Red Quinoa Cookies

I have pushed myself to the breaking point. With a few forced days off of work to recover from a sneaky and in my opinion unwarranted injury I have been able to spend some more time in the kitchen. My time in the kitchen has been severely shorted this month due to my insane schedule, which has had a direct correlation with the lack of new recipes posted here. I guess the universe is telling me something, it is time to chill out, relax, sit still and while I am attempting that, I might as well bake something.

I am also in the process of moving and have sworn to buy no new groceries. So I spent some time yesterday searching for recipes that were comprised of only ingredients I already owned. This red quinoa cookie recipe fit the bill. It was also a great excuse to break into Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking, a book I had ogled online and ended up finding a copy on a roommate's bookshelf a few months ago. This roommate of mine found the book slightly unapproachable and described it as "a book designed to keep health food stores in business". She has some valid points there but there are still some gems hidden within the glossy pages. I found this recipe to be particularly unique.

Red Quinoa Cookies adapted from Super Natural Cooking

Posted here is a halved version of the recipe, I also omitted walnuts because I didn't have any.

1 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup cooked red quinoa

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper.

2. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine.

3. In a separate large bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy, beat int he sugar, beat in the egg. Stir in the vanilla.

4. Add the flour mixture in a bout 4 increments, stirring between each addition.

5. Stir in the quinoa, walnuts (if using), and oats and mix until the quinoa is evenly distributed.

6. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheets. Bake from 10-12 minutes, until golden on both top and bottom.

Makes 1-2 dozen medium-large cookies.