Quinoa Oat Cereal

I am not an oatmeal person but I love this recipe.  It is full of goodness, sweetened with maple syrup and dried fruit and an added crunch of nuts.  This recipe is made overnight and heated in the morning, so a quick breakfast.

Quinoa Oat Cereal

adapted from Bon Apetit Magazine

Ingredients:  

1. 1/4 cup dried fruit (I used cranberries and cut up dried apricots)
2. 1/4 cup quinoa (well rinsed)
3. 1/4 cup steel cut oats
4. 1/8 cup raisins
5. 1/2 tsp kosher salt
6. 1/2 tsp total - cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and cloves (see note)
7. 2 cups of water
8. Maple syrup
9. Milk
10. toasted walnuts, glazed pecans, toasted pumpkin seeds
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12. Directions:
13. In a small pot bring dried fruit, raisins, quinoa, oats, salt, spices and water to boil.
14. Cover and take off heat overnight.
15. In morning reheat cereal over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.  Add water if needed until cereal is warm about 5 - 8 minutes.
16. Serve with maple syrup, toasted walnuts or pumpkin seeds, milk, yogurt or glazed pecans.
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18. Cook's Note:
19. Spices:  I used 1/4 tsp of nutmeg and equal parts of cardamom, cinnamon and cloves to equal 1/2 tsp total of spices.  You could use the spices in the amounts that you want.  The original recipe only used cinnamon and cardamom.
20. Use different dried fruits: cranberries, mango, goji berries, apples.  I think anything would work.  Adding fresh fruit would also give lots of flavour and sweetness.
21. The crunch of the nuts and sees is a must ~ use walnuts, pecans, almonds, pumpkins seeds or hemp seeds.
22. My Cereal did still have water in it in the morning but after cooking it for about 8 minutes the water had dissipated.  

   I loved this recipes... it has  sweetness and crunch and doesn't taste like oatmeal at all.  I didn't put any milk in it but hubby added condensed milk and vanilla yogurt to his.

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