Date & Puffed Quinoa Balls (GF)

We all have that one friend or relative that has everything so what do you give them for their birthday? My sister is just like that and she appreciates the food gifts I give her but she’s always on some kind of special diet. I thought it was gluten free this time so decided to make these Date & Puffed Quinoa Balls.

I always like to use what I have on hand so had plenty of dates, macadamia nuts and a box of puffed quinoa (which is easy enough to make yourself). Finely dice or blitz the dates and macadamia nuts.

Add the puffed quinoa, peanut butter (or any kind of nut better) and honey.

Mix together until the mixture is firm enough to form into a ball shape. If it’s too dry, add more honey. If it’s too wet, add more puffed quinoa.

Form into balls and enjoy. It’s that easy. You could add anything you else you wanted too. Things like chocolate chips, other dried fruit and other http://www.mudboggerforum.com/profile/4837061 nuts. Also, if you don’t have puffed quinoa, you could use puffed rice breakfast cereal.

I used the lid off a box I had, put the balls inside and wrapped in clear cellophane. You want to know something funny? When I handed them to my sister, she informed me that she was no carbs! Oh well. They came home with me and were enjoyed by the family. A great addition to any lunchbox or a quick pick-me-up snack.

DATE & PUFFED QUINOA BALLS (Gluten Free)

•  1 cup dates, finely diced or blitzed
• 1 cup puffed quinoa (or puffed rice breakfast cereal)
• 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, finely diced or blitzed
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

1. Combine the finely diced dates, macadamia nuts and quinoa.
2. Add the honey and peanut butter.
3. With wet hands, roll tablespoons of the mixture into a ball.
4. If the mixture is too dry, add more honey. If it’s too wet, add more puffed quinoa.
5. Refrigerate until required.

Honey Caramel Cashew Bars

For those of us who love to bake (and eat our baking, like me), do you ever get that craving for something? Yeah, me too. I don’t know why but this particular night I had a craving for those cafe style Pecan Pie bars that are oh so sweet and nutty. Trouble was, I only had a handful of pecans and was missing a couple other ingredients. I looked at what I did have and I had heaps of cashews. That’ll do. That’s how these Honey Caramel Cashew Bars came about.

Even though I limit my grocery shopping to $150 per fortnight, when I’ve got a bit leftover, I like to buy a few less common ingredients like nuts, just in case I get the urge for something baked, adding to a stir fry or adding a crunch to a salad. Cashews are my favourite but then again I do love most varieties of nuts. No need to really chop them up. Just a bit of a rough chop will do. I also found that this recipe all came together by prepping everything in the microwave and then finished off baking in the oven. It was really quick to put together.

I baked a base which was a lovely buttery, shortbread type base but you could just use biscuit crumbs with added melted butter.

Next make the honey caramel filling. I did this all in the microwave. I could’ve used maple or golden syrup but I thought the honey would go well with the cashews, which it did.

Add the chopped cashews to the caramel mix.

Then pour onto the partially baked shortbread crust.

Bake until golden brown and bubbly on top. You’ll need to let it cool down completely before eating. It will solidify upon cooling.

 

The caramel oozes down into the base and then solidifies with the cashews. It truly is delicious, although very sweet. It definitely curbed my craving. You could use pecans or any kind of nuts. I can’t wait to try it with macadamia nuts, walnuts, peanuts or, eventually I hope, pecans. 

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Honey Caramel Cashew Bars

A smooth honey caramel smothering cashews on a buttery shortbread base.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 18

Author Anne

Ingredients

Shortbread base

• 250 gm butter
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2.2/3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Honey Caramel topping

• 100 gm butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 cups cashews roughly chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C and prepare a 20x25cm slice pan with baking paper.
2. In a microwave proof bowl, melt butter.
3. Add brown sugar and stir until dissolved.
4. Mix in flour and salt.
5. Press into slice pan and bake until just pale.
6. For the topping, melt butter in a microwave proof bowl.
7. Mix in brown sugar until dissolved.
8. Stir through honey and cashews.
9. Pour onto shortbread base and bake until golden and bubbly (approx 20 mins).
10. Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Recipe Notes

Other nuts can be substituted, eg macadamias, walnuts, pecans, peanuts.
Honey can be substituted with maple or golden syrup.
Drizzle with melted chocolate once cooled.

Adapted from Pecan Pie Bars by Just a Taste

 

Honey Oat Bars

I love this easy recipe for Honey Oat Bars.

You know that sinking feeling you get, when you’re all set for baking and you’ve run out of a vital ingredient like self raising flour (cake flour)? Well, that happened to me when I was all set to make cookies and I had to change it up pretty quickly and get something baked, in a hurry, for my starving crew.

I found a recipe for Muesli Cookies and because things had already turned sour for me, the cookies weren’t rolling very well into balls so I pressed the cookie dough into a slice pan and came up with these Honey Oat Bars.

The kids didn’t seemed to mind that they were in a square shape and not round cookies. Making a slice is so much easier sometimes when you’re in a hurry anyway.

This recipe is very similar to the good old Aussie favourite, Anzac biscuits, but with honey instead of golden syrup and, just for good measure, I added the last of the chocolate chips to this batch.

You could add just about anything like chopped dried fruit, nuts, top with icing or whatever. These will become a new favourite in our household. It’s amazing how new recipes are found under such stressful conditions!

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Easy Honey Oat Bars

A delicious treat for lunch boxes or snacks. This melt and mix recipe using common ingredients from your pantry produces a much nicer bar than what you can buy in the supermarket.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword flapjacks, muesli, muesli bars, oat bars, oats

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 18 pieces

Author Anne Murphy

Ingredients

• 1 cup oatmeal (rolled oats)
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup honey or syrup
• 90 grams butter or margarine
• 1/4 tsp bicarb soda
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C.

2. Place honey and butter in a small saucepan and melt over low heat. 

3. Add bicarb soda and stir.

4. Place remaining ingredients into a bowl and mix together.

5. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and combine thoroughly.

6. Press into a slice pan (28x18cm) and bake until brown.

Recipe Notes

Add nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, sprinkles and any other of your favourite ingredients.

Overnight quinoa flakes with raspberries & honey

I can honestly say I’ve got a thing for quinoa. I could take or leave cooked oats for breakfast and its not something I usually cook. I don’t mind making them overnight, that is, when you soak them in milk plus other ingredients and they have softened, ready to eat in the morning. I thought I’d apply the same method to quinoa flakes.

It was really delicious. I also had fresh raspberries, another ingredient I don’t normally have a lot of. I’ve only ever really eaten fresh strawberries. Fresh raspberries are a relatively new thing to me. They’ve nearly always been available frozen or canned but hardly fresh. I had this punnet of raspberries earmarked for chocolate and raspberry brownies but the fresh bright berries were calling my name asking to be eaten fresh. I chopped some and mixed through the quinoa and then topped with a couple whole berries. A drizzle of honey to finish and I was ready to go. You could warm through in a saucepan or zap in the microwave if you prefer them warm.

If  you like oats done this way, you’ll love quinoa flakes too. I’m looking forward to trying them with other berries, banana and walnuts, peaches and almonds, prunes, apples and cinnamon and the list goes on.

Overnight Quinoa Flakes with Raspberries & Honey

• half cup of quinoa flakes
• 1 cup of milk
• raspberries
• honey to serve

1. Add milk to quinoa flakes and stir well.
2. Chop some raspberries and add to the quinoa mixture.
3. Put in an airtight container in the fridge the night before they’ll be eaten.
4. Top with more fresh raspberries and drizzle with honey to serve.

Serves 1.

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