Breakfast Quinoa

Quinoa...

Pronounced keen-wah, it's a lovely little grain (or seed) which has lots of health benefits. It's full of protein, and has been proven to aid weight loss. I discovered quinoa earlier this year in my university kitchen, but didn't really cook with it that much. It can be a little bit of an effort to prepare, and takes far longer to cook than standard white rice (or if you're lazy like me, the 1minute uncle ben's rice packs). However, if made well, it can definitely be worth all the effort.

It's a grain used in savoury dishes, but I stumbled upon an awesome recipe for a Breakfast Quinoa, which replaces normal porridge oats with wholesome quinoa, and has added sweetness from fruits, sugars and cinnamon.

I've been trying to shed a few pounds in preparation for my sister's wedding in a couple of weeks time (eeeek, stress!). I'm basically cutting out carbs and other processed foods and just sticking to natural, protein-filled things. In this sense, quinoa is a bit of a god-send. It's Martha Stewart's recipe but I've adapted it a little. 

Ingredients (2-3 servings)

3cups skimmed milk

1 and a half cups of uncooked quinoa, rinsed.

between 1tsp and 1tbsp of Splenda (depending on how sweet you like it)

a pinch of cinnamon (1/3tsp - not too much)

lots of fresh fruit.

NOTE

You can alter the size of the portion easily, just make sure that the ratio of milk:quinoa remains 2:1. Everything else is constant and can be determined by your personal taste.

I love lots of fruit in my quinoa, you can choose anything. I had a couple of handfuls of strawberries, a load of blueberries and 3 plums cut up into small pieces. This made enough for me and my mum to share, plus some surplus to keep in the fridge for later, so don't worry about how much fruit there is; it evens out!

Clearly, I'm a fruit fan!

Method

Bring the milk to a boil in a small pan, and then bring the heat down to a simmer and throw in the rinsed quinoa. Stir and cover and cook for around 15-20 minutes, or until around 3/4 of the milk has been absorbed. 

At the start.

After the 15-20 minute mark, stir in the Splenda and cinnamon, cover again and cook for another 5-8 minutes.

I wish I had a perfume with this scent. It's just divine!!!!!

Once cooked, mix in a bit of the fruit (I used around half) and pour into a serving dish. Garnish with the rest of the fruit and more Splenda/cinnamon if you fancy. 

And voila, high protein and full flavoured Breakfast Quinoa!

It's yummy cold too. So if you're too full to finish your portion, cover it and put it in the fridge to finish later on in the day. 

It could also be served with honey or agave nectar (like a normal porridge), but I'm trying to cut the extra sweetness out of my diet so I went without.

Wedding is in 12 days. YIKES! Better get going!!!

J xx 

Malteser Cupcakes with Popping Candy

Maltesers are probably my favourite chocolate. They're just so light (and one of the lowest calorie chocolates, am I right?).. However, this can be problematic, since once I open up one of those big 'to share' bags, I won't stop until they're all gone. I was chatting to my friend Beth the other day about how I'm a sweets/choc fan and she's a crisps fan, and she coined the term 'empty bag syndrome', i.e, the consumer of a bag of crisps cannot be satisfied until the contents of the said bag are entirely devoured. It's definitely something I suffer from! But alas, until they find a cure, looks like I'm stuck with a collection of empty Oreo wrappers and bags of haribos. 

Anyway, Malteser cupcakes were one of the first things I ever baked (back in the day). The batter is my standard vanilla one (the basis of this recipe is identical to that of my Oreo and Rolo cupcakes, the decorations are just different), and I've garnished the frosting with a Malteser and a sprinkle of popping candy, something I only just discovered! It's so cool!! 

So, let's get started!

Ingredients

170g unsalted butter, softened

120g caster sugar

35g brown sugar

3eggs and 1 extra yolk

1/2tsp of vanilla extract

170g all purpose flour

1tsp baking powder

pinch of salt (don't forget this, I always do!!)

huge bag of Maltesers. Keep 12 separate.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin pan with 12 liners. Cream the butter and sugar with a handmixer, and add in the eggs one by one and then the vanilla, maintaining a medium speed. Next, move the mixer to one side, and fold in the flour, baking powder and salt until just incorporated. Fold in all of the Maltesers (not the 12 you reserved at the beginning). If you put all the Maltesers into the batter (minus the 12), it'll prevent you from nibbling on any surplus ones left in the bag!! Smart move eh?

Use an ice cream scoop to fill the cupcake cases, ideally 2/3 - 3/4 full. The Maltesers make the batter much bigger, so you can either fill the cases much higher than usual, or use any extra to fill a couple more cupcake cases. When I made them, I just equally distributed it between the 12 cases and filled them to the brim. They don't rise that much, so they won't overflow if the batter is near the top. 

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre (try not to poke into a Malteser) comes out clean and the cakes are firm and golden. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the side.

FROSTING

My normal cream cheese frosting is a favourite, but I thought I'd try using less cream cheese and replace it with butter. It just makes it a bit denser and creamier.

100g cream cheese, softened

75g unsalted butter, softened

300g icing sugar

1/2tsp vanilla extract.

popping candy sprinkles (these ones can be found in Waitrose)

Beat all the ingredients together at a low speed. Make the effort to get more icing sugar in the bowl than on the kitchen walls (and yourself). I'm only speaking from experience....

Pipe onto the cupcakes, place the leftover Maltesers on top, and then sprinkle over the popping candy.

 My lovely friend Lauren asked me to make these for her brother's birthday, and since his favourite thing is popping candy, she gave me the container of the sprinkles. I'd never actually seen these before, so when she handed them to me my face just displayed a look of total surprise!! They're just so much fun!

Sneaky can of Sprite!!!!! (My mum's fault)..

AMAZING!

I made Oreo ones too.. Hehehehehehe.

See you soon!

xx