Healthy Granola Bars

Well, detox week was a success!  The scales are being kinder and I feel better in my jeans (jeans never lie, scales sometimes do!).  I stuck to the healthy breakfast smoothie all week, salads for lunch and healthy soups and stews (all veggie) for dinner (except for lunch out on Thursday and a Chinese takeaway last night... oops).  Now, I love my food and that diet alone would not be enough as I am out of the house for 12 hours each day in the week, so I needed some healthy snacks.  Having been initially inspired to detox after discovering goop.com, this week's newsletter had some healthy lunchbox ideas.  The granola bars suggested looked good, and here is the version I made to get me through the week:

Homemade Granola Bars

1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup rolled oats, blitzed in a food processor
A pinch each of the following:
fine salt
ground cinnamon
ground nutmeg
ground ginger
1/4 cup flax seeds/linseeds
1/2 cup dried cherries*
1/4 cup almonds, roughly chopped*
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds*
1/4 cup groundnut oil
1/4 cup high quality maple syrup
2 tablespoons honey

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Line a 8” square baking pan with parchment paper (my pan was 9" so my slices were quite flat)

Combine the oats, spices, nuts, seeds and dried fruit in a large mixing bowl.

In a small bowl or jug, whisk together the wet ingredients and then stir them into the dry ingredients.

Put the mixture in the prepared pan, smooth the top with a rubber spatula and bake for 25-30 mins or until pale golden. 

Remove from oven and let cool for about 15 minutes. Remove to a cutting board, remove the parchment and cut into individual bars or squares.

* Use any combinbation of dried fruit and nuts, made up to 1 cup measurement.  Next time I'll be trying date and walnut I think.