i find buckwheat tasty. i’ve posted before about using buckwheat flour and adding it to granola bars, you can even sprout it and eat the greens in your salad.
it’s a gluten-free grain that has been associated with reducing cholesterol, improving circulation, and might even be able to treat type II diabetes.
this is a simple way to cook it up as a hardy breakfast, especially great on those cold foggy mornings.
i’m not the biggest fan of breakfast foods. maybe it’s because i don’t do bacon, ham, eggs or cheese. it could also be that i usually don’t wake up until it’s time for lunch.
either way, i’ll eat something tasty and sweet no matter what hour of the day it is, and these hardy little pancakes definitely qualify.
i’ve tried coffee makers in the past, only to have them leak, harbor mold, and incessantly break on me. so i made the switch to a french press, which is much cleaner, easier to maintain, and perfect for just 1-2 people.
when buying coffee i like to get whole espresso beans and grind them on the drip setting. i use 2 tablespoons of espresso grinds for a medium french press, boil the water in a kettle as hot as it can get, and then steep for 3 minutes.
using espresso beans results in a smoother and richer flavor, not to mention a stronger cup of coffee. and by buying it in bulk i spend the same on weeks worth of coffee as i would for a single cup from a coffeeshop.
chia was a staple of the ancient aztec diet. i remember trying it at an anthropology museum in middle school, we put out our hands and they dropped a few tiny little seeds in our palms. they didn’t taste much like anything but we were told the aztecs ate them because you only need a little bit to get full. they absorb water and expand in your stomach, how cool is that?
they also gained popularity as the seeds that sprout hair for chia pets and recently people have been getting hip to their health benefits. they are packed with omega-3 fatty acid, fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. now you can buy them at whole foods and spot them as an ingredient in many raw foods.
though the chia seed is perhaps the most obscure seed in this recipe, it is by far the most important. it gives the bar a soft chewy texture that without it it wouldn’t make much of a bar.
