Saturday 15 May 2010

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.



6 comments:

  1. Well done with detox - it's all worth it if the jeans fit better :) These bars look wonderful - fab breakfast on the run. Lucie x

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  2. I will have to try these - I have never found the perfect recipe, coming out either rock hard or far to sticky... I tried your granola recipe the other day - very good although next time I will have to turn my oven down dramatically as mine was a little overdone and crunchy. xx

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  3. Well done with the detox and it's all worth it when the scales show results!

    I love granola bars and these look great!

    Maria
    x

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  4. Thank you for the lovely comments! I'm not sure I should have eaten the whole batch in a week but never mind!

    HE - lovely to "see" you!! These bars were crunchier than I usually like but I think that was because they were thinner than they should have been!

    Lisa x.

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  5. They look absolutely gorgeous! Well done on the detox too- the only one I've ever tried that didn't leave me feeling like I could gnaw my own arm off was the Gillian McKeith one from the first book she did (when she was a 'doctor')! Emmalene x

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  6. Those granola bars look ab. fab. I should try to make them for breakfast instead of muffins.

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