This blueberry almond butter quinoa bread will make you want to dance on an early Sunday morning.

Or maybe it won’t, but it will probably make life a little easier to breathe through. It would also make a nice post-yoga Sunday breakfast in bed (because if you’re like me, you go back to bed after waking up early for yoga class).

Also, it’s completely (legitimately) healthy for you. Seriously. There’s no refined sugar, quinoa isn’t even a grain (it’s a seed), and almonds are nuts (it’s 1 a.m. and I’m allowed to be punny and lame)!

I’m on a really big quinoa kick right now, mainly because it’s the only grain that I don’t feel like crap after eating. And you can do so much baking with it without pulverizing it into a flour or messing with starchy filler flours in order to get nice fluff and texture.

Almond butter also makes almost everything in the world taste amazing (I’ve made chickpea cookies taste like “real” cookies by adding almond butter to them)…and if you have a sensitive stomach, almond butter can be easier on the digestive system than raw almonds while still giving you all the benefits of almonds (polyphenols, a stronger nervous system, calcium, iron, and the ability to help to the body restore to a more alkaline PH). While researching them, I was also interested to find out that they are considered part of the peach family.

Blueberries are filled with antioxidants, are tridoshic and can help with urinary tract infections. They’re also delicious—if you don’t need help with your bladder but want to eat them anyway for the joy of turning your lips and tongue blue.

So without further ado, here is my recipe for the best all-natural, gluten free, refined sugar free and vegan (and probably only) dancing blueberry almond butter quinoa bread you’ve ever had:

Ingredients

1 pint fresh blueberries
¾ cup almond butter
1 tbsp coconut oil
⅓ cup almond milk
2 cups cooked quinoa
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp cinnamon
4 tbsp honey (agave nectar if you prefer)
3 tbsp ground chia seeds + 12 tbsp water (flax seeds work as well)
1 tsp baking soda
1 pair ballet shoes (so you can pirouette while making it)

Put on dancing shoes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a small bread pan (get dimensions from home) with coconut oil.

Turn on this song:

Flit around your kitchen on your tiptoes and combine 3 tbsp ground chia seeds (you can grind them at home with a coffee grinder or blender), with the 12 tbsp of water in a small bowl. Let this sit for several minutes, so the chia can absorb the water (this is the egg substitute—if you would like to use eggs, then you would use 3 medium-sized eggs).

Turn on this song:

Make funky hand gestures and roll your spine up and down. Or twitch a lot, like Thom Yorke does in the video.

Then prepare the quinoa.

While the quinoa is cooking and the oven is heating, place the cinnamon, vanilla, almond milk, and chia mixture in a blender and blend on high until everything looks like it is combined together.

Do a backbend.

Turn on this song:

Place the almond butter in a bowl, and add the liquid mixture to it. Stir, and add in the cooked quinoa (I find it goes better if the quinoa and/or the almond butter is warm—that way it combines more smoothly. Add the honey to taste and fold in the blueberries).

Let your inner ballerina out and do a few tondus and pirouettes—move in whatever way your body wants to.

Place the batter into a bread pan and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. I don’t suggest dancing near the oven, especially en pointe.

Turn on your favorite album, put on your favorite pair of underwear and dance while you wait for your delicious bread!

This tastes delicious served with a smattering of warm coconut oil and a cup of nut or soy milk sweetened with organic honey.

Enjoy the happy dance going on in your mouth…and go back to sleep.

Sweet dreams!

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Photo: elephant journal archives