{"id":89183,"date":"2013-06-17T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2013-06-17T13:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=89183"},"modified":"2013-11-12T12:21:16","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T17:21:16","slug":"dark-chocolate-quinoa-candy-bars-replace-your-crunch-bar-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/06\/dark-chocolate-quinoa-candy-bars-replace-your-crunch-bar-habit\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Chocolate Quinoa Candy Bars Replace Your Crunch Bar Habit"},"content":{"rendered":"

My daughter is three and loves chocolate, or “chock-wit” as the case may be. It’s her one vice, and speaking woman to woman, can you blame her? Considering how well she eats, I let us both indulge in this little craving on occasion, especially after a business trip.<\/p>\n

Before taking off on one of my trips last year, I promised, as most parents do, to return with a present. Days later, barely awake at the airport before dawn, I remembered my promise and grabbed the first thing I could find – a three-pack of Ghirardelli chocolates. My daughter was overjoyed at this unusual gift, and somewhere along the line decided all business trips should end in chocolate.<\/p>\n

\"quinoa<\/p>\n

So on a recent visit to New York City, I was hounded at each of our morning and evening calls. “Have you got my chocolate yet?” she would anxiously ask. I said no most days, until finally, I’d found the perfect chocolate. At a small grocer in Brooklyn I happened upon Alter Eco’s Dark Quinoa bars. If you have a thing for Nestle’s Crunch bars like I do, you’ll never want to look back after snacking on these.<\/p>\n

\"dark<\/p>\n

An organic, sustainable, undeniably addictive little chocolate treat, I’ve raved to everyone since finding them. My daughter and I have since depleted our stash. I’m left wanting more, but haven’t found it locally yet. So we turned our chocolate craving<\/a><\/strong> in to a play date in the kitchen and crafted our own.<\/p>\n

Ingredient wise, it’s as simple as dark chocolate and quinoa. Preparation wise, it’s just a tad more work.<\/p>\n

\"quinoa<\/p>\n

To toast the quinoa to bring out that nutty taste, heat a skillet on the stove top with a light mist of cooking spray. The quinoa<\/a><\/strong> kernels will crackle and pop, even dance across the hot surface. This only takes a minute and you want to watch it closely and keep the kernels moving to avoid burning or even slightly over cooking.<\/p>\n

\"melting<\/p>\n

Melting the chocolate is my favorite part of the process. I use a faux double boiler and a rubber spatula to make that rich, creamy dark chocolate pourable.<\/p>\n

Finally, you’ll pour the melted dark chocolate in to a candy bar mold. We found ours for less than $2 at a craft store.<\/p>\n

\"melted<\/p>\n

Then, add the toasted quinoa. Top with any remaining melted chocolate, and smooth around the candy mold until all quinoa is covered. Refrigerate until firm and then crack one square at a time – as one ounce of dark chocolate each day<\/a><\/strong> is something dietitians actually recommend!<\/p>\n

\"quinoa<\/p>\n

Why is our candy bar better than the Nestle’s version?<\/p>\n

Ours comes with more fiber, more protein, and less sugar. So while it’s still a candy bar and you should really follow that one-ounce rule, every bite is more nutritionally beneficial than the other stuff.<\/p>\n

Dark Chocolate Quinoa Bars<\/a>\"quinoa<\/strong>
\nserves 10<\/em><\/p>\n

INGREDIENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

10 oz. 60% dark chocolate<\/p>\n

1\/4 cup quinoa<\/p>\n

INSTRUCTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Lightly mist a skillet and when hot pour in the dry quinoa. Let it toast without burning for about 1-2 minutes.<\/p>\n

2. Over a double boiler, melt the dark chocolate pieces.<\/p>\n

3. Pour the chocolate in to candy bar molds, top with quinoa. Refrigerate until solid.<\/p>\n

Try these other treats by DietsInReview.com:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Double Chocolate Peppermint Donuts<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unreal Candy Cookies<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

No Bake Cookie Chia Bars <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

13 Reasons to Love Chocolate<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Recipe by Brandi Koskie; Photos by Kacy Meinecke<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My daughter is three and loves chocolate, or “chock-wit” as the case may be. It’s her one vice, and speaking woman to woman, can you blame her? Considering how well she eats, I let us both indulge in this little … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3735,280,454,281,494,10768,2787,1478],"class_list":["post-89183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recipes","tag-brandi-koskie","tag-candy","tag-chocolate","tag-desserts","tag-gifts","tag-kacy-meinecke","tag-quinoa","tag-travel"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89183"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93045,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89183\/revisions\/93045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}