A staple lunch box snack

This recipe is quick and easy depending if you have a little helper, let’s face it little helpers double the preparation time. But kids in the kitchen creates lots of things-

-bonding time.

-chatting time.

-discussion on food

-skills in the kitchen

-a process with an end result of yumminess 

NO-BAKING INVOLVED!!!! You will need to use the stove top though!

Chewy Muesli Bars

Minus refined sugars and no numbers…… you know the ones that are on packages that you have no idea what they mean. You just need to know that they are not good and if there’s more than 3 it’s really not good! For you or your little cherubs.

You can pretty much make up your own combinations for this recipe. 

Ingredients

1/4 quarter cup of coconut oil or butter

1/4 cup honey/maple syrup/molasses/rice malt syrup

1/4 cup coconut flakes

Pinch of salt

1 cup of oats

1 cup of chopped dried fruit- up to you, dried figs, unsweetened cranberries, sun-dried apricots, raisins, dates.

Flavour/spice hit- -1tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste scraped into the oil or honey, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg… 

Or the above plus a 1/4 tsp cardamon- cacao.  again you can mix it up as you please.

1 cup of seeds/nuts- so here is where you decide what combo you want to use- at this time of year (Winter-we can use all the help we can get for our immune system) so pepitas are a great choice because they are full of zinc and zinc is what our immune systems need.

Here are a few combos:

1/2 cup of maccadamias- 1/4cup of pepitas- 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds

1/2 cup of walnuts (brain food) -1/2 cup pepitas- 1 tbs chia seeds- 1tbs sesame seeds.

1/2 cup pecans-m1/4 cup sesame seeds- 1/4 cup pepitas

1/2 cup almonds- 1/4 cup pepitas- 1/4 cup cashews.

Now if you want a bit of crunch factor in these chewy bars you could dry roast your nuts or seeds, then add them. Put them in a baking tray and in the oven on 160 for approx 20-40 mins. (Keep your eye on them as they can brown really quickly) Or you can dry roast them on the stove top.

You could add some peanut paste to the mix.

Method

Melt coconut oil or honey + salt + spices let the mixture foam up a little then add your oats+seeds+fruit and mix and stir on low heat for minute or two.

Then press this all down into a small baking dish lined with greaseproof paper. 

Put in the fridge overnight then cut up into bars.

I do a double batch and this lasts for around 2 weeks in the fridge.