Quinoa Breakfast Parfaits

Snapped a photo of my lunch at the tennis courts on Thursday
at the Jim Kasic Memorial Tennis Tournament. 
Quinoa Breakfast Parfaits: A great on-the-go-breakfast/lunch.

I discovered another very cool cooking blog this week.  Kevin at Closet Cooking makes many great looking dishes I want to try.  This week, I made Quinoa Breakfast Parfaits and I really liked this recipe.  Layers of cold fluffy, nutty quinoa, thick creamy Greek yogurt, and fresh blueberries... there's a lot of texture going on in ever bite.  I enjoyed eating them but even more I loved how energized I felt from such a fresh, wholesome dish.  On Wednesday, I had one for breakfast and one for lunch (I did not plan meals very well this week) and I felt great all day long.  Quinoa, if you are not familiar with it, is a seed which is cooked just like rice.  It is a complete protein all by itself.  Greek yogurt has twice as much protein as regular yogurt. 

I found a small bit of shade at the City Park in Pueblo City Park.

My son (in red) warming up to compete in a doubles match.

Quinoa Breakfast Parfaits
from www.closetcooking.com
Original recipe is HERE

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained well (*)
2 cups water
4 containers (5.3 ounces each) Oikos fat-free Vanilla Greek Yogurt
about 2 cups fresh blueberries
a few strawberries (optional)

Makes 4 parfaits

Rinse and drain the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer.  Bring 2 cups of water to a boil; add quinoa. Cover with a lid, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 17 to 20 minutes until all liquid is absorbed.  No peeking!  When done, fluff with a fork, transfer to another container and place in refrigerator to cool.

Next make parfaits in an assembly line fashion.  Line up 4 pretty serving dishes (I used stemless wine goblets) and layer in quinoa, yogurt, and berries.   I started with quinoa in the bottom, next blueberries, then the entire container of yogurt, followed by more berries and then more quinoa on top. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to enjoy.  I found that the yogurt did "weep" (separate) a bit in the parfaits that sat the longest.  There was a little clear liquid in the bottom of the glass but it did not detract from the dish in any way. 

(*) I did not use all the quinoa in my 4 parfaits.  Next time I might just make 1/2 as much quinoa if I am just making 4 parfaits.  Leftover cooked quinoa is nice to have. It's great sprinkled on salads and is great in soups, too.  The original recipe calls for chopped, toasted pecans.  I did toast and chop up some almonds but ended up not using the nuts (I think the pecans should have been kept in the refrigerator and they did not taste very fresh). The parfaits are good with our without nuts.



On Friday, I made another version of the parfait using leftover quinoa, a container of Peach Oikos Greek Yogurt, chopped fresh peach, topped with a sprinkle of Crunchy Granola (recipe for granola can be found HERE).