I love granola bars. However, the ingredients is mostly butter and sugar. So, I did my best to come up with a much healthier version that tastes great.
The heart healthy ingredients include the peanut butter, olive oil, walnuts, seeds and oats.
Walnuts are terrific for keeping the blood vessels elastic. The healthy fats (olive oil, nuts, seeds, peanut butter) help guide your diet to a more Mediterranean pattern, as traditional snacks are often made on butter which contains more saturated fat. Unlike regular granola bars or flapjacks, the sugar mainly comes from the dried fruit rather than refined sugar that lacks nutrients and fibre.
Ingredients
- 200g of pitted dates
- 100g peanut butter
- 4 dsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 dsp honey
- 50g chopped walnuts
- 50g mixed seeds
- 50g sultanas
- 150g porridge oats
How to make it
- Heat the oven to 170 fan or 190 conventional oven.
- Grease a baking tray (18 cm) or cake tin.
- Blitz the dates in a processor so they become finely chopped.
- Add the dates to a saucepan with the peanut butter, olive oil and honey. Heat slowly on a low heat.
- Meanwhile measure out the walnuts, mixed seeds, sultanas and oats.
- Mix the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients. Stir until the oats look covered.
- Add the mixture into the tray and press it firmly down.
- Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack.
- Cut into squares after a few mintues of cooling, but allow to cool fully in the tin or else they won’t set.
Makes 15 bars: 200 calories each.
