If you're over 40 on THM, you may have noticed your metabolism has started playing games with you. You used to lose weight (or maintain) just fine on mostly S meals with a few E's thrown in, but suddenly that's not working any more. So you go onto the fabulously helpful FB group and ask, "My body doesn't like THM anymore - what gives?" and they all tell you about making adjustments for your slowing metabolism. You get recommendations like:
increase your lean protein
increase your E meals in general
eat E meals for breakfast to boost metabolism
add quinoa to your diet in general
eat quinoa for breakfast to boost metabolism
eat more veggies in general
eat more veggies for breakfast to keep you feeling full for longer
Wow, that's a lot of changes to make, and a lot to expect out of one meal! How can you do all that? Serene - bless her purist heart - has just blasted my world with a Drive Thru Sue (adaptable) recipe that literally ticks every one of those boxes, except veggies... but I've got you covered there!
In spring 2022, Pearl and Serene came out with this video, which shows 2 ways to get quinoa into your morning.
I tried both, and both are really good! Pearl's is basically quinoa-turned-cereal with milk, sweetener and cinnamon over cold quinoa. There's not a lot of protein, so you need to have it with a trimmy or some other protein source. Serene's is warm, sweetened quinoa, fresh fruit and cottage cheese, everything sweetened and cinnamony.
I absolutely LOVE Serene's version!! The quinoa + cottage cheese gives plenty of protein without needing another protein source. The warm/cold combo is perfect and the fresh fruit goes perfectly with either or both, depending on how you mix it in each spoonful. I've tried it with fresh mango and frozen/thawed cherries (mango is better!) The only downside was that 3/4C quinoa wasn't enough to fill me up all the way. Some people might have smaller stomachs already, or you might not be a "big eater" like Pearl says she is (although her breakfast here leaves me wondering!) How do you get more grains without getting more grains? The great grain cauli hack!
It's actually very simple. Cook your quinoa. Cook your cauli rice. Toss together. When I cook brown rice and quinoa together then toss, the cauli disappears so completely that even my cauli hating family doesn't know it's in there! The cauli rice and brown rice are a similar size, and your mouth only feels the chewiness of the rice. What you see in my bowl below is actually 1/3 each of brown rice, quinoa and cauli - that's why I can eat so much! 1C in my bowl is only 2/3C grains. Since I can have 3/4C grains, I can probably have around 1 1/4C for breakfast! More food, more filling, more veggies, all for breakfast. And since everything is sweet and cinnamony, there's even less cauli flavor - it's like it's not even there.
Technically, I haven't tried just quinoa and cauli - I've only done the blend with brown rice. That's because my family isn't a fan of quinoa, but guess what - they don't notice the quinoa in the rice either! Of course you can see it, but there's no tiny, grainy texture - it feels just like rice, except it's 1/3 quinoa and 1/3 cauli! And no one realizes they're eating either one! This is a MASSIVE win for my family's health!
Here are the easy instructions for making the rice/quinoa/cauli blend, and below I'll add Drive Thu Sue additions for making Serene's Neapolitan Bowl even easier and faster.
Cauli-Hacked Quinoa/Rice Blend <---link to recipe
1C brown rice
1C quinoa
4C water
16oz bag riced cauliflower
Rinse your brown rice several times in the pot, allowing any floating hulls to wash away. Then, with the water poured out, swirl the rice vigorously with a 'claw hand' to rough up the grains and make them release more starches, then rinse a few more times.
Rinse your quinoa with cool running water in a fine-meshed strainer, rubbing between your fingers for a couple of minutes. Add to the rice
Add 4C water, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer until the water is down below the surface of the rice, around 20 minutes. Turn off the heat, keep the lid on, and allow to steam for another 20 minutes. At this point you can walk away and leave it all afternoon, if needed.
Pour the frozen cauli rice into a wide microwave safe bowl (it needs as much surface area as you can give it, don't use a deep mixing bowl). Do not cover or add water. Microwave on high for 6 minutes. It's done and not mushy. You're welcome :-)
Toss your cooked cauli rice with the rice/quinoa blend and serve as rice!
I estimate how much I think I'll need for the week and keep that in the fridge, then freeze the rest in 2.5C portions. That's enough for a breakfast and lunch for me for 1 day, and I can take out 1 or 2 if I need rice for a dinner later on.
DTS Neapolitan Bowl Changes
microwave 1 1/4C rice/quinoa/cauli in a bowl for 1 min. to warm, then toss with the cinnamon and sweetener
Use 3/4C frozen fruit, and microwave for 1 min to thaw.
After placing the quinoa and cottage cheese in your serving bowl, add the thawed fruit to the middle then drizzle the juices over the quinoa.
I use around 2/3C cottage cheese, since I am getting less protein-rice quinoa with the rice/cauli mix.
Happy morning, happy metabolism, happy belly, happy you!
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