I just finished the Eugene Marathon about a week ago and set an amazing personal record. Part of preparing for an offsite marathon requires experimenting with foods that are travel friendly to minimize the chances of digestive distress on race day. I have recently discovered that my old standby - instant oatmeal - no longer works well for my body. I switched to raw granola (made from buckwheat) on race day and had no digestive issues, plenty of energy, and amazing speed.  Granted, I cannot attribute this all to raw granola, but not having an acidic stomach clearly played a part in my success.

Here is a similar recipe for home - a buckwheat muesli. Once I find a raw granola I can make and enjoy, I will post that recipe here as well.

Buckwheat Apple Muesli

Serves 1 (generously)

• 1/3 cup raw buckwheat groats
• 5 dates
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1 medium apple, sliced into quarters
• 1/8tsp. cinnamon
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 1-2 tbsp. shredded coconut
• 2 tbsp. walnuts or nuts/seeds of choice

Soak buckwheat and dates overnight in 1 1/4 cup water. In the morning, drain and RESERVE the soaking liquid.  Place dates and groats in a food processor or Vitamix. Add 2 apple quarters, 1/4 cup reserved liquid, juice, and spices. Process on low until fairly smooth.

Pour  into a bowl and dice remaining apple, stirring into cereal. Top with coconut and walnuts.

Reader and client M.H. shared this exquisite quinoa recipe with me. Quinoa is an incredible grain - a true superfood - from South America. It was a staple food of the Andean peoples for centuries. Rich in protein, iron, and calcium, quinoa is filling, versatile, and quick to cook - 20 minutes. A whole grain that is even faster than white rice!

This recipe comes from 101cookbooks.com, originally sourced to Chef MD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine.

Warm and Nutty Cinnamon Quinoa Recipe

A few notes and tips from the book: low-fat soy milk may replace the low fat milk, blueberries may replace the blackberries, dark honey may replace the agave nectar, and walnuts may replace the pecans.

1 cup organic 1% low fat milk
1 cup water
1 cup organic quinoa, (hs note: rinse quinoa)
2 cups fresh blackberries, organic preferred
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted*
4 teaspoons organic agave nectar, such as Madhava brand

Combine milk, water and quinoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat; let stand covered 5 minutes. Stir in blackberries and cinnamon; transfer to four bowls and top with pecans. Drizzle 1 teaspoon agave nectar over each serving.

Serves 4.

*While the quinoa cooks, roast the pecans in a 350F degree toaster oven for 5 to 6 minutes or in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

A special thank you to reader Melina V. for sending in this amaranth recipe she found!

Apple Cinnamon Amaranth Grits

Ingredients:

1/2 cup amaranth grains
3 cups water (at least)
pinch of salt
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar
2 teaspoons agave syrup

Directions:

Heat a dry pot on medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add amaranth. Shake the pot to keep the amaranth moving, otherwise it will burn. Put the lid on because the seeds will start popping. (This will smell incredible).

When a good amount of the seeds are popped (half?), add hot water to cover by about an inch. Stir well and add a pinch of salt. I keep hot water handy in a kettle while I do this so that I can keep adding hot water as needed without brining down the temperature.

Set your timer to 30 minutes and turn the heat down to medium-low. Stir frequently, adding hot water when the mush gets too thick.

When the 30 minutes are over, turn off the heat, stir in the apple sauce (sweetened, unsweetened, flavored,… your choice), and serve with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon sugar and 1 teaspoon of agave syrup drizzled over each of the two servings.

I never knew what to do with the amaranth that was sitting in my kitchen, except add it to bread. I also never liked it in salty dishes. It is pretty healthy since amaranth has a great nutritional profile.

This would probably also be good with some soymilk or soy yogurt stirred in or some dried apple bits or other dried fruit cooked with the amaranth. You could possibly add some seeds or nuts to this, too.

Serves: about 2

Preparation time: less than 1 hour

I simply must share:

Last week I branched out and experimented with the rice cooker. I found cooking steel cut oats in it to be perfectly easy, and I can now have hot oats for breakfast several days of the week with just 90 seconds of prepwork!
Last night I was making a cup of blackberry sage tea and accidentally poured about 1/4 cup of maple syrup in it. Rather than toss it out, I let it steep, added soymilk, and used it as the liquid in my current batch of steel-cut oats.
OH. MY. GOSH.

This is an incredibly creamy bit of heaven.
Here’s the recipe:

1 cup soy milk
1 cup boiling water
2 blackberry tea bags (I used Republic of Tea’s Blackberry Sage)
3-4 tbsp. pure maple syrup
1/2 cup steel cut oats

Steep teabags in hot water and soymilk. Add maple syrup. Let sit 10-15 minutes.
Put oats in rice cooker and add liquid, squeezing the excess liquid from the teabags into the rice cooker. I used the porridge setting on mine, but I do not think it matters much.
I also imagine this would work well in a slowcooker.