Quinoa Porridge With Caramelized Bananas, Toasted Walnuts & Diced Prunes

I love a bowl of warm, hearty porridge in the morning, but I prefer real grains like bulgur or steel cut oats and unless I am motivated to start cooking it the night before in my crockpot, I usually am not willing to wait 30 to 45 minutes for a bowl of porridge to cook. I recently received a copy of a new book called Quinoa Revolution written by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming, and after reading about their quinoa porridge that cooks in just over 15 minutes, I decided to give it a try. If you are not familiar with it, quinoa is an amazing ingredient, and is not a grain, but a seed, so is gluten free. It is also a complete protein containing all 8 essential amino acids, and is a good source of iron, phosphorous, magnesium, calcium, vitamin E, and folic acid so you can see why some consider it a superfood and why it is becoming more and more popular.

I made the Creamy Banana Breakfast Cereal from the book Quinoa Revolution with a few changes. I caramelized my bananas, added toasted chopped walnuts and finely diced prunes, used almond milk instead of regular, and did not process my cereal in the food processor as instructed as I prefer texture in my hot cereals. If you are not a fan of prunes, feel free to replace with raisins, or simply leave them out. Though you can skip the step to caramelize the bananas, they really do add a LOT of flavor when prepared this way. This cereal turned out so flavorful and was so easy to prepare, that I will be making it at least once a week in the future, and I am certainly now a convert for using quinoa in my morning porridge!

• Quinoa is a gluten free seed that contains complete protein as well as iron, phosphorous, magnesium, calcium, vitamin E, and folic acid
• Caramelizing the bananas brings out their natural sugars so you do not need to add additional sweetener.