I read a lot of blogs that always feature the most beautiful and decadent breakfast recipes. French toast covered in berries, fluffy pancakes dripping with nut butter and syrup, veggie-stuffed omelets, smoothies in a bowl with pretty toppings, elegant overnight oat parfaits with melty banana soft-serve….and let’s not forget the endless oatmeal permutations.

Here’s a confession: I am just not a breakfast person.

When I wake up I usually just want to shove food in my mouth as fast as possible, so I cannot fathom making homemade waffle batter or processing frozen bananas before I get to eat. I also can never manage to eat very much even though I feel really hungry, so a giant stack of pancakes would go largely uneaten.

You’ve seen my fruit and yogurt bowls, nanner with nut butter, and the occasional bagel with cream cheese, but here’s another one in heavy rotation: muesli.

Essentially a bunch of nuts, grains, and dried fruits that I eat like a cereal with almond milk and seasonal fruit.

For this muesli, I tried my hand at popping amaranth for the first time. It was really easy!

Just heat a pan to medium-low and add about a tablespoon of raw amaranth.

It should start popping within 2 seconds if the pot is hot enough. I clamp on the lid since the little buggers like to jump straight into my eyeballs. Just wiggle the whole thing back and forth to make sure every grain gets heated evenly.

Just like with popcorn, some grains are just not ever going to pop, so get them outta there as soon as things start quieting down.

I love the warm nutty flavor and crispy texture of the popped amaranth.

Mixed in with all my other favorite bits and bobs, it makes for a healthy and filling breakfast.

My muesli

This healthy muesli is quick and customizable, delicious served with cold almond milk.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Yield: approx. 3 cups

Serving Size: 1/3 cup

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup popped amaranth
• 1/4 cup chia seeds
• 1/4 cup flax meal
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/4 cup toasted buckwheat
• 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1/8 cup dried goji berries
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder

Cooking Directions

1. Mix everything together thoroughly and serve with almond milk like cereal

The cocoa in this is a little bitter, but once the sweet almond milk hits it becomes the perfect sweetness. You could absolutely leave it out if that’s not your thing. It’s a great breakfast for a hot summer day and it keeps me full for a long time.

Have you ever made your own cereal?

June 25, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 6 comments

Thank you all for all the well wishes after yesterday’s post about my neck issues. I am really feeling a lot better now, almost back to normal.

I thought I’d lighten things up today with a recipe I made over Memorial Day weekend that totally wowed the crowd.

Prepare yourself for…….chocolate mascarpone stuffed strawberries!

Cuz if chocolate, cheese, and sweet strawberries can’t make a girl feel better when she’s hurting, what can really?

Jeff and I went to a barbecue on Memorial Day with a ton of people. I was really hurting that night, but it felt so good to see these get gobbled up in mere minutes. It always makes me so happy when people like my food.

I found some enormous strawberries at Publix and knew they’d be great for making a light dessert. In fact, I’ve made this exact dessert before with green tea flavored mascarpone and it was a big hit, so I kinda had an idea that this might go over well. 😉

To make, I just cored the strawberries with a paring knife then got to work on my filling.

I used 16 oz. of room-temperature mascarpone cheese, and whipped it up with about 1/4 cup cocoa powder, two generous squirts of agave nectar, and maybe a half a cup or more of unsweetened almond milk to thin it out some.

A scooped the sweet cheese filling into a ziplock bag and cut the tip to use like a piping bag. I actually have a set of piping bags with fancy tips, but I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to get it out.

They turned out beautifully though…

This recipe made about 20 giant stuffed strawberries.  It would make nearly twice that for regular sized strawberries, so if you’re not making these for an army you might choose to cut the recipe in half.

Chocolate mascarpone stuffed strawberries

The not-too-sweet chocolatey mascarpone filling in these luscious strawberries really lets the fruit take center stage in this easy summer dessert.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 20+ large strawberries

Ingredients

• 20 extra large strawberries
• 16 oz. unsweetened mascarpone cheese
• 4 tbsp. agave nectar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• up to a 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

Cooking Directions

1. Wash and allow strawberries to dry before cutting off the tops and coring them with a small knife.
2. Whip together all other ingredients and transfer to a piping bag.
3. Pipe cheese mixture into strawberries and refrigerate until time to enjoy.

The filling was not too sweet, allowing the flavor of the ripe strawberries to really shine. This is one recipe I’ll make again and again, as it’s super simple but always impresses.

Next time, stuffed strawberries with chocolate chips!

June 7, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 9 comments

I’ve started lifting weights again now that Jeff and I finally bought a small set of adjustable weights for the house. I’ve noticed that now that my body is constantly breaking down and rebuilding muscle that I am craving protein much more, which makes sense, but has led to some really unusual dinners lately.

I left the farmer’s market the other day with 4 huge short ribs, something I haven’t bought in over a year. I got home and suddenly thought to myself, “How did I talk myself into buying all this meat?! What am I gonna do with all of it?!” As you may know, Jeff and I are not vegetarians, but meat is never a requirement and is rarely the focus of the meals I make. So to come home with several pounds of beef ribs as an impulse buy kinda made me chuckle at myself a little.

Well, I had them, might as well make them awesome right?

I started making a flavorful marinade by heating up some garlic, ginger, scallions, and red pepper flake in sesame oil to release their flavors.

Then I added soy sauce, rice vinegar, mirin, and lemon juice. That got poured over the short ribs and left to marinate for about an hour.

I got a grill pan searing hot and sizzled the ribs on it, about 5 minutes on each side.

When those came off, I added some cubed pineapple to the grill pan and drizzled the leftover marinade over them. When the pineapple was nice and hot, it was time to eat!

I served it with jasmine rice and some of the spicy cucumber quick pickles that I made the other day.

This cut of meat has a lot of fat on it and several bones to work around, so there are really only a few good bites of meat on it. That’s why I bought 4 for just the 2 of us and it really was just the right amount. We ended up having about one and a half each and then Jeff took the last one to lunch the next day.

Garlic and ginger short ribs

Short ribs coated in a flavorful asian marinade.

Prep Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Yield: 2 to 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 medium-sized flanken-cut short ribs
• 3 large cloves of garlic (sliced)
• a 1 inch piece of ginger (grated)
• 2 scallions (sliced)
• a pinch of red pepper flake
• 2 tbsp. mirin
• 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• the juice of 1 lemon
• sesame oil

Cooking Directions

1. In a small pot heat garlic, ginger, scallions, and red pepper flake with sesame oil until fragrant.
2. Add liquid ingredients and allow to heat up but not boil.
3. Pour over short ribs in a sealable container, shake to coat and leave to marinate for 1 hour.
4. Grill short ribs on a very hot grill pan coated in sesame oil for about 5 minutes on each side.

This was a delicious combination of flavors. The ribs were so garlicky and flavorful, and the pineapple was bursting with sweetness.

Do you like fruit in savory dishes?

May 25, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 8 comments