First I have to apologise. For keeping this muesli bar recipe to myself for too long.

You see this is a fantastic recipe that I've been using to make delectable muesli bars to impress people and then promising them the recipe but never giving it....

It's super easy with very little prep time unless you're like me and picking specific seeds out of a seed mix packet.....

I've made 2 variations of these now. One that's shown below and another even nuttier and sweeter one for a hike I did. The recipes are fairly fail safe and even my first batch that I made with whatever I fancied thrown in turned out great!



Nutty Oat Muesli Bars
Makes: 16 bars
Preparation Time: 15min
Cooking Time: 20mins

Ingredients 

• 5 fresh dates 
• 1/3 cup dried apricots 
• ½ cup mixed nuts/seeds (I used pepita, sunflower, almonds) 
• 2 tbsp walnuts 
• 2 cups rolled oats 
• 1 tbsp sultanas 
• 1 tbs desiccated coconut 
• 2 tbs LSA 
• 3 ½ tbs natural nut butter (I used organic peanut butter) 
•  3 tbs honey 
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 tsp brown sugar 
• 1 tbsp water 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius 
2. Line a rectangular baking tray with baking paper. This is a trick I learnt from Jamie Oliver: Scrunch up the baking paper into a ball and run it under water. Shake off the excess and it will be super easy to line any tray! 
3. Roughly chop up the dates, apricots, almonds and walnuts into smaller pieces. 
4. Combine the ingredients in step 3 with the oats, sultanas, coconut and LSA in a bowl and stir to mix. 
5. Mix the nut butter, honey, vanilla essence, brown sugar and water over the stove until melted and it forms a sticky syrup. 
6. Mix half of the syrup into the bowl of dry ingredients. 
7. Place the muesli mixture into the baking tray and spread it with a spoon to all the corners of the tray 
8. Pour the remaining syrup onto the muesli, making sure there's no more dry muesli mix. 
9. Cut another piece of baking paper around the same size as the tray and lay it over the tray. Press on the muesli mixture to compact it. 
10. Place the tray in the oven uncovered and bake for 20mins or until the top is golden brown and smelling delicious. 
11. Once the tray is removed from the oven, use the baking paper from step 9 to press the muesli again. 
12. Do not take the muesli out of the tin as it will crumble. 
13. Leave to cool in the tray and cut into slices once fully cooled. 

Per 45g bar: 793kJ, 5g protein, 9.8g fat, 1.6g saturated, 18.8g carbohydrates, 7mg sodium 


As you can see the bar is packed with quite a lot of energy compared to say a fruit or low fat yoghurt snack but this will definitely keep you full! This snack is high in protein and fibre and packs a good punch of unsaturated fats. If you use unsalted nuts and natural nut butters like me the sodium will be very low as well.


I also made a batch with some wheat flakes from cereal which added a good crunch to it as well. The batch I made for a hike kept me energised and going for several hours! I also pop these in a zip lock bag to take to work or crumble them to top my yoghurt for some different texture.

I made this salad last night as part of dinner from bits and pieces I found in the fridge and pantry. It's not only vegetarian but vegan too!

Years ago, when I first started setting foot in a kitchen, I made mainly baked goods. To be more specific, those cake mixes you can buy at the supermarket. I started with these because I never had to worry about main meals (thanks mum!) and I thought they would be the easiest. Sadly I could not even make cake from the packet. I know......

Now I realise it's because I always over beat the batter and my mum would buy the cheapest cake mixes that always looked good when fresh out of the oven but were hard as a rock after a day. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I didn't just give up then and step away from the oven!

I persisted and eventually I was starting to search up easy recipes online I could use. I stuck firmly to the recipes I had, believing that if I even turned the oven one degrees more than specified, my cakes would be ruined! Baked goods are unpredictable that way; they never look like the ingredients they started as. And that makes baking so magical to me. Nevertheless, I bought many ingredients I had to throw out in the end as I had no other use for them.

It took me YEARS to feel comfortable enough to start omitting and replacing ingredients in recipes! First it was with savoury dishes then with the sweets and now I'm finally feeling a little bit more comfortable writing up my own recipes. This is where this recipe came in. I'd only heard about quinoa a year or so ago and I hadn't made anything with quinoa in it for a while (despite my last post also being a quinoa recipe!) so I decided to make a salad. I had a browse online for some recipes and found most recipes had ingredients I did not have. I had no salad greens, no lemon, no meat. Yeh my fridge was quite barren..... The idea of a quinoa salad was already in my mind and I knew I could not let it go so I did what I could with what little I had. And it turned out great!

Maybe you've never heard of quinoa, maybe you're ready to try your first quinoa recipe or maybe you've made quinoa a million times. Whatever your quinoa knowledge may be, go look in the fridge and pantry and put whatever looks good in this salad with some quinoa. The more colourful and vibrant it is the better!         

For those that still want a recipe as a guideline continue reading =)

 
Serves: 2 large serves
Preparation and Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

Salad
1 cup quinoa
3 cups water or stock
Half a medium sweet potato
1 medium sized potato
1 small carrot
1/2 cup chickpeas
1 1/2 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes
Half a small avocado
Half an orange

Dressing
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon oil from sundried tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 170degrees celcius
2. Dice up sweet potato, potato and carrot and place them on a baking tray with foil. Give them a light spray with olive oil and some salt and pepper to taste. Put in the oven for 10-15mins or until light brown
3. Place 1 cup of quinoa in 3 cups of stock/water in a saucepan (I used vegetable stock as it gives the quinoa more flavour. Quinoa is very good at soaking up the flavour of stock!) Bring it to the boil then lower the heat so it just simmers for 15minutes or until the quinoa turns opaque and splits. Look at the picture. Most if not all the water should be absorbed. I don't think you can overcook quinoa anyway.... 
4. Dice half an avocado
5. Cut an orange in half and peel half then dice into segments. Cut the other half of the orange into segments and eat while waiting for the quinoa and roast veg to be ready!
6. Once the quinoa and vegetables are ready place them on a plate. Add the chickpeas, sundried tomatoes, avocado and orange.
7. Place the vinegar and oil in the salad and lightly toss the salad with a spoon. (You could toss in a bowl then place on a plate but I'm lazy and less washing up!) If you used stock for the quinoa there's not much need to add salt but flavour with salt and pepper as desired. 
8. Eat slowly. It's delicious, I promise!