Seed & nut bars

I'm all about nutrition at the moments, it's my latest fad - look forward to seeing many phases of obsession as this blog develops! And although I eat (most of the time) a fair amount of veggies getting a wide range of nutrients I probably fall short. Enter nuts and seeds! It turns out that these humble friends have a whole host of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids. But, I still don't crave them like I would sugar, bread or cheese. But then I discovered home made muesli bars. A girlfriend got me on to this great recipe.

Last night Missy Moo and I gave it  shot and it worked really well. We didn't have any brown rice syrup, so we substituted maple syrup instead. I think I will get some brown rice syrup as it's suppose to be "liked by health buffs" according to the Cook's Thesaurus. Apparently, it's lower GI, so it's absorbed more slowly. I also think I heard Sarah Wilson from I Quit Sugar fame, talking about it. But my adventures of quitting sugar are another story for another day! Here's some of the magic that took place in our kitchen!

The great thing about this recipe is that the first few ingredients are all 1 & 1/2 cups, so for kids they can practice doing the measuring all by themselves. I'm currently reading a book called Bringing up Bébé which is about French parenting. It suggests cooking with kids is a great way to teach them patience. Many preschool children can bake a yogurt cake by themselves! It's been a very interesting read and way better than the bossiness of most parenting books. Plus reading about being in Paris raising a beautifully behaved child is more of a fictional fantasy than a self help book!

All the dry ingredients get thrown in the bowl then mixed. Then you boil the wet ingredients for a minute, mix over the dry ingredients and press into a dish. I'm not really one to stick to a recipe (I have many, many, hilarious stories about the outcome of my cooking as a result!) so I just used the dried, fruit, nuts and seeds that I had on hand. There is cranberries, hazelnuts, not enough almonds and a good dose of random seeds such as pepitas, sunflower and ground linseed in no particular quantities! I just made my seed and nut quantities add up to 1 & 1/2 cups of the listed toasted sliced almonds.

Then it's refrigerated for an hour and done! 

I can recommend this one and it's interesting enough to take out to a night in with the girls without too much healthy judgement!

What snacks do you love to make?