Grape Apple Breakfast

What a beautiful long weekend this was! Joe and I got quite a bit of outdoor enjoyment this weekend. We had a couple of friends (and their new baby) over, we drove out to Milton to view our up-and-coming house (such progress in only one week!), we explored some forest-like areas, and we even went for a jog (he was on roller blades). It felt so nice to run out in the open air instead of the treadmill. Thank you Mother Nature for such beautiful spring/summer weather! The weather has been so beautiful that I even woke up early enough today to take Buddy out for a jog before getting ready for work!

On the Monday of the long weekend, Joe asked me the question: “What’s for breakfast?”… I answered “Is cereal okay?”, and the look of sadness on his face made me laugh pretty hard… With the previous morning’s breakfast being the home-made apple pie oatmeal, I knew that there was no excuse for regular cereal on a morning when I didn’t have to be at work. I was feeling a little too lazy to make anything like bacon and eggs {plus, the grocery store was closed on Monday!}, and I wanted to keep it healthy because, well… That’s self-explanatory. So I thought of something else… This is pretty similar to my fruity tabbouleh, but has less ingredients and a much better flavour! I was so tempted to call this “Grapple Breakfast”, but couldn’t bring myself to do it…

Here is a quick and easy breakfast full of whole grains and fruit, with a tasty hint of pure maple syrup!

Grape Apple Breakfast

Ingredients:

1 cup red grapes, cut into halves and then quarters
1 apple, cored, peeled and cut into small chunks
1/4 cup bulgur {any grade works, I usually stick to medium grade}
2 tbsp pure maple syrup {if you don’t have pure maple syrup, the other stuff works too… But I suggest buying pure, as it tastes the best!}
Optional: For this batch, I added in 3 fresh pitted and diced apricots.

Method:

Soak, rinse and drain the bulgur.{Quick method for preparing bulgur: Place the dry bulgur in a bowl. Fill the bowl with twice as much water as bulgur. Pop the bowl into the microwave. Heat for 1 minute on high. Remove, stir, place back into microwave. Heat for another minute on high. Remove, stir, remove some bulgur with a spoon –blow on it, it’s hot!– and test it to see how soft it is. If it’s at a consistency that you like, it’s done. If you want it softer, pop it in for another minute. (If you like, you can also just soak the bulgur for 1 hour at room temperature instead of using a microwave.) When it’s done, slowly pour the water out of the bowl. The bulgur will settle at the bottom as you slowly pour. Pour some cold water into the bowl, stir, allow the bulgur to settle, then pour out the water. Get a second bowl handy, and take small handfuls of the wet bulgur. Over the sink or the bulgur bowl, squeeze out the water. REALLY squeeze that bulgur in your hand. Release the squeezed bulgur into the new bowl, and repeat with all wet bulgur one handful at a time until it is all squeezed out into the fresh bowl. Simple as that!}
Add the cut grapes and apples into the bowl with the bulgur, and drizzle with the maple syrup.
Stir it all together, and you’re good to go!

And now for something different! Some pictures and a blog post from my long weekend, with a picture of Buddy after a long jog.

Filed under: breakfast, Recipes Tagged: apple, breakfast, bulgur, culinary, fruit, grape, healthy, maple syrup, recipe, Sweet, vegetarian