The best gluten free porridge

I grew up eating porridge or cereal for breakfast and that’s what I fed my children too. Oats (oatmeal) was a favourite of mine so when I realized I was gluten intolerant it was a bit of a let-down. I know oats is supposed to be gluten free, but it doesn’t agree with me now so I prefer to avoid it. My son grew up mostly gluten free and he doesn’t even like oats. He ate a lot of mealie meal (maize) as a child.

In the search for a breakfast porridge I have found various recipes but nothing was really up to scratch. So I started experimenting and I think I have hit the jackpot! It does take about 20 – 25 minutes cooking, but I make more than I need and it keeps in the fridge for at least 5 days. Here’s my recipe:

Gluten free breakfast porridge

½ Cup Quinoa

2 tablespoons flaxseed (linseed) flour

2 tablespoons chia seeds

2 tablespoons dried cranberries

2 tablespoons dessicated coconut

Pinch of salt

Cook the Quinoa in 1 to 1½ cups of water for 14 to 18 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Mix the rest of the ingredients with a little water and add some of the hot quinoa to the mixture to avoid lumps. Add the flaxseed mixture to the saucepan and put back on the heat. Boil for a few minutes until cooked. Serve with full cream yogurt, or any other flavouring you prefer. Peanut butter? Cream? Etc.

There you are, my new favourite breakfast porridge. Please try the recipe and let me know what you think.

Wonder

I think Spring has eventually arrived. About a month late, but I suppose she has the right, just like a bride who chooses to be late for her wedding. The guests grow increasingly uncomfortable but when she enters the church in all her splendour and her groom gets tears in his eyes all the tension melts away.

Yesterday I saw that our one and only peach tree has a single blossom. Actually its very first blossom. It grew on the spot where I had a hole for peels. It was supposed to have been a compost heap, but somehow the composted material never made its way out of the hole. The peach pip obviously was thrown out with the peels (I keep a bucket in the kitchen for any fruit and vegetable waste). The only things I don’t put in it are onions and citrus because the earthworms don’t like them. All other uncooked vegetable waste goes into it. The peach pip grew and now has a very fertile pack of earth to feed off. 

My single peach blossom heralding Spring’s arrival.

There are other flowers appearing as well as new foliage. What a wonderful season. I absolutely adore Spring. Its the most exciting time of the year. Everywhere I look there’s new life. New beginnings, new hope. I think God created Spring so that people could also feel renewed and refreshed after winter. We need that feeling every so often. Sometimes we go through winter in our souls, a cold, dark, unfertile period where we don’t see much light. Coming out of it is like Spring arriving. We see new growth and we have hope for the future. Spring always arrives, even if she’s a bit later than we think she ought to be. Sometimes she arrives with such glory that we burst out into blossom and at other times there’s only one little flower to prove that there’s new life. 

All the evidence of Spring is overwhelming and my heart is full of wonder. Wonder at the miracle of new life, wonder at how God’s creation works and wonder at how there’s something that’s so big and so powerful can be so delicate and so beautiful. God has put into our hearts the sense of wonder, and as children exploring creation we embrace it, but unfortunately it seems that some people lose it. Life becomes too demanding and too hard, and maybe they don’t have a garden to play in, and they just become oblivious to the wonder. Its very sad and I think even though God put that wonder into our hearts, its up to us to nurture it and keep it alive. 

Flax flower (linseed)

Look at the flaxseed or linseed flower. There’s a little blue flower right at the top of the plant which has a single long straight stem. It bends in the wind and stands straight and tall to bear its flowers and produce seeds. By the way, did you know that flaxseed can be planted by just putting the seeds that you buy to eat into the soil. I was so amazed when I tried and they actually grew!! 

Let us not lose our sense of wonder, let us step out of winter and make the decision to live in Spring.