Breakfasts

This is what I've been eating for breakfasts lately:  some grains, maybe some beans, and fruit or veggies.    For example,

Here was a "mango salad":   oat groats, beans, mango, lime juice and cilantro.  I had this for 3-4 days:

Here was a "savory" breakfast.  I cooked up a batch of rice of different kinds (brown, wild, forbidden).   I store that in the fridge and have a serving each morning so can make a quick meal out of it.  Here I cooked up some onion and spinach and garlic, and some spice (don't remember, but some good ones are tandoori seasoning, singapore seasoning, cumin, curry, or nothing at all--it's quite good all by itself).   At left is some teeccino (chicory barley drink), top are a few frozen blueberries, top right, a few gulps leftover after making housemate's smoothie (usually just a few Tbs are left):

Next day it's the same rice mixture, cooked up with spinach and onion (probably some garlic too) and red bell pepper.   I also accidentally got to enjoy part of a potato.  When you bake a potato, if you forget to punch holes in it with a fork first, then it's best not to handle it just after it's done cooking; if you grab it a little too forcefully, it can explode like this one did.  so I enjoyed what was left after it exploded in the oven.  Along with that is a bit of frozen mango and the leftover gulp from housemate's smoothie.

Here's more of the same.  You start to see the picture.  This day I was in a hurry.  I just added frozen peas to my grains (heated up), and cooked up some spinach in the orange bowl (I love cooked spinach just plain).  There's a few frozen mangos and blueberries, a few gulps from the smoothie, and some teeccino.

This day I cooked up some oatmeal, cooked up and onion, red bell pepper, and spinach, combined them with some curry and nutritional yeast---it was very good.  with the usual suspects on the side:

For the last few days, my grains were kamut, barley and rye.  I had them with a banana for a couple of days (and cinnamon), with the usual suspects on the side (cooked spinach, blueberries, etc).  Oh, and I like to read a blessing from this book before I eat:

Today I was in the mood for beans with my grains, so I had beans, grains, strawberry and banana, and the usual suspects on the side.

This is a filling and satisfying breakfast.  I love it!

cooked multi-grain

I don't know what else to call this.  It is a bunch of grains cooked together.  I couldn't pick one so I cooked them all.

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 cup purple barley
2. 1/4 cup forbidden rice
3. 1/4 cup oat groats
4. 1/4 cup buckwheat 
5. 1/4 cup red quinoa

I have them ordered in their cooking time (longest first).  Total cooking time was 1 hr, 15 minutes or so, plus another hour to cool.  This is one of those things you do when you are at home doing other things. I was reading a book and the breaks were okay because it was one of those books that makes you think.

• Add the barley to 3 cups water, bring to boil, turn down to simmer, cook for 25 minutes.
• Add the forbidden rice, bring to boil, turn down to simmer, cook for 10 minutes.
• Add the oat groats; cook for 10 minutes.  While that is cooking, prep the buckwheat and quinoa.  I put each in a bowl with some water and microwaved for 30-60 seconds to get hot.  let sit for 10 minutes, then rinse.  why?  well, the buckwheat has this layer that turns gooey in water so I like to rinse that off.  and I'm told the quinoa has a bitter outer coating.  Rinse both. 
• add the buckwheat, return to simmer/boil;  see if you need to add more water
• add the quinoa, return to simmer/boil,  cook for 15 minutes.  check.  cook longer if needed
• when it's done, if there is too much water, take the lid off and stir and let some evaporate.  you can pour it off too.  then call it "sticky grains" and pretend you intended it this way.

It sounds complicated but the times aren't set in stone.   Grains are pretty forgiving.  It's not like baking.

This makes 4 cups: