These days, a lot of us are making our own homemade muesli bars, protein balls and healthy snacks. There is an endless list of ingredients you can combine to create your own super-food bar and tailor it to your and your family’s taste, diet and allergy needs. By making these snacks at home we avoid the store bought varieties that are often overpriced and/or filled with other dubious ingredients that we do not need in our bodies. 

Yes, preparing homemade snacks does take a bit of preparation, but seriously, the trade-off for making it a priority once or twice a week, far outweighs what you are consuming from most store-bought options. Having fun with variations of nuts, seeds, dried fruit along with blood sugar stabilising oats, you can be assured that you are nourishing yourself as well as enjoying something yummy.

I like to change it up so the kids don’t get bored. I love these especially as they require no baking! Just give the ingredients a good mix and leave them in the fridge to set. These can very easily be made in ten minutes before you go to bed at night and come morning, your family has snacks ready to go for the day. They are super easy for older kids to even make on their own.

You will notice that I’ve used butter in this bar and are probably wondering ‘how is that healthy?’ Butter does a great job at holding the dry ingredients together at room temperature compared to coconut oil. Using a good quality, full fat, organic butter does contain health benefits and is satiating. Everything in moderation obviously. ENJOY!

xxx

No Bake Muesli Bars

These healthy, chewy, no-bake muesli bars, are packed with goodness and super easy to whip up in a flash. A great snack alternative for the whole family.

• 2 cups rolled oats
• ⅔ cup cranberries or raisins (not coated in veg oil)
• ⅓ cup pepita seeds
• ⅓ cup desiccated coconut
• ⅓ cup apricots (unsulfered & roughly chopped)
• ⅓ cup almonds (roughly chopped)
• ⅓ cup ground flax seeds
• ¼ cup runny raw honey
• 2 tbsp peanut butter (can use preferred nut butter or seed butter)
• 3 heaped tbsp organic butter
• ¼ tsp sea salt or Himalayan salt

1. Place all the ingredients except for the honey, butter and peanut butter in a large bowl.

2. In a small saucepan, over a medium heat, melt the honey, butter and peanut butter until well incorporated and runny.

3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and give it a good mix until all the ingredients are well combined.

4. Line an 8×8 inch baking tin and spread the mixture out evenly. Press down heavily onto the mixture so it is well squashed. I like to use a potato masher to get it nice and compacted (use the back of a wet spoon to smooth it out).

5. Place the tin into the fridge and refrigerate until well set. Over night is best.

6. Once set, slice the muesli into bars with a sharp knife. Keep the muesli bars in the fridge.

If the mixture looks too dry after mixing, especially if you have added more dry ingredients than the recipe, increase the quantity of wet ingredients to compensate, otherwise the bars will collapse on cutting.

I know what you’re thinking…. chickpeas? Yes! Chickpeas! I just love these nutrient dense little darlings. Cooked in stews to add bulk and nutrients, in salads for the creamy texture and crunch, the main ingredient in my favorite dip, hummus and now….. on their own, roasted and flavoured to your liking!

Every saturday night that my husband is not working, we have a ‘date night’ at home. Our date night consists of a movie on Netflix, a bowl of sea salt flavoured crisps and of course a Venetian spritz. Easily pleased. I know! 😉 While I choose the movie, he makes up his signature spritz. Why a spritz and chips you ask? Well…. on our honeymoon in Italy, we stayed a few nights in Venice. As this was obviously before kids, we had the much enviable opportunity to frequent a bar in the evenings before dinner. Not at all an option these days with our three little munchkins running around. In true Venetian style we sipped on Spritzers and nibbled on salted crisps while getting giggly at silly things, like my husband trying to speak Italian saying ‘Ciao’ (hello) instead of ‘Grazie’ (thank you) to the locals!;) Spritz and crisps brings back such wonderful memories we had together that it feels only fitting to insert snippets of these memories into our child orientated life.

On tasting these roasted chickpeas, I had an idea that maybe we might be able to alternate the crisps with a slightly healthier option. They taste equally as yummy and are SO unbelievably addictive! There are so many ways to flavour the chick peas. You can be free with your favorite spices if you choose. I kept my simple and made a batch with cinnamon and sugar, and another with salt. By the end of photographing these beauties, I actually ended up combining the two into one bowl as I quite enjoy the salty/sweet combination. And yes!…. I did end up drinking the accompanying spritzer. The sweet, sweet bonus of posting recipes when hubby is working in the evening!;)

If I stop eating them now, we will be taking them on our family road trip this weekend as a healthy snack option. My kids love them and I love how they are gaining all the nutrients from the chickpeas and they don’t even know it! They are also a wonderful snack for school and work lunch boxes or a pre-dinner nibblie at a dinner party.

I hope you enjoy snacking and devouring these lovelies as much as we do! xxx