These quinoa chocolate chip bites are made with almonds and dried cherries for a healthy and fun way to snack!
I kind of like these random Saturday posts. It gives me a chance to blabber about all the weird things I think/see/do throughout the week and don’t get a chance to share. Ready for this week’s?
-October is breast cancer awareness month which pretty much everyone knows unless you’ve been living under a rock, right? I think it’s great that companies contribute to the cause in all the different ways they do but, I was incredibly annoyed and bothered by Delta’s approach while flying this week. They spend money (or make their flight attendants spend it, not sure how it works) on pink uniforms and then contribute 100% of the profits if you choose to buy a $2 Minute Maid pink lemonade on one of their flights this month. There are 2 things that bother me here: 1. wouldn’t that money for the pink outfit be better spent if it was just directly contributed to fighting the disease instead of outfitting flight attendants? 2. why are they picking a drink whose second ingredient is HFCS (water being the first), and contains a whopping 13% juice as their “representative” item for donations? Isn’t that quite a hypocritical statement? Let’s fight cancer/disease by encouraging people to put crap in their bodies. Good intentions, bad execution Delta.
-After much back and forth, the blue dress made it’s appearance Thursday night in an event to honor my grandfather for his life’s work in the brick industry.
Very proud of you, Grandpa.
-At said event, the Trump organization was also honored for it’s contributions to NYC’s buildings. Accepting the award was the executive vice president, Andrew Weiss. I’m still shocked by the fact that someone with the charisma of at best a snail, holds such a prominent (public) position within that organization. I’m also perplexed by the fact that he looked like he hadn’t brushed his hair in about 3 years. Interesting choice, Don.
-I will continuously order and attempt to like dirty grey goose martinis with extra olives every.single.time I’m at a fancy event. They always taste the same though, disgusting. A little too reminiscent of the high school days drinking vodka straight from the bottle before going to some party in the woods.
-Immersion blenders scare the hell out of me.
I feel like I’m going into a fight every time I use it. Luckily, I won this one with minimal battle wounds.
-Yesterday, I told someone I hadn’t really been sick in almost 2 years. Today, I have a sore throat and can’t stop sneezing. That “knock on wood” shit doesn’t work.
-I’ve never done crack, but I’m imagining the addictiveness of these quinoa balls to be quite similar.
If you liked these, I highly suggest making these crack balls, as I’m calling them. Similar ingredients and flavor but with quinoa and all it’s complete protein glory.
Quinoa Chocolate Chip Bites
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
- 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.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tell me something random from your week.
What are your thoughts on the pink themed stuff for breast cancer awareness? Good branding or stupid use of resources?
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
almond and dried cherries. Does snack time get any better?
By the way, I love you in that dress! beautiful girl.
that is ALWAYS my argument with fund- and awareness raising – the money spent on promotion (flight attendant uniforms, benefit parties and dinners, t shirts, bags and accessories with charity logos, etc) would be much better spent if given directly. ah, well.
these balls look great! I love baking with quinoa!
Bahaha at Jenn’s comment above!! :D Dress looks gorge love and I hope your sore throat goes away asap! As for the delta thing, I agree it’s a complete waste of resources however it’s better than nothing I guess. As for the customer, it’s sad but people are just more inclined to give money when the incentive is staring them in the face. In this case, pink air hostesses and pink lemonade.
Good to know you lick your fingers after handling your… I cant go through with this
That’s what she said :)
hahahaha! Dying over here!
I think any good intention in relation to cancer is a positive thing. I’d never put down a company for doing any small thing, even if it’s just acknowledging that it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Those balls look tasty. Hehhee. And while it does bother me that Delta is encouraging a drink with so much sugar…it makes sense to me. I would rather people feel motivated to buy crap that goes towards a good cause than the other crap they would buy anyways (Coke for example).
I hope you get to feeling better!
mmmm those look quite tasty!
I’m going to randomly paint my laundry room this morning…wish me luck ;)
Great post, lady! So, first of all, I just bough quinoa randomly the other day not sure what I was going to do with it. Guess I’ve found something :) Secondly, on the pink, I love the color pink and totally support breast cancer awareness but for some reason, I do find myself irked by the multi-paged spreads in every single magazine I read about it. Maybe that just means I read too many magazines! I did do a “pink” blogger thing this month (https://www.sweetlifeericka.com/2011/09/taking-bite-out-of-breast-cancer.html) so don’t get me wrong on this! Anyway, I love random posts…good Saturday fun :)
Wow, these look amazing! I love that you used quinoa in them – I would have never thought of that! :-D