Supermarket muesli bars are staple in many a household as a healthy snack for the kids and adults alike. Touted by advertisers as “healthy”, “wholegrain” and “natural”, shop bought muesli bars are on the whole, everything but. In a shocking recent survey by Choice magazine in Australia (1) of 150 different muesli bars, 7 were found to have more kilojoules than a Mars Bar. Many others, including those by well known brand Uncle Toby’s (who love to portray themselves as the fuel for young Australians) contained over 20% sugar. Many others did not even contain real fruit, with the flavours being provided by maltodextrin, glucose, fructose, humectant, modified maize starch, flavours, colours, food acid and emulsifiers instead. Yum, delicious. In fact only 13 of the 150 tested met nutritionists criteria for a healthy snack, based on sugar, fat, fibre and wholegrain content.
So whats the alternative?
Well thankfully it is super easy to make your own delicious, real-food muesli bars, not only that but in the process you can jam pack in some fab nutrition for yourself and your kids. My Sultana and Nut Homemade Muesli Bars, from my ebook “How to Raise Healthier, Smarter Kids With Real Food: The Recipe Book” are a great example of this, the nuts and seeds included are packed with protein, fibre and valuable vitamins and minerals and they are low in sugar too, plus being gluten and dairy free and free of nasty preservatives, additives and colours.
Ingredients
- 2 cups of almond meal/flour (or ground mixed seeds if making a nut free lunchbox version)
- 1⁄2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
- 1⁄4 cup of organic sultanas
- 1 tbsp of rice malt syrup or honey
- 1⁄2 cup of mixed seeds (I use sunflower and pumpkin)
- 1⁄4 cup of pistachios or macadamias or cashews (if not making nut free version), roughly chopped
- 1⁄4 cup organic apricots, roughly chopped
- 1⁄4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 large free range, organic egg
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper
- Combine almond or seed meal with the bicarbonate of soda, dried fruit, sea salt, seeds and nuts (if using).
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg and combine with the rice malt syrup, then pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until well coated and combined (you may wish to use your hands for this!).
- Put mixture into the lined baking tray and shape into a rectangular form of fairly even thickness, it will be super sticky so just get your hands in there. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
- Once cooked, remove and cut with a knife into the shape of bar that you decide. The mixture will be very hot, so you wont be able to get exact shapes, don’t worry if the knife gets stuck or your cuts seem uneven, it will break up fine once cooled.
- Once cut, remove mixture from baking tray and cool on a wire rack. Then you can separate into individual bars.
- Keep in an airtight container and these last for 1-2 weeks.
I hope that you give this recipe a try- I guarantee you won’t want to go back to buying tasteless muesli bars again!
In good health, Victoria xoxox
Click here to purchase my Recipe Book!
(1) http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/muesli-bars-fattier-than-a-big-fryup/2006/09/25/1159036476398.html
These taste great. Its so good to be able to eat good healthy food that taste so good they are treats.
Thanks Rod, awesome to hear your feedback, I am so glad you like them!