Being a breakfast person, usually I don’t problems to find something to eat. Some people eat the same breakfast every single day and are fine with that. My mum always have two toasts, never something sweet and a strong green tea (she gave up coffee after having a nervous breakdown because of it). My dad, a sandwich with cheese/ham and coffee. Always something sweet after it.
One of my friends eats a toast with fresh orange juice. Every morning, seven days a weeks. Just the idea sends shivers down my spine. I suppose I can consider myself lucky. A hearty breakfast? Perfect. A iogurt or a piece of fruit because there is no time for more? I won’t suffer because of it. I can have a huge green smoothie one day and hot cereal the other. Even rice or beans don’t sound like crazy options to me.
But I like variety. I discovered amaranth not such a long time ago. The truth is that I wasn’t thrilled about its texture at the beginning. A little bit bigger than poppy seeds (actually, amaranth is not a cereal: what we consume are seeds), it didn’t resemble to any other cereal I tried before. But that was before I had the brilliant idea of adding soy milk.
Voilà! It was like a different dish: with a rich nutty flavor yet a creamy and more delicate texture. I added raisins and chocolate and felt like if I had discovered the wheel…before googling it and realizing that people was already driving sport cars. But since I took photos of it, here is an alternative to your classic oatmeal breakfast.
Hot amaranth cereal with raisins
Serves: 3-4
Ingredients
1 cup amaranth
2 + 1/2 cups water
1/2 to 1 cup soymilk
raisins (to taste)
chocolate and nuts (optional)
Cook the amaranth with water in a 2.5 to 1 ratio on a medium heat for 30 minutes or until done.
Add the soy milk (or any other milk of your choice), the raisins and cook for 5 minutes more until reaching the desired consistency.
Decorate with chocolte and/or nuts.
About the dangers of babysitting and other technical problems
In case you didn’t notice, all my images disappeared for a time. Some of them are still broken. The reason? The kid I’m babysitting decided that the keyboard of my laptop was too irresisitble and pressed everything he could before I could stop him. Filezilla was open. Result? The images folder was gone. I have been able to restore only some of them because I dididn’t bring my CDs to Russia. So my blog will look that way until March, when I’ll come back to Spain.
The photos of the amaranth cereal are old: I haven’t cooked anything in weeks. The 3 years old boy gives me headaches (and not only metaphorically speaking: the other day he hit me with a wooden hammer), the salary doesn’t amount too much and since I live with the family five days a week, the line between work and leisure is too thin. But it was this job or nothing.
My brother, in the airport of Barcelona. We all look tiny next to him…and he’s only 18!
At least I had two wonderful weeks of Christmas break and took tons of photos. I’ll be uploading them on my Tumblr. I even did a stopmotion.
Winter
I strongly recommend watching it in HD.
Captures from the stopmotion.
Ouch! He hit you with a wooden hammer? That is one wild little kid. I hope you are alright and don’t have too many headaches! (And that you’ll be able to restore all of your pics completely, of course. I got a kitten this year, and she is obsessed with computer screens… I definitely have to watch out for her too!)
Are you going back for good to Barcelona in March, or will you be going back to Russia again?
About your hot amaranth: I really love your pictures, how soft they are, and the light in them. Same for your brother’s pictures and the stopmotion. Really great work.
oh gosh, I so know what you are talking about! the line between work and free time is giving me headaches! nah, I shouldn’t complain though, it seems I have been truly lucky with the family. ..but stil, living in someone else’s house for a longer time just isn’t made for me. and the kids, the kids. mine are not literally giving me headaches (luckily. hope yours is behaving better now), but sometimes they are driving me crazy.. (just realised I actually wrote “mine” like the kids would be, well, mine. ha ha) hope you are doing there well.. and if it gets not-so-nice, just think about how three months actually is a short time.. I have been over the moon when I realised I have only five month before going back to Finland ha ha! (and hey, I have been planning to travel in july antes de volver a Finlandia.. estarás en España en verano, no???)
I’m always looking for different cereal options! I prefer cold cereals but always give hot a chance. This is gluten-free too yes? Amaranth is right up there with quinoa, pseudograins I think they’re called, they are technically seeds but digest well like grains. Can’t wait to get some amaranth and try this.
i just bought a bunch of amaranth sunday at whole foods but really had no idea what i was going to do with it. i just like to experiment. i’m going to try your cereal recipe this weekend and really look forward to it. i eat a LOT of oatmeal for breakfast and would love a change. thanks!
I love the idea! I’ll try it
I discovered amaranth last month and I like it, but I’ve never tried a sweet version of it. I hope you enjoy your time in Russia!
I almost always just eat cold cereal for breakfast, with the occasional bowl of oatmeal, but it does sometimes get boring and since I have some amaranth, I think I’ll try this.
Your babysitting charge sounds like a real menace; who know babysitting was so dangerous? I guess I’d expect to be physically hit from time to time, but I’d never expect a toddler to destroy my website. Also, your stop motion was great, although it made me very cold!
I personally prefer oatmeal and it does get boring sometimes. Maybe I’ll give this a try.
Ooh it looks yummy!.. A cereal with chocolates. That’s different. I seldom eat cereal because we are not used to eat that but I really wanna try that. Thanks for the recipe.
I think it’s delicious. If you will look the style of the cereal, the chocolate, you will say that “it’s so yummy”.. I will try to make that in winter.
Cereal with chocolates? ohh, it looks so good. This is kind of new for me but it makes me interested to try to make on my own. Thanks for sharing this post.
Its like Nestle Produce called KoKo Krunch hehehe wanna try? hehehe anyways, i really love it for my breakfast. ^_^
@Alma.. lol…. I absolutely agree with you. When you mixed the cereal with chocolates, It is just similar with KoKo crunch. My younger sister and I really likes its taste and we will both eat it specially at home while watching movie.
Oh! I love cereal.. I will try to make this tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing.
Hot amaranth cereal with raisins is good for the morning breakfast. Its quietly perfect !
Cereal is one of the most easy to prepare for our kids. Love to remember when my mom prepared for my breakfast.
I love cereal because it’ s easy to cook. I always ate this everyday morning with hot chocolate. .:)
Nice Slow motion and screenshot!
What camera did you use to take that pictures?
Awesome pictures. It was indeed a very nice place though. Thanks for sharing this to us.
I love cereal because it is not just easy to prefer but it is also nutritious.
I love cereal. thanks for sharing on the ingredients i can’t wait to try it. And i love those pictures too.