You may remember that this week, in an attempt to keep my grocery bill down, I vowed to make it until May without going to the grocery store. Well I did it, but it was a bit challenging.

Dinners weren’t too bad. I did have salmon in the freezer, and lots of leftover vegetables lying around, which helped immensely. Lunch was slightly harder, but making the pizza really helped. But breakfast, breakfast was by far the most challenging.

I was pretty much out of cereal the day I decided to wait on the grocery store. Now, if I go more than thirty minutes after waking up before I eat, I’m grumpy, starving, and convinced the world is going to end. So, cooking in the morning isn’t really a great option for me. If I have gluten-free oats, I do love oatmeal. But my last oatmeal kick was when I was traveling a lot to DC, before going gluten-free, and my mom would make me oatmeal and a cappuccino every morning before I went down to the Folger. The beauty of that arrangement was that I didn’t have to worry about cooking, and she woke up earlier than I did, so I could still go from awake to eating in 15 minutes flat.

But this week I tried, I made black bean cakes and ate them with eggs. That took me almost an hour, probably because I had never made the recipe before, but also because I was dragging my heels getting started. They were good when I ate them, but I was almost dizzy with hunger. This morning, I made quinoa pancakes (and yes, it was May already this morning, but I still haven’t been to the grocery store). I bought this quinoa flour months ago, and took one sniff, and left it on the shelf next to the bean flour. Which is sort of amusing, given that I love quinoa salads, and the flour smells like the grain. But somehow, in flour form, I found quinoa frightening, until this morning.

I loved these pancakes. I can’t promise that they taste like normal pancakes. They don’t, but in these pancakes that is a good thing. The quinoa adds a complexity of flavor and a nice nuttiness. After my pancakes were ready I couldn’t find any syrup, which was slightly tragic. But they weren’t bad with powdered sugar, and hours later I found myself sneaking back into the kitchen to have another one, cold, as a mid-morning snack, with no topping on top. Now I am not normally a cold pancake eater, but these were good that way too, which makes me anxious to try quinoa muffins next. Of course, nothing will every quite replace my cereal. As I was running today I stopped at the local Kroger and found gluten-free Rice Chex in stock, at last. So, tomorrow I might be eating cereal and leftover pancakes.

This is my entry for May’s “Go ahead honey it’s gluten free!” which is hosted here.


Quinoa Pancakes

Feel free to use any baking mix as a base for these. Just make sure to include the 1/4 cup of quinoa flour for the great nutty flavor.

3/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup quinoa flour
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg (lightly whisked)
1 1/2 cups milk
3 tablespoons canola oil

In a small bowl mix together flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl combine wet ingredients. Add the flours to the medium bowl all at once and mix until just combined (there should still be lumps). Cook on a hot oiled skillet or griddle, flipping when you see lots of little bubbles on the surface of the pancakes. Serve with syrup, or a warm fruit compote.