Quinoa pronounced kēn-ˌwä

Cold weather version of my favorite breakfast! In the summer I love quinoa with avocado, tomato, olive oil and maybe a splash of Braggs or tamari. My sister replaces the avocado with cucumber (She’s missing out on some good-for-you fats, but it’s still tasty.) This recipe uses pumpkin pie spice, pecans, pomegranate arils, dried fruit and a little agave. Yum 🙂 You don’t have to toast the pecans, or you can keep toasted pecans on hand. I prepped the pomegranate by hand, but that can be done in advance or you can buy them prepared at Central Market and probably other stores.

Carrots-sweet root veggies

They aren’t just for rabbits, and they aren’t just raw salad additions.

I’m trying to find as many ways as possible to use these pennywise vegetables. So far, I’ve got carrot salad and sesame carrots. How do you like your carrots?

Sesame carrots

Carrot Salad

Quick, breakfast!

Banana, nutbutter, milk smoothie. Enjoy! 🙂

Three ingredients in a blender. It doesn’t get much quicker than my favorite smoothie.  It was a great meal before or after a bike ride…when I used to train on my bike  Now, it’s perfect for when I just don’t have time to sit down with a utensil.  I keep my bananas in the fridge which turns the peels brown, but makes them last longer.  I use original almond milk and creamy almond butter ’cause I don’t like dairy milk, and I’m not a huge fan of peanuts.

If you think it will help your mornings go more smoothly to do some prep or you want to freeze some emergency bananas, I suggest slicing, freezing and then store one banana per baggie.  I don’t usually take the time to do this, but it really doesn’t take long.

Freezing like this keeps fruits from becoming a chunk of banana ice the blender can’t handle

In case of emergency, make smoothie!