Creamy Coconut Quinoa with Berry Compote

There seems to be a commonly held misconception that an Earthfood heavy or completely Earthfood based diet can't be satisfying and/or comforting. I'm here this winter and, more specifically, this week to prove any naysayers wrong. Bouyah!!

It's almost February which happens to be the month of love, so I'm going to be spending the entirety of it discussing all things having to do with Looooove. I'm not talkin' mushy romantic love here, although I can't guarantee there will be none of that.

The love I'm referring to is the love of food and other worldly pleasures, the love of all that is around us, and the love of ourselves. I have decided to kick off the month with a love of Miss M's (and I'm sure many of yours as well) ...

All things creamy.

(Think Mac & Cheese, Fettuccine Alfredo, Ice cream, Cream of 'Whatever' Soup... you get the jist)

This is the Earthfood Experiment however, so these creamy things will be minus the cream and cheese. This is certain to be a challenging experiment, but I'm DETERMINED to arrive at weeks end with a beginner's collection of delicious, healthy, and indulgent tasting creamy recipes.

Since February is a short month, I figured I'd just go ahead and start a few days early.... because there's no such thing as too much love.

To Kick off our week.... 

Creamy Coconut Quinoa with Berry Compote

(that's a lotta Kuhhhhs)

I actually threw this together for breakfast because I was:
a) trying to use up some crap I had leftover from last week
2) inspired by this sticky rice with coconut cream and Mango that I had at a Thai food place this weekend.
It's Sweet's and I's new favorite Vegan dessert, and I was thinking it might just be fabulous for breakfast if it wasn't made with white rice and what HAS to be a considerable amount of sugar. So this is what I came up with:

I used some left over grains that I'd made earlier in the week. I always make extras since they take a good 15-20 minutes to cook and who wants to do that at 6 in the morning?

So the picture above is 1 Cup cooked quinoa & 1/2 Cup cooked Stoats!
For those of you that might be new here... Stoats! are steel cut oats. Really you could use any type of grain for this recipe. All Stoats! or all quinoa.... or it would be fantastic with some left over brown rice from the night before.

 I combined my grains in a saucepan with 1 tsp. real maple syrup, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil, and 1/2 Cup Lite coconut milk (from the can). I brought that to a simmer over low heat and let it thicken up.

Meanwhile, I gathered some berries from the freezer.
 These particular berries were ones that I threw in the freezer last week when I realized they were on their last leg and wouldn't survive much longer in the fridge. I do this ALL the time in my effort to waste less food. 

Anyhoo....
While the the grains were thickening, in another sauce pan I combined 1 cup sliced strawberries, 1 Cup blueberries, 2 Tablespoons all natural mixed fruit preserves, and a cinnamon stick.
My favorite is St. Dalfour's Four Fruits. It has nothing in it but fruit, fruit juice, fruit pectin, and lemon juice. Can I get a shout out for no high fructose corn syrup! Hell yeah. 

I let simmer until the blueberries were all are bursty, then served over my coconut quinoa.

Simple, nutritious, creamy, comforting, delicious.

See you tomorrow with more creaminess... 

What's your favorite creamy comfort food?

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