Recently, I tweeted (to my 52 followers) that I was open to suggestions for reviews as well as one offs and was asked for gluten free recipes (I was also asked to do a weekly post on “healthy food for a lazy bachelor”, I will get to that in time). I searched on Pinterest for “on the go breakfast gluten free” and was intrigued by these Blueberry Quinoa Breakfast Bars from a website/blog called Simply Quinoa. I took a look at the ingredients, all of which I already had (and if you don’t, you can easily find everything at your grocery store or local bulk food store).
Most days before work, I have a green smoothie for breakfast (The Green Monster from Oh She Glows, to be exact) and I’m good to go for most of the day until about 1:00-1:30. I work in a cafe, so generally that’s the best time for me to take a minute to hide by the freezer and eat something delicious. This tasty little bar did the trick for me today! I ate around 5:45 am and stayed full and satisfied all morning! That alone makes this recipe a keeper in my books.
Alrighty, let me consult my fancy notebook…
First thing I did was cook the quinoa. I think I should have just cooked one full raw cup and then measured out a cup of cooked from there. I instead, cooked 1/3 cup of raw in 2/3 cups of water and it wasn’t as fluffy and nice as quinoa usually becomes after it’s been cooked. Not to mention, I completely forgot to measure it once cooked, so we will never know if I actually used one full cup or not. Forever a mystery. OH! I also only had a red and white mix of quinoa, so mine is coloured a little darker.
Coconut sugar is easy to find at your local bulk foods store! Five points to you if you can go in there without getting a couple of bags of candy to snack on..
I didn’t use flax eggs when I made these bars. I took a quick scan through the reviews and saw that a few people used regular eggs. My diet includes eggs, so I used eggs in this recipe. For the nut butter, I used peanut but I am quite curious to know what cashew or almond butter might taste like in these breakfast bars. I also used frozen blueberries!! Because who is getting fresh blueberries at a reasonable price in November? No one. And there already were some in the freezer. The other thing I did differently, was use only one cup of blueberries as opposed to the one and a half cups called for in the recipe.
I took the bars out after 30 minutes and they honestly still looked like wet batter but they were definitely done baking. I had to head out to soccer, so I put them in the microwave for safe keeping from the dogs (weird, I know.. but nothing is safe on the counter). Once I got home, they were still very moist to the touch, but I cut them and tried one – super tasty! I kept them in a container overnight with the lid only shut 3/4 of the way to see if they would dry up a bit. When I had one the next morning, they were still moist to touch but totally great to eat!
I definitely recommend these breakfast bars for people on the go. They did not require a ton of prep or work and they keep you full for a long time (as they should, seeing as they have quinoa, oats and hemp hearts in them).
