Quinoa No-Bake
Trail Mix Balls

Prep time: 1 hour 45 mins
Total time: 1 hour 45 mins
Serves: 28

Ingredients

  • 1 cup old fashioned or quick-cooking oats, dry
  • 1/2 cup quinoa, cooked and cooled
  • 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1/3 cup raisins
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
  • 2 tablespoons peanut butter (do not use refrigerated pb as it is not "strong" enough to act as a bonding agent)

Instructions

  1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix until well combined.
  2. Place mixture/bowl in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  3. Using a tablespoon measuring spoon, scoop mixture and dispense onto plate. [i]*I have found that the balls hold together better by pressing the mixture into the tablespoon (using my palm) prior to dispensing them.[/i]
  4. Place back in the refrigerator and allow to "set" for one hour.
  5. Transfer to an air tight container and place back in refrigerator.
  6. Enjoy!

Nutritional data

Serving size: 1 ball
Calories: 59
Fat: 2.4 grams
Carbohydrates: 9 grams
Protein: 1.3 grams

Notes

A special thank you to Eat Live Run for the inspiration to make these!

Nutritional data is approximate.

 

 

I have decided to step outside of my comfort zone and embrace cooking with quinoa. With all of the buzz on the health benefits of quinoa, I'm surprised I haven't used it before now. My first venture was these super easy, Quinoa No-Bake Trail Mix Balls. A combination of sweet and salty held together by all natural peanut butter and honey glue, these bite-sized treats are quickly becoming a favorite with the kids (little man actually bypassed the M&M cookies in favor of these). A quick note: I made these this morning and after 30 minutes, they still were not rolling well. I believe this is because it is very humid out today (it is about to rain), so if you find that they aren't holding together well, you may leave them in the fridge for 10 or 15 minutes longer (which worked for me).

Also, I'm going to change the recipe to reflect using a tablespoon measuring spoon as opposed to a cookie scoop. The scoop tends to get hung up in the oats and it creates a mess. Also, make sure you keep the tablespoon wet to ensure that the mixture doesn't start sticking to the spoon.

And finally... using a tablespoon instead of the cookie scoop drastically improved the amount of balls you can make out of one batch, so I have updated the nutritional info to reflect this.