Peanut Butter Chocolate Quinoa No-Bakes

I come from a family full of sweet lovers. I also come from a family of excellent bakers. This is a deadly combination. As I have said before, growing up in the Bray house, we never had "packaged" snacks. No Little Debbie's, No Snack Pack, no Chips Ahoy. Now don't go feeling bad about my deprived childhood just yet. The Bray children were certainly not deprived. Instead of the treats listed about, we had home made gooey brownies, the thickest, most chocolatey, creamy chocolate pudding, and my dad's world famous chocolate chips cookies exploding with chocolate chunks and pure ecstasy.

I have mentioned my dad and all that he taught me in the kitchen in previous posts. My mom, too, has taught me a lot in the kitchen. There is just something about a Momma's cooking that makes it taste better than anyone else's. Since moving out of my parent's house, I have done a lot of cooking (obviously). A good portion of the things that I make are things that I grew up having. Although I am excited when I make something I grew up having, like Steak Creole, it never tastes quite the same as when my mom would make it.

Momma and me in Ireland in 2011

One of my favorite after dinner treats that my mom used to make for us is no-bake cookies. I am sure your are familiar with the cookies I am referring to. Peanut buttery, chocolately oatmeal cookies with a texture similar to fudge. Ring a bell? My mom used to make a big batch of these cookies after dinner sometimes and we absolutely loved them. With a big glass of ice cold milk, it's hard to beat these simple treats.

The only downside of these cookies is that there are full of sugar and butter. When I adopted my healthier life style in January, sugar and butter were among the first things to go. However, the craving for no bakes has remained ever present. So I was on a mission to find a healthier alternative to no bake cookies. of course, don't I always deliver? Thanks to Pinterest for the inspiration, I stumbled upon the genius idea to use quinoa in cookies! My source for this recipe is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies over at 366daysofpinterest.com. Check out her blog. What a great idea to put all of those awesome recipes from Pinterest to use one day at a time.

I made the recipe above the first go round, but then I made some changes that I really like. Here is my recipe:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Quinoa No-Bakes
1/2 cup dry quinoa
3/4 cup uncooked rolled oats
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, plus 2 tablespoons
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

*note: if you use regular semi-sweet chocolate chips, the cookies should be sweet enough without any honey. If you you as higher quality, more bitter chocolate, you may need to add 4 tablespoons of honey. Use your discretion on this one.

That's it; that's all of the ingredients. It's even more simple than regular no-bakes. And this version is completely vegan as well as gluten free (depending on how you feel about chocolate being gluten free.)

Method
Cook the quinoa in 1 cup water. If you're nervous about cooking quinoa for the first time like I was, check out This Link which goes into great detail about how to properly cook quinoa. Thanks TheKitchen.com!

Now, once the quinoa is cooked but is still hot, add the 1/2 cup chocolate, peanut butter, and rolled oats.

Stir it up. Once the mixture is cooled enough to not melt the remaining chocolate, add the two tablespoons of chocolate and the vanilla. Stir it up. You have to wait until it is cooled so that you will have a few pieces of chocolate instead of it all melting together. Now you taste it (see above *note) Now just roll the mixture out into whatever size balls you want.

Now stick them in the fridge until they are set and enjoy! So easy and so delicious. 

My favorite way to eat them is to slather a little extra PB on top, maybe add a couple of chocolate chips, and pop it in the microwave for about 10 seconds to make it gooey.

*Be sure and store them in the fridge even after they are set. If not, they'll mold before you can eat them.

Thanks TheKitchen.com and 366daysofpinterest.com