Teff Porridge with Blood Orange & Coconut Butter

I've noticed more and more that I'm an aesthetically driven person. What exactly does that mean? Well, for me, that's means I'm drawn to what my mind's eye sees as beautiful. Beauty could be the packaging on a chocolate bar (oh my gerdness the mast brothers patterned chocolate bar wrappers get me every time!), or the amazing symmetry in a Wes Anderson shot, or, the images and words of some of my favorite food bloggers. Aesthetics are the reason I organize my dry goods into glass mason jars (so I can see the rainbow of colors and textures) and tend to get lost on things like instagram and pinterest. When pinterest was invented, it was euphoric. I'd basically been doing an analog version of pinterest for years with magazine clippings, computer print-outs, and various patterned binders. Now I don't have to clutter up my desk space and kill trees in the process :)

Because I'm so aesthetically driven, it often leads me to wonder if what I'm doing here on the blog is really me. Am I portraying my aesthetic in a genuine manner? Is it my style, or am I trying to imitate something else I've seen? And from there, on darker days, the questions tend to turn into wanderings about whether or not I'm "good enough" to keep food blogging. These are the thoughts that keep me up at night sometimes. But then I tell them to eff off and roll over and go back to sleep.

Because I want to provide the most genuine form of myself on the blog, I've decided to try to be as real as I can with the posts. That means I won't share things I don't actually eat and I won't worry too much about getting enough photos or situating enough props in them. I'll share my own philosophies or views on food and more of what goes on in my day to day. I realized today at my day job that I rarely ever talk about my food blog even though this will be the 5th (!!!) year I've been working at it! It's my labor of love and I should be more comfortable mentioning it whether or not I think it's "good enough" or not.

So, for today, I'm sharing one of my typical breakfasts with you. I've been crushing on teff lately for breakfast because it cooks up quickly, has a lovely thick consistency like polenta, and is super high in calcium and plant-based protein. It's really versatile and can be dressed up any way you like, but this is the particular version I've been enjoying this winter. Feel free to sub things in or out depending on what's available to you or what you like :)

Teff Porridge with Blood Orange and Coconut Butter
notes: this makes a smaller sized portion so if you plan on being relatively active throughout the day, go ahead and double up on the amounts of almond milk and teff. For the blood orange, I like to remove the peel/pith with a knife and surpreme it, squeezing the remaining juice over the top of the porridge. 

1/2 cup + 1 tbsp almond milk (or other plant milk)
2 tbsp teff grain
tiny pinch of fine sea salt

1-2 tsp coconut butter
1 tsp maple syrup
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp maca or lucuma
1-2 tsp hemp seeds
1 blood orange

Heat the almond milk in a small sauce pan over medium high heat. When the milk just starts to boil, stir in the teff  and salt and turn the heat to low. Simmer the teff porridge for 10 to 15 minutes until it has thickened. Stir in the coconut butter, syrup, cardamom, and maca. Once the coconut butter has melted completely, remove the porridge from the heat. Serve the porridge topped with slices of blood orange and the hemp seeds sprinkled over the top.