The recipe for these bars is an adaptation of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s “Booster Bars” recipe.

They require a bit of time sorting out the ingredients but they are super easy to make, as all you do is mix the solids with the liquids and place everything in a baking tray in the oven.

They are great for your lunch box, and even though they are not a low-calorie snack as some of the shop-bought bars, they are packed with nuts, seeds and dried fruit and all the goodness they provide. We all need a bit of calories during the winter, it is not all about eating vegetables and drinking water. Healthy fats are part of a balanced diet and these bars are a great way to get some healthy carbs. and fat into your body.

Ingredients (Makes 12 thick squares, because I don’t know how to cut bars)

80 grs butter

80 grs sugar

90 grs of crunchy peanut butter

100 grs honey

Zest of 1 orange/lemon

180 grs porridge oats

120 grs in total of raisins, cranberries and dates. You can also use other fruits, like apricots.

120 grs in total of almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.

Baking tray of 16cm X 21cm.

How to:

1.- Chop your fruits and nuts.

2.- In a pot add the butter, peanut butter, honey, zest and sugar.

3.- Place the pot on a low heat and wait till everything melts together. Mix it once or twice with a spoon. You’ll get something that looks a bit like this:

4.- Add the oats, nuts and seeds and use a spoon to integrate everything together. Especially make sure that the oats are covered in the peanut butter- honey mixture. Then remove from the fire.

5.- Tilt the contents into a baking tray lined with baking paper, and using a spoon spread the mixture evenly. Press it a bit, so that it is compacted.

6.- Place the tray in the oven at 160 C for 45 minutes. Keep an eye on them so that they come out with a lovely golden colour, and not like mine who were a bit too toasted 😉

7.- Pull the baking paper up to help you get the bars out of the pan. Let them cool on the baking paper before trying to cut them or they will crumble. Once they cool down, they shouldn’t crumble, if they do, they need a bit more oven time. Just pop them back in at a low heat.

Optional: You can replace half the peanut butter with Nutella, I did this once and it made kind of chocolate-nutty tasting bars. You can replace part of the fruits with dried coconut, for coconut-flavoured bars, or sprinkles for colourful bars.

Hope you like them!

Namaste,

Paula