Peanut Butter Power Balls with Brown Rice Crispies, Dried Cranberries, Quinoa & Dark Chocolate

 I've been wanting to make power balls with crispy rice cereal ever since my hair dresser and friend Erin sent me home with some she had made after my appointment one day. We were laughing pretty hard because she had rolled them in kosher salt and then "salty balls" were born. If you can't laugh at that, are you even really living?? They were really good BTW, and yes quite salty.  

This recipe unintentionally reminds me of the peanut butter chocolate cherry balls my mother makes. Go figure! I think you could switch up the ingredients depending what you had in your pantry no problem. Different dried fruit, nut butters, seeds etc. I almost rolled them in toasted coconut after dipping them in chocolate but wasn't feeling it. It would be delicious though. 
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I wanted to add quinoa flour to these because I read that quinoa is a complete protein. Something to consider if you follow a plant based diet. I need to start paying more attention to this for sure. 

Recipe

Yield: 20 balls

Ingredients for power balls
3 cups crispy rice cereal. (I used natures path organic brown rice cereal)
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 tbsp ground flax
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 c toasted sunflower seeds
1 to 1 1/4 cups crunchy natural peanut butter ( I started with 1 cup and ended up adding a bit more)
6 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp coconut oil (Honestly, dunno why I added this, intuition maybe, I'll try leaving it out next time
2 tsp vanilla
couple pinches of kosher salt

Chocolate coating
250 g dark chocolate
2 tsp coconut oil

Method:

1. Combine all dry ingredients in a big bowl. 
2. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl and give a stir (maple, peanut butter, coconut oil, vanilla)
3. Pour wet into dry mix and just get your hands in there and mix it all together. If you have to add a bit more peanut butter to hold it together better, go ahead and do that. The mixture is a bit delicate but it should hold together when you form it into balls. 
4. Now start forming into balls and place on a lined baking sheet. I made mine about the size of a golf ball.  You will have to rinse your hands clean a few times during the process to make it easier to form these or it will just keep sticking to you and be really troublesome. 
5. When you are done, pop them in the freezer to firm up for 30 minutes or so. Now I really like these as is at this point. I decided on the chocolate because yes delicious, but also to hold them together better. I don't mind a bit of crumbliness so, I might just stop here next time. Great either way. 
6. Melt your chocolate in a double boiler with the coconut oil. I use a fork to roll them around one at a time in the melted chocolate and then to lift back onto the baking sheet. When done dipping I put them back in the freezer to harden before transferring to a Tupperware container. Keep frozen for an easy grab and go breakfast or snack. Enjoy!