Cinnamon Quinoa Oat Bars

I like to buy a big bag of quinoa and cook the whole thing up.  Then I freeze it in 1 1/2 -2 cup portions.  I made something with quinoa the other day that called for an odd amount of quinoa so I was left with a heaping cup or so of cooked quinoa.  I didn't want to stick it back in the freezer as it was such an unusual amount so I looked around and found this recipe for Cinnamon Quinoa Bake from PopSugar.

One of the people in the comments stated that they replaced part of the quinoa with oats.  So i measured out my quinoa and filled up the remaining cup and 1/4 cup or so with old fashioned oats. 

I really liked the texture that the oats added to the bars.  I think 100% quinoa might have resulted in a bar that was a bit too moist as well.  The oats seemed to absorb some of the extra moisture from the quinoa, which in my opinion, was a good thing.

I thought the bars tasted the best slightly warm, but they were pretty darn good cold as well.  I wasn't sure how they would keep so I stored them in the fridge to be on the safe side.  The fridge also seemed to help the bars set up a bit better.  They were a little on the loose and crumbly side while they were warm.

The first bite of these bars are a bit of a shock.  I'm so used to quinoa in savory dishes that when I first tasted the quinoa in the bars my brain was like "Uh what on earth is this?  Quinoa is supposed to be savory."  Once you can get your mind synched up with your taste buds, it's hard to stop at one bar. 


 Cinnamon Quinoa Oat Bars adapted from PopSugar (Yields 9 bars)
1 1/4 c cooked and cooled quinoa
1 1/4 c old fashioned oats
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 c  milk
1/3 c maple syrup
2 t vanilla
1 T cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Place quinoa in large bowl. Line 8x8" pan with lightly greased parchment.(I recommend this as I skipped this step and the pan was a pain to clean up.) In small bowl, whisk eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Add maple syrup. Add egg mix to quinoa.  Pour into prepared dish.  Spread to even out.  Bake 20-25 min til set and golden. Using parchment, remove bars from pan as soon as possible so it doesn’t steam. (As I skipped the parchment step I couldn't do this.  This may have been why my bars were moist and didn't set up until they were placed in the fridge overnight.) Cool and cut into squares.