes.  Remove from the oven and place in a small bowl.

Photos via myself