Chocolate Chip Quinoa Waffles

Recipe from Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood pg.19

Ingredients: Organic quinoa flour, baking powder (non-gmo), salt (sea salt), sugar (raw honey), organic eggs, milk (unsweetened almond), water, oil (coconut oil), vanilla extract, cacao chocolate chips.

I ground my own quinoa flour in my vita-mix dry grains container...

1. Heat quinoa in a pan, medium heat, stir frequently.

2. When it starts popping for one or two minutes take it off the stove.

3. I pour it onto a cookie sheet to spread out and cool down.

4. Put it into the Vita-mix and start to blend at low speeds, slowly increasing to high speeds.

(DO NOT blend for more than a couple minutes, it's not good for the blade.)

5. Put it in a container and store in the fridge for longer freshness!

*Quinoa flour has a nutty smell and flavor, that can be strong. It's a great gluten-free option!

The Ultimate Granola & Sugar

 This recipe is from Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood pg.18.

Ingredients: Organic oatmeal, quinoa, flaxseed, sesame seeds, almonds, raisins, cinnamon, maple syrup.

A box of organic granola between $7-7.50 at Costco will fill up this whole container. I made 2 1/2 cups of oatmeal and 3 C of organic oatmeal in bulk costs $1.50, so my container (some already eaten) of homemade organic oatmeal costs just a few dollars.  I am also trying to avoid all types of cane sugar and organic products always have evaporated cane sugar (which seems to be just as bad as white sugar, minus the chemicals and pesticides.)

***All sugars are metabolized differently in the body and will effect us in very different ways. Our bodies need sugar for energy and for our cells and organs to function properly (like our muscles and brain.) We just have to make sure that we are getting sugar from the right sources! It's best to get it from whole foods...fruits, veggies, and grains. Our bodies know how to process these properly and retrieve and use the nutrients so that our bodies benefit from it. 

Continuously feeding your body processed refined sugar is very harmful to your body because essentially it is foreign to the body, there is no nutrients, it's toxic. Toxic because it can cause diseases e.g. heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, etc. Sugar's in whole fruit form have all the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and fiber to protect our bodies from immediately ingesting sugar. During digestion it all gets metabolized and broken down, separated, and absorbed into the body gradually, so that our cells and organs get the right amounts of everything. On the other hand when sugar has been processed and refined it gets directly absorbed into the bloodstream and with no protection from vital nutrients in digestion and once in the liver it is metabolized and becomes an extreme burden on your liver and eventually other organs. These organs become more fatty and slow and stop working at full capacity, eventually affecting the whole body. Not only this, but refined sugar in high amounts leads to gaining weight, could be a lot of weight! Your metabolism is tricked and tells your brain that it's not full, "it turns off your body's appetite-control system"...the unhealthy, high doses, toxic sugar turns right into fat. Not good!

All sweeteners/sugars found in unhealthy processed food are so bad for the body! In the end they will only make the body gain weight and cause the body to be much more susceptible to diseases.

All of this information is very general and may not be entirely accurate (I'm still learning), but all in all it's so important to get sugars from the right sources!!! 

  

Organic Quinoa Pancakes

I got this recipe from my Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood. I blended organic quinoa in my vita-mix and then mix all the ingredients. We put a little agave for syrup and frozen cherries on top!