A healthy and addictive snack made with quinoa, coconut and almond butter.

2 cups quinoa, cooked
1 cup rolled large flake oats
½ cup coconut (shredded, unsweetened)
½ cup natural almond butter
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp flaxseed meal
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup miniature chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 170 F. Combine the cooled, cooked quinoa (make sure it has completely cooled) with the oats, coconut, and cinnamon. Combine the almond butter, honey, vanilla, and flax. Add dry mixture to the wet ingredients and combine well. Fold in chocolate chips.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (or spray them with cooking spray). Scoop tablespoons of mixture onto the baking sheet and press down firmly with your fingers so it is compact. You can also scoop them into a small cookie cutter to form fun shapes. Bake for 1 hour.

When I saw this recipe on All Ways Nutritious I was excited to try it. As I was making them, I thought they seemed familiar. Then I realized I had first seen this on Simple Spoonfuls’ blog post on New Moon Quinoa Coconut Cookies, and had liked the idea of combining quinoa and coconut to form a cookie. That’s when I came up with my own recipe for Quinoa Coconut Cookies. So no wonder I liked this recipe when I saw it again on All Ways Nutritious. What really caught my eye was the heart shapes. What a great idea to mold them using a cookie cutter, it’s brilliant! I made these when we had some friends over for a playdate and the kids went nuts over them. They tasted amazing and they loved the bite-sized heart shapes. We couldn’t stop eating them. They’re full of healthy ingredients too, so it’s something parents can feel good about serving to their kids.