Healthy oat and quinoa cookies

Oat-quinoa bites made in a muffin pan

Chocolate oat-quinoa balls

This recipe for chocolate chip granola balls is a healthy alternative to snacks like granola bars and cookies. And they are quick and easy to make.

Granola is a catch-all term that includes rolled oats, nuts, honey, seeds, dried fruit, and sometimes coconut. You can make your own granola and ensure that it is healthy; otherwise be very discriminating when you buy it in a package because commercial granola is often laden with sugar and hydrogenated fats.

This recipe for oat and quinoa balls has only healthy fats and the sweetness comes from coconut, chocolate chips and maple syrup.

Ingredients

1/2 cooked quinoa
3/4 cup oats
2/3 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup ground flax seeds (or ground chia seeds)
1/2 cup organic semi-sweet or unsweetened chocolate chips or raw cacao nibs
(I use Cuisine Camino Fair Trade chocolate chips)
1/4 maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until the mixture becomes very sticky. I like to add all the dry ingredients first followed by the liquids. Using your hands, form small balls and refrigerate.

The first time I made these I found they were too crumbly so I put them in muffin pans. But the next time they were stickier and held together reasonably when pressed to form balls.

Beware if you are adding the quinoa to the mixture right after it is cooked that the warm quinoa will cause the chocolate chips to melt. I did this the last time I made them and they turned out to be a chocolatey version of oat quinoa balls.

While these are healthy snacks, they are not light. After one or two you will feel satisfied.