Sorry for the horrible photo, but I had to take these with my iPhone.

We had some leftover quinoa from last night’s dinner, so I thought a breakfast quinoa would be an interesting change of pace from our usual morning oatmeal. Here’s what I did:

I heated up about 1½ cups almond milk (sweetened/vanilla) in a sauce pan until it just began to boil. Then I added enough leftover quinoa to make kind of a porridge-y, grits-like consistency, then lowered the heat, added about 2 tablespoons brown sugar and a couple of good dashes of cinnamon, and stirred constantly until it was completely heated through.

Meanwhile, I had some frozen fruit (blueberries and strawberries) that I had thawed overnight, and some walnuts. I spooned some fruit/nuts into each bowl (Hannah wanted strawberries only, and I wanted strawberries, blueberries, and walnuts, because I like to live large).

When the quinoa was heated through, I spooned it into the bowls and then stirred vigorously to mix everything up. That’s it! It took about five minutes.

I thought it was pretty good — fluffy and soft, but the quinoa doesn’t disintegrate into mush, so you can still taste the individual grains. It’s similar to the (steel-cut) oatmeal we know and love, but has a lighter consistency and that distinctive, slightly grassy flavor of quinoa.

Hannah thought it was good, but still prefers oatmeal. I agree, but I think it’s a nice change of pace, and a pretty tasty way to use up leftover quinoa.