As a follow up to last week’s post about do-it-yourself Near East Quinoa and Rice blends, let me share by adding about a tablespoonful of olive oil to the mixture as it cooks, rounding out the depth of the flavors.

In fact, while cooking any kind of rice or quinoa, I’ve come to add either olive oil or my “happy” butter from grass fed Irish cows. As a lover of butter on hot rice, adding just a tablespoon during cooking satisfies my butter desire while decreasing the quantity I might consume when applied afterward.

Also, this recent dive into quinoa, inspired a fun new texture ingredient for how I tweak gluten-free boxed muffin mixes.

Whenever we want to linger over coffee or tea in the morning before our first real meal, a mini-muffin will fill the bill.

There’s something about a mini muffin that just says, “I love you!” Increase that love message by cranking up the nutritional factors.

Here’s what I am doing:

Tweaking Concepts for Muffin Mixes

For plain gluten-free mixes such as King Arthur, create your own flavor profile such as:

Orange-Coconut-Walnut

To the dry mix add:

Zest of one navel orange

Handful of walnut pieces, chopped

1 – 1 ½ cups/ 235 – 355 ml, cooked quinoa, cooled

¼ cup/60 ml collagen hydrolysate

2 TBS/ 15 ml freshly ground flax seed

Cinnamon to taste

For the water/milk component measure out:

Juice from that orange

One half can of full-fat coconut milk (use half of the solid coconut cream and half

of the coconut fluid)

Enough water or dairy of choice to measure up to the required fluid total

Follow the package directions regarding eggs and melted butter. If the batter is too dry, add a bit of fluid of choice, stirring after each small addition.

Mix, spoon into prepared mini-muffin tins and bake as directed.

Cranberry-Walnut-Orange-Apple

Add chopped fresh or dried cranberries

Chopped walnuts

Orange zest and juice

½ cup/ 120 ml unsweetened applesauce

Try freshly ground chia seeds instead of the flax

Cooked quinoa

Collagen hydrolysate

Cinnamon

Blueberry-Lemon-Coconut

For the gluten-free blueberry mix such as Krusteaz, add all or some of the following:

Zest of one lemon – lemon is the perfect complement to blueberries

1 – 2 TBS/ 15-30 ml of lemon juice

½ cup/ 120 ml unsweetened finely grated coconut

And the usual options as mentioned above:

Cooked, cooled quinoa

Collagen hydrolysate

Ground flax seed

Walnuts

Cinnamon

I had no cooked quinoa the other day but managed to cook and cool some by the time preparation for everything else was complete. Remember to thoroughly rinse the raw quinoa in a colander under running water prior to cooking to help neutralize the factors that inhibit nutrient absorption.

This is concept cooking at its finest!

There’s no pressure for precise duplications, but the texture of these muffins, with the added quinoa, makes me want to keep it as a go-to tweaking element.

Personal allergies to nuts or dairy can easily be accommodated by switching out ingredients.

To learn more about the nutrients behind these ingredients and how to prepare nuts for optimal nutrition, check out my book, Toolkit for Wellness.

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In health-

Deidre

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