My Food Day Dessert Creation

As I mentioned in my Food Day Blog, my mind and fingers were full of ton of creative energy as I was creating my dinner. I was thoroughly impressed with my dinner skills and did not want to waste my motivation; I guess a lazy Sunday of watching Food Network inspired me. Truly this kind of motivation in the kitchen is not something that I am used to so when it came, I went with it.

After having completed a side dish and main course, I decided to try and make a dessert with my leftover quinoa. I wasn't quiet sure where I was going with it other than the fact that I had two overly ripe bananas that needed to be used and a ton of quinoa. A quick google search confirmed that there were many recipes out there for "dessert" type quinoa dishes and so I was set. (I totally had to check just to make sure I wasn't thinking up something ridiculously crazy) 


For my creation, I was determined not to use a ready made recipe and instead go with what I was feeling. With my lack of kitchen knowledge this was sure to be a hoot!

Truthfully, it just started with me throwing stuff in a bowl that sounded good together. Banana ... Vanilla... Cocoa... Peanut Butter...Cinnamon... You get the picture! But really, I honestly had no clue where I was going with the dessert idea. I knew that we had a mini muffin pan so I kind of envisioned some sort of semi sweet mini muffin/cookie creation. As I have changed my nutrition, my tolerance for "sweet" has drastically changed. Long gone are the days of super sugary sweet cookies, cakes and candy. I can honestly say that I now prefer a more subtle or natural sweetness. Thus I was determined to make something that did not require actual sugar.

Once I got my mixture together I tasted it and it did lack a certain sweetness that I was looking for. Luckily, Kenny and I just bought some amazing local dark amber colored Wildflower honey at a local craft fair and a tablespoon of that did the trick! (See complete recipe below for my actual ingredients and cooking instructions)

So with the mixture up to my taste standards, I dished half of it into my mini muffin pan, topped each of the muffins with a banana slice, popped it in the oven and then I waited... FOREVER! Every time I took the pan out of the oven and checked my muffins, they would still be squishy. So back in the oven they would go! Finally I realized that in all of my creativity, I really didn't have a binding agent in my mixture. Oops. So I ended up pulling out that batch from the oven and letting them cook on the counter. Luckily with some time, they stuck well enough to carefully pull them out of the silicone pan.

For the next batch, I added in a bit of instant oats with the remaining quinoa dessert mixture and made drop cookies on a cookie sheet. These stuck together much better and were closer to what I was looking for. In my haste I did not measure how much oats I put in and also forgot to take pictures of that part of the process. Oops


I am pleased with my creativity and overall enjoyed my end product. These little suckers turned out to be quiet addicting, especially if you want something sweet without having to eat something that is overly sweetened. Keep in mind that in their current state, the muffins below produce a softer (almost slightly soggy-like) texture instead of your typical flour based muffin. Also I used a silicone pan, which might alter how you would personally handle this recipe if you use a traditional metal pan. My recipe definitely needs some work to fine tune. As I find better alternatives, I will let you  know!

By the Way: Kenny's favorite were the banana muffins (without oats) and my favorite was the drop cookies (with oats)! Enjoy and let me know if you have some creative alternatives or solutions to bettering this random creation of a recipe.

Quinoa Cookie Muffins
By Stefanie!

2 over ripe Bananas, 1 for smashing and one for slicing
2 tsp Cocoa
3 tsp Peanut Butter
Generous Dash of Vanilla
2 cups quinoa
Ground Cinnamon
1tbsp Honey

Mix in a bowl 1 banana, cocoa, peanut butter, vanilla and cinnamon until the banana is well smashed and all ingredients are blended.
Add the mixture to the quinoa and mix well.
Use Honey to taste. My mixture was a little on the "lacking sweet" side so I added 1 tbsp and that seemed to do the trick. It will depend on your tastes.

Dish mixture into a mini muffin pan and top your muffins with a slice of banana

Quinoa Mixture Pre-cooking

Pop in the oven at 350 and bake for approximately 15-20 minutes (Based on using a silicone pan)

Let cool for 20-30 minutes before removing from pan muffin pan. Carefully pop out the muffins and let sit before eating. 

Repeat steps with remaining mixture. Should make approximately 24+ mini muffins.

After coming out of the oven and resting for quiet some time