Quinoa Crack Balls

I am my happiest self when my kitchen counter looks something like this:

Here, I am in the process of making a little something called Quinoa Crack Balls, compliments of Pinterest of course. I made them once before and they were pretty tasty. I just finished watching the documentary Forks Over Knives (about eating a plant based-whole foods diet) and felt that I immediately needed to make some sort of health food.

On hand in my kitchen were all ingredients necessary.

• 1/3 cup quinoa
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 tablespoons dried cherries
• 1/8 cup almonds
• 2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon almond butter

I totally did not measure out any of the ingredients this time. Just dumped them into a bowl. And, truth be told, I substituted couscous for quinoa only because I had it on hand, already cooked. And while we're being honest I used Craisins instead of dried cherries AND a mixture of agave and honey instead of maple syrup. So basically, this is a completely different recipe. 

Here is the actual recipe. I copied and pasted from here. 

Directions:

Rinse quinoa. Combine water and quinoa in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer and cook covered until water is fully absorbed (you want it on the dry side.) While quinoa is cooking, combine cherries and almonds in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to small bowl. Once quinoa is cooked, spread out on baking sheet or another flat surface to let it cool for a few minutes. Once cooled, add to bowl with almond/cherry mixture. Add maple syrup, almond butter and chocolate chips and fold together. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat. Roll quinoa mixture into balls and place on sheet (this is a messy process, embrace it by licking your fingers at the end .) Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, until quinoa becomes golden and crispy on the outside. Let balls cool on baking sheet for at least 10 minutes.

 ...and Ta- Da!! They are a bit tricky to form into "balls" so this is the best I could do. Maybe I needed more almond butter and honey. Who knows. This will be be my breakfast/snack for the next couple days or until I've devour it all. 

If you try them, let me know how they turn out. Yours will probably be prettier than mine. 

-Caroline