Buckwheat and Amaranth Warm Cereal

My legs hurt! YES! It’s a good feeling, really! I was finally allowed to start exercising again yesterday, after a loooong forced break of 10 weeks.

It seems like my cardio has taken a serious hit. I did my usual 50 minutes on the elliptical, only I elected to leave the HIIT part out of it. I figure I will give my body a couple of weeks to adjust before asking it to give me high intensity. But even at what is my usual steady state, my heart rate went way higher than it normally would, reading well over 180 at one point, forcing me to slow down a bit. And I wasn’t even pushing…

The last 5 minutes were hell. I had to push myself hard just to keep going. But I did it, and I felt so incredibly good afterwards; especially since I got to eat this absolutely superb to die for post work-out breakfast. And this time, I felt like I had earned it.

Seriously, this was the best warm cereal ever. While eating it, I thought: “I want to eat nothing but this for the rest of my life”. It was my first time trying buckwheat groats and to say I love ‘em would be an understatement. Although they don’t have that distinctive buckwheat taste I was really expecting and hoping for, there is something about them that I truly appreciate. Combined with amaranth and chia seeds, they make for a seriously heavenly cereal. Now I can’t wait for the week-end to have them again…

Ingredients
(serves 1-2)

• ½ cup buckwheat groats
• ¼ cup amaranth
• 1 tbsp black chia seeds
• 2½ cups water
• ¼ cup unsweetened soy milk
• ¼ tsp salt

• 25g dried fruits (I had a mix of apricots, plums, apples and pears)
• 10 toasted hazelnuts, crushed

Instructions

• Bring water to a boil. Add salt, buckwheat groats, amaranth and chia. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture is creamy and all water is absorbed.
• Turn off the heat. Stir in milk, cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
• Add dried fruits and hazelnuts. Stir to combine and transfer to serving bowl(s).
• Add cold milk if desired.