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.