Sprouting Seeds

Hello! It's Friday and that means it's time to share : )

NY Times: She is always fun. 

Through the secret service (not really, just perks) I had the chance to see the first couple episodes of Louie this season. Check it out Monday!

Another thing my mom was right about

And then, last week, she gave me a bag of chia seeds.

Ch-ch-chia seeds. You've heard of them, perhaps you've already made chia pudding or experimented with chia eggs. I haven't gone there yet. I'm still on treating them like poppy seed's sister (with a much higher nutritional punch). I'm all for super foods like cacao nibs and chia seeds but I want them like I'd eat any other seed or chocolate chunk: in baked goods of course.

So here we go. First I made chia lemon muffins. Divine. This is simply this muffin batter with a tablespoon chia seeds added (and the raspberry/rosemary omitted). PS: that whole wheat pastry or spelt flour-yogurt-lemon-honey batter (inspired by Super Natural Everyday) is been my go-to base recipe all Spring so far for simple add ins like this. The perfect not-overly-sweet muffin that bakes up pretty fast, too is a nice canvas.

So if you have chia seeds on you or are thinking of getting them, do try giving the lemon poppy muffin a makeover. 

My mom also gave me some Q'ia. Have you seen this? I was intimidated at first. But after discovering it bakes right into granola, that bag found its place in my kitchen. And so ensues below a tale of two granolas, both superfoody by way of chia, hemp seeds and buckwheat groats.

For the version below just, I used the qia in my basic olive oil granola as well as some almonds and then added cacao nibs (I like these if you're looking) after it cooled. Super good. And if you want, you can bake some Q'ia into coconut oil granola, too. A long and low bake ensures nothing burns. The contrast of texture between the crisp/airy buckwheat groats (I had no idea) and crunchy oats, nuts, nibs and seeds makes it a stand-out yogurt dresser-uper in my book. 

 

To bake with Q'ia, simply replace some of the nut component of the granola recipe with a scoop of the groat/seed mix. Note: I don't recommend going too heavy on the chia in the granola though. If you scoop, I recommend sifting out some of the chia and hemp seeds so you have maybe 70% groats and 30% seeds in your add-in scoop. But before I just went ahead throwing Q'ia into my base granola I started with whole-foods maven Sara Britton's popular chunky chocolate buckwheat granola, which includes cocoa powder, buckwheat groats, and a little chia and after we finished that, the "seed" to do a non-chocolate version Q'ia granola sprouted. Chocolate and buckwheat work surprisingly well together. The buckwheat flavor of the groats too, is very mild. Check out Sarah's recipe here.

  

And via Food & Wine, I'll leave you with a good Spring Panzanella idea. With asparagus, torn toasty bread, briny feta and just-boiled egg this is a filling, flavor-bomb of a lunch. Sadly no radishes worth buying here yet to color up the plate, but soon. 

So tear up some bread, bake some granola and throw chia seeds into muffins this weekend. Enjoy! Until soon : )