Honestly Healthy Flapjacks

A perfect guilt-free snack for revision during exam time, or for any lunch box - whether it is for kids at school or to enjoy with a cup of tea at work.

They have a satisfying texture and a natural sweet taste, with oats and seeds that will give you more energy for longer, providing you with good, honestly healthy nutrients.

With finals approaching, I find myself constantly reaching for the chocolate. Food that makes you feel good for a bit, but doesn't really provide any long-lasting energy or nutrients. I flicked through my new 'Honestly Healthy' cookbook to find something I could make that was actually good brain-food, and that also tastes really delicious and satisfying. I came across some 'Granola Bars'. As always, I played around with the recipe a bit, and have created something with easy-to-get-your-hands-on ingredients.

I wouldn't describe mine as granola bars since they are not crunchy, but are soft and gooey, more like flapjacks. If you use jumbo oats then perhaps they would turn out more crunchy, but I used porridge oats. Don't go on a crazy shopping spree to hunt down every specific ingredient - play around with fruit, seeds and nuts that you already have at the back of the cupboard.

They are easy to make one evening to set you up with snacks for the week - and you know exactly what is in them, unlike all the cereal bars out there claiming to be healthy or low fat, when they are packed full of extra sugar and additives. 

These flapjacks are gluten-free, rich in vitamins, high in fibre, and bursting with energy.

Go on, take a bite...

Makes 9

- 200g oats

- 250g dried prunes, chopped

- water

- 75g dried cranberries

- 2 tbsp milled linseed mix with gojiberries, sunflower & pumpkin seeds (you can find in Aldi)

- 2 heaped tbsp pumpkin seeds

- pinch of cinnamon

- 3 tbsp agave nectar (or honey)

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Spread the oats on grease proof paper on a large baking tray and bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tray.

2. Place the chopped prunes in a saucepan and pour in water to double the depth. Bring to the boil and reduce for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally (and adding more water if necessary), until a sticky syrup is left with chunks of prunes.

3. Add the cranberries, linseed mix, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, and agave nectar and stir until well combined. Then mix in the toasted oats.

4. Spread this oaty mixture into a baking tin (on grease proof paper) and bake for 15-20 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and cut into squares. Leave to cool completely.

Enjoy :)

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

These are a little bit of heaven. They smell and taste just like autumn - you've got soft apple chunks, 'chewy' dried cranberries, crunchy pumpkin seeds and the warming cinnamon flavour. These muffins are perfect for this time of year - they are super moist and crisp on top just the way I like them. They kind of taste like Starbucks pumpkin spiced lattes which are so yummy, I think it must just be the cinnamon.These are honestly one of my favourite baking creations to date, I will be coming back to this recipe every autumn now. If you make them please have one straight from the oven for me! mm mm

Makes 8 muffins

- 200g plain flour

- 50g soft brown sugar (plus extra for the topping)

- 100g caster sugar

- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder

- pinch of salt

- 2 tsp ground cinnamon (plus extra for the topping)

- 100ml milk

- 80ml sunflower oil

- 1 large egg, beaten

- few drops of vanilla essence

- 1 large cooking apple, peeled, cored and chopped

- 75g dried cranberries

- 50-75g pumpkin seeds (optional)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees / gas mark 6.

2. Mix together all the dried ingredients in a large mixing bowl (flour, sugars, baking powder, salt and cinnamon)

3. In a jug, mix together the milk, oil and beaten egg until combined.

4. Gradually stir in the mixture in the jug into the dry ingredients until combined, then add in the apple chunks and mix together.

5. Next, stir in the dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds, if using, and mix until well combined.

6. Line a muffin tin with muffin cases and spoon the mixture into them.

7. Fill them quite full, then place in the oven for around 20 minutes or until golden grown on top.

8. When they are done, take them out of the oven but leave them in the tray for a few minutes while you mix together some brown sugar and ground cinnamon in a small bowl, for the topping.

9. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture over the top of each muffin whilst still hot, this just makes them look nicer and gives extra flavour and sweetness! Place on a wired tray to cool or enjoy warm from the oven.

I accidentally ate one when it was hot out of the oven (don't worry, it was a mis-shapen one because it didn't fit in the muffin tray). It was so delicious - this is what it looked like inside, of course the other muffins looked better because they weren't flat and squished.  

Enjoy :)

Smoothie & pumpkin seed hype

So I am a massive fan of making smoothies and although they're not always super 'healthy' since they are loaded with sugar from fruit, they are still a great way to get some good nutrients in and I love that you can put absolutely anything you want in them!

Below I have linked two smoothie recipes I have posted before, the pineapple and spinach one I particularly love and it is nearly always the one I go for when making a smoothie. It has such great, tangy flavour from the pineapple and you get all the goodness from the spinach and oooof just is too good.
http://eatrainbowlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/pineapple-and-spinach-smoothie.html
http://eatrainbowlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/peach-and-raspberry-smoothie.html

My boyfriend has got a new blender recently which he is obsessed with so we've been making a lot of great smoothies. One of our favourites has had pumpkin seeds in which I've recently discovered and love (what have I been doing this whole time!?) - they make smoothies more filling and add a new dimension of flavour. Plus they are a great source of fibre so you can't really go wrong. I also expected them to be quite pricey since nuts and seeds tend to be, but I got these from Lidl and they weren't bad at all and they seem to last ages so I would definitely pick some up. You can also use them in baking, add them to cereal or yogurt etc.

Makes 2
- 2 bananas, broken into smaller pieces,
- big glug of almond (or soya) milk 
- 4 heaped tbsp of low fat natural yogurt
- big handful of frozen berries
- big handful of pumpkin seeds
- big handful of spinach (optional)

(Sorry nothing is very specific - the good thing about smoothies is you can add as much of anything as you want)

Another one we tried was a garlic smoothie which was a shock to the taste buds as you can imagine. Lets just say it kept the vampires away... But, garlic is really good for the immune system as well as many other things, so eating it raw is the best way to benefit from it. We used the same recipe as above but just added two cloves of garlic (one each) and a bit of honey as well. It was so strong! So I wouldn't recommend it if you want to sit back and enjoy your smoothie, but if you want a good detox, health-kick smoothie then that is the one!

I also made a garlic smoothie recently but replaced banana with pineapple hoping it would mast some of the garlic flavour but I was very wrong...

Hope you try out some of these ideas and jump on the pumpkin seed bandwagon! Just to prove how much I love them, here is a picture of the breakfasts I've been having

It's bran flakes, dried fruit (raisins, sultanas and cranberries), pumpkin seeds and soya milk - so delicious!

Enjoy :)