Breakfast just got fancy around here, people. Check this out.

1. $2.95 glass dessert cup – check

2. cocoa buckwheat bake ingredients – check

3. microwave – check

1 + 2 + 3 = fancy

I mean, if you went over to your friend’s house for breakfast, and 5min later she came out of the kitchen holding this, you would love that friend forever. Am I right?

I made a few changes to the microwave cocoa buckwheat bake, turning this into the best cocoa bake yet!

The texture was cake-like + fudgy all at the same time. I loved scooping it from the cup, instead of flipping it out onto a plate. Plus, it looks fancy. Did I mention that?

This is literally cake, meets brownie and it couldn’t be any healthier.

Helllooooo there morning fiber, protein, iron, and healthy fats!! I count calories when making my breakfast, but generally they are around 500 with toppings. That’s just what my body likes in the morning. However, I wanted to plug this in to see exactly how “good for you” it really is. And it is good. Very good!

Just look at the stats. [pre-toppings]

Perfectly moist, dense but not overly so, chewy, slightly crunchy, a hint of sweetness, mellow cocoa…I might explode right now thinking about it!

Chocolate Buckwheat Bake [serves 1]

1/4c ground raw buckwheat flour [grind raw groats into powder]
1T raw buckwheat groats
1T chia seeds
1 flax egg [1T ground flax meal + 2.5T warm water, whisked] or 1 egg white
1/2 banana
2T unsweetened almond milk
1T maple syrup
1T cocoa powder
1/2t cinnamon
1.5t vanilla extract
1/4t almond extract
1/4t baking powder

Toppings:

coconut butter
walnuts
cocoa-nut almond butter
currants
Love Grown Foods cocoa goodness granola

Whisk flax egg and let sit for 5min.
In a bowl mash the banana until egg-like.
Whisk in milk, vanilla, almond extract and maple syrup.
Mix in buckwheat flour, groats, chia seeds, cinnamon, cocoa powder, + baking powder until well combined.
Mix in flax egg until combined.
Grease a microwave safe bowl, or dessert cup. I used a dab of coconut oil on my finger to grease.
Cover with a paper towel and microwave about 1min30sec – 1min45sec.
Eat out of the bowl with toppings, or flip out of the bowl onto a plate, top + scarf!

*If you don’t use chia seeds, mix in 1T ground flax meal when you add in the flour. If you don’t use either, decrease milk [not sure if you’ll need any…1T at the most]

*Add 2T chopped nuts to the batter if you want.

*The almond extract is optional but adds a nice mild almond flavor.

*I haven’t experimented making these with other gluten-free flours, but oat flour/millet/quinoa [and maybe a few more] would most likely work.

A little info on buckwheat: My experience with store-bought buckwheat flour was not a good one. The flavor was completely different than when I grind my own at home. It had an extremely strong, earthy flavor and was much darker in color [I used Arrowhead Mills brand]. You can easily grind your own in a blender/magic bullet/spice grinder/coffee grinder/etc. Make sure you look for raw buckwheat groats. They will be a light green/yellow in color. If you see Kasha or toasted buckwheat, it’s still the same grain, except it is toasted and has a very strong, almost burnt flavor. I don’t recommend that for these bakes, unless you know it is something you like. You can find raw buckwheat groats in the bulk aisle of natural food stores, or Bob’s Red Mill packages it as well. If you want to order it, you can do so here.

Yes, that is a lot of chocolate, but it was actually not an overwhelming amount and was definitely not too sweet. I’m a hardcore vanilla cake/muffin lover, but this, was to die for.

After detaching my camera from the tripod and moving my photo table back to it’s spot, I began eating my breakfast while doing my morning blog reading. I was about 4 bites in and realized I had to get a photo of the inside of this!

Breakfast will never be the same.

Oatmeal, who?

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Now, segway to a delicious dinner, made even more delicious by a new ingredient. Have you seen coconut aminos in the Asian aisle yet? It’s similar to soy sauce, minus the soy + gluten. The sodium content is also reduced by 65%! The flavor is extremely similar to soy sauce and worked without noticing a difference in this recipe I’ve made time + time again.

101 Cookbooks orange pan-glazed tempeh

Just as delicious, without any processed soy, gluten and a lot less sodium. However, it didn’t taste like any sodium was missing at all! The only downside is the price tag. It will run you about $6/bottle. I don’t use soy sauce often, so I say it’s worth it.

Served with a hefty side of thin rice noodles {luuuurve them} and pan sautéed broccoli with cashews. This dinner was done in 30min will knock your socks off. There aren’t many recipes I make time + time again, but this is one of them!

I sautéed the broccoli in coconut oil and also drizzled on about 2t of the coconut aminos in the last 3min of cooking. I added the cashews at the same time. Deeelicious!