Today’s Martha Monday project was chosen by Lyndsey at Tiny Skillet – Quinoa Apricot Nut Clusters. I was excited about this because it was totally different from anything I have made. There were a lot of steps in this though, mostly b/c Martha wants you to roast your oats, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and quinoa all separately. Eek. I bought pre-roasted nuts and 
seeds, so that helped reduce the time on this. With the quinoa, you have to cook it on the stove, then roast it, which took quite a while. Finally I had all my ingredients and I mixed them together. You’re supposed to form these into a cookie shape on a baking sheet and bake them. I could not get mine to stay together very well. I got them into blobs on the baking sheet, but when I took them off, they fell apart.
So it was messy. As for taste? It was definitely different. Mr. MarthaAndMe said he thought it needed some other flavor. I think maybe adding some cinnamon might help it. I’m not a fan of the apricot pieces either. The rest of it was pretty good and Teen Martha has been munching on it in little bits. This is great because it is gluten and dairy free, so if anyone in your family has those sensitivities, this is something everyone can enjoy.
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Mine turned out the same way. I thought much the same way you did. I will post mine when I get home from work. (I’m on lunch break now). 😀
I’ll have mine in tomorrow as I had to delay making this until today as seasonal colds hit our family this weekend 🙁 I’m gonna use your tip and add cinnamon.
I don’t understand why this wasn’t designed as a bar cookie-granola bar type thing. Then it would not have been such a mess! It just doesn’t work in a cookie shape.
I hope everyone feels better soon!
Okay my post is up and ready to see! Martha that’s funny you said that about the bar, it you check out mine, that’s what I ended up doing! We agreed on so many things with this one!
I meant “Marthaandme” oops sorry, my fingers are too fast for their own good. Sorry Brette
Hum, I’ve been wanting to eat more quinoa–do you think you could just add a little quinoa to a regular homemade granola recipe instead of using Martha’s?
Sure, but you have to rinse it, boil it, then roast it!
How funny that we had all the same thoughts! Now, why doesn’t Martha’s test kitchen have the same thoughts? Seriously, they need to hire us.
When I was reading your post, I wondered why cinnamon wasn’t in the recipe!
Mine ended up sticking together fairly well. I used my fingers to press them together on the cookie sheet. These were good because I added cardamom, otherwise they’d be very bland. They were also expensive to make so I won’t be making them again unless my husband loves them. This was fun to make with all you girls as always 🙂
http://muminbloom.blogspot.com/2010/05/recipe-quinoa-apricot-and-nut-clusters.html
It was expensive, you’re right.