Puffed Amaranth Balls

Linds,

So I made these at a rather inopportune time. For the month of March, Paul and I decided to go low sugar as part of an effort to be more aware of what we are eating. Sugar is hard to cut down on! I cheated once with a latte, and he cheated with 2 jelly beans. Ha. He sent me a message immediately after he ate them to confess. The most eye-opening part of this fast has been how easy it is for me to forget that I am trying to do this. I drank that latte and it wasn't until Paul confessed his jelly beans that I even remembered we had made this commitment. Oops.

Anyway, he has been working the late shift all this week, and I get SO bored when he isn't here. My boredom drives me to the Internet where I scroll past hundreds of foodie pictures. I happened upon a recipe for energy balls (which are REALLY trendy right now. People like to eat spherical foods. Make a note of that.) That recipe looked like a bust to me (nothing but smashed up seeds and dried fruit), but it reminded me of some quinoa balls I had seen before.

Yes, I have quinoa in my pantry, but I bought amaranth back in August and still hadn't used it because most of the recipes I see for it online are really awful looking. 

So one YouTube video later and a quick Google search later, this is what I came up with.

Vegan puffed amaranth protein ENERGY power balls!
--I used all the catch phrases I could think of in this one title.--

Yields 12 balls

• 1 cup puffed/popped amaranth
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 heaping tablespoon ground flax seeds

Step 1. Pop the amaranth. I did this 1/8 cup at a time until I got 1 cup. It was the most fun I have had cooking in a long time. Why did no one tell me how much fun popping grains is? Why have I never made Jiffy Pop before?

Step 2. Mix together the peanut butter (or almond butter in your case), molasses, and vanilla. You could also use honey or maple syrup, but I wanted these to be vegan and my syrup is artificial.

Step 3. Mix in the ground flax seeds and puffed amaranth. It will stick together pretty quickly.

Step 4. Using a tablespoon, scoop up the filling and roll into balls. I had to wash my hands a few times during the process to remove some of the extra goo. Clean hands made rolling much easier.

Step 5. Decorate if you want to. I rolled half in powdered sugar. I thought about rolling some in cocoa powder, but I am almost out of it.

Step 6. Enjoy your delicious protein-packed snack!

Nutrition information per ball: 88 calories, 11 grams carbohydrates, 2.5 grams protein, 5% DV iron, 12% magnesium, and 21% manganese

Pretty much these are full of most of the essential minerals. The only significant vitamins of note are niacin and B6.


So here are my notes on this one. The molasses is good but it does give a little bit of a scorched taste (especially since I might have over cooked my amaranth). I think honey would work well, but the sweetness would be overwhelming. In the future I think I am going to do about 2 T honey and 1-2 T applesauce. I might also get away with less molasses or honey by warming my peanut butter up first so it is liquidy.

--Kit