I have been looking for a snack ball recipe for a while that would be suitable for the kids to take to school in their lunch boxes. Most energy ball type recipes have peanut butter in them, which rules them out as both school and kinder have a nut free policy.

Then I came across this recipe on a great blog, Eat, Live, Run. It to contained peanut butter in the ingredients, but in a small enough quantity that I thought I would be able to make the recipe work without adding it.

I actually made a number of other changes to the recipe based on the kids’ preferences and ingredients on hand and they worked out super well. They are easy to make but they do take some time as you have to let the mixture chill in the fridge a couple of times through out the process.

I store the Quinoa Snack Balls in the freezer and just take them out in the morning and add to the lunch boxes, so next time I make them I will double the quantities (this batch made 14 but myself and some of the kids did taste quite a bit of the mixture along the way!)

Quinoa Snack Balls

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oats
• 1/4 cup quinoa (uncooked)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup desiccated coconut
• 1/2 cup linseed (flaxseed)
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup pepita
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100mls honey

Method:

1. Thoroughly rinse quinoa.

2. Add quinoa to a saucepan with water and bring to the boil.

3. Once boiling reduce the heat to a simmer. Stir occasionally and simmer until the liquid has been absorbed.

4. Pour quinoa into a large mixing bowl.

5. To the quinoa add oats, linseed, desiccated coconut and pepitas and mix until well combined.

6. Pour honey into a saucepan and bring it to a simmer.

7. Add in the vanilla extract and stir and pour on top of nuts and seeds. Mix until well combined.

8. Pour the honey mix onto the oats and seeds and mix thoroughly.

9. Before adding the choc chops the mixture needs to cool so the choc chips don’t melt. I placed mine in the fridge for 15 minutes. I also chopped up my chocolate chips so the chunks were smaller.

10. Add the chocolate chips, mix gently and chill the mixture for a further hour in the fridge.

11. When I looked at my mixture I thought there would be no way I could turn them into balls, but by using wet hands as recommended and giving the mixture a good squeeze into shape, the balls did indeed form.

12. Once all the balls are made they need to be chilled for at least a couple of hours before they are ready. Alternatively if you are not going to eat them straight away you can pack them into a freezer container and pop them straight into the freezer. Then just get them out as you need them.

Our Family Menu Plan For This Week.

No menu plan to share this week as I am having a week where I am going to try and use everything in the freezer and pantry to run down stocks. Buying meat monthly and storing it in the freezer, not matter how well I organise it, I find there are always those items that are at the bottom that need to be used up!

If you are looking for further recipe inspiration, check out my complete list of Family Friendly Recipes. You might like to also check out Planning With Kids Menu Planning App.

The kid friendly menu planning app allows you to:

• Create weekly menu plans quickly, choosing as many meals per day as you would like to plan for.
• Generate the shopping list for all the meals selected.
• Modify the shopping list to check off items you already have at home.
• Email the shopping list to yourself and/or others.

The most popular recipes from the blog have been included and more will be added on a weekly basis. The app will notify you when new recipes have been added, so you will be able to deliver plenty of variety in your family’s menu plans. Each recipe lists the ingredients required, easy to follow instructions and a photo from the blog.

What’s on your menu plan this week?

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