I have an almost healthy treat for you all today! I’m taking a brief break for my sugar filled concoctions of late and bringing you something that you can definitely eat for breakfast (which I have for most of this week :-))
I’ve had a few requests for healthy recipes and I thought I better at least pretend to join in with all this January healthy eating malarky 🙂 In all seriousness, I wanted to make a recipe that I could eat (almost) guilt free and even though I taste everything that I make, most of it is pawned off on very willing tasters (such as my husband and work colleagues!) otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get out of my front door very soon 😀
These bars have lots of good stuff in them and are perfect for breakfast. Oats, mixed seeds, banana and natural peanut butter all make an appearance here. I have added dark chocolate chips (dark chocolate is definitely good for you!), although of course you could leave these out. It has a very small amount of ‘Sweet Freedom’ syrup in the bars, which is a natural sweetener made from apple and carob. I think it’s only available in the UK (in good health food shops), however you could use agave syrup or honey just as easily. Here comes the science…I use the Sweet Freedom syrup as it has a very low GI compared with agave and honey. The GI (glycemic index) of something measures the tendency to cause ‘insulin spikes’ in the body, which lead to the sugar being stored as fat. The lack of added sugar to these bars is made up for by using overipe bananas, which also makes the bars soft and chewy 🙂
Ingredients (makes 16 bars):
- 300g rolled oats
- 4 tablespoons mixed seeds
- 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
- 100g peanut butter (natural, no added sugar) + 30g extra for drizzling
- 30ml ‘sweet freedom’ syrup (or agave/honey)
- 1 egg
- 50g dark chocolate chips (optional)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180C. Grease and baseline an 8 inch brownie tin. Mix the egg, peanut butter, banana and syrup until combined. Stir in the oats and seeds until completely coated with the wet ingredients.
- Fold in the chocolate chips if using. Press the mixture into the tin (sprinkle on extra seeds if you like). Melt the extra peanut butter in the microwave and drizzle over the top.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until starting to brown at the edges.
Baking Joy 
Will be trying these! Lovely pictures too
Thank you 🙂
This sounds delicious! I will have to try after I do the calculations to change measurements for use her in the US .. =) THANK YOU for sharing!
Thank you so much Doreen 🙂 When I have my new blog design up and running soon, I’m planning to include a conversions page! 🙂
I would love to have these on hand to snack on!
They are a great snack and pretty much guilt free! 🙂
Is there anything else you might suggest as a binder, instead of bananas?
Hi Lisette 🙂 My friend asked me the same question as the fruit sugar in the bananas can affect her. I would suggest upping the amount of peanut butter and syrup slightly. As long as the oats and seeds are well coated and are sticking together when you press the mixture into the pan, you should be ok! Please do let me know if you try them 🙂
These are unbelievably delicious, I made them this morning and I love them. The only change I made was to put less honey, just a little squeeze and they are still perfect!
I’m so glad you liked them Sarah! They keep well too, I’ve only just finished the batch I made at the beginning of the week 🙂
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