Home-made muesli bars
CooKIng is a fun family activity that also allows kids to learn important living skills.
With these recipes, kids have an opportunity to explore baking, nutrition and ingredient substituting. It’s fun, educational and creative.
Choose your ingredients
Choose your binder
Muesli bars generally consist of rolled oats, bulked out with seeds and dried fruit. To get the proportions right, make your own mix. 2 cups rolled oats 1 cup of three of more of these ingredients: shredded coconut, wheat germ, sesame seeds, sunflower kernels, raw pumpkin seeds or flax seeds
1 cup of one or more of these ingredients: raisins, sultanas, ginger, or any dried fruits such as mango, banana or cranberries.
Cook your seeds
Pour your seeds into a dry frying pan and cook over a low to medium heat, stirring to prevent the seeds from burning.
Cook until golden. This takes about five minutes or so. Set aside to cool.
You can bind everything together with honey or cake. generally speaking, the honey is much sweeter, so cake is a lighter alternative.
However, if you have a mini toaster rather than a temperature controlled oven, making cake won’t be possible.
Either way, grease and line a square baking tin with baking paper
If you choose the cake, buy a pack of plain vanilla or yellow spongecake mix.
Follow the instructions to make the cake batter, fold in oats, seeds and dried fruit, then bake as directed.
The cake will be very dense. Leave to cool, cut into squares and store in an airtight box.
If you choose the honey binder, heat 100g of butter in a pan and stir in 1/2 cup of honey and 1/8 cup of brown sugar.
Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then cook on a low heat for two to three minutes. Add oats, seeds and dried fruit.
Turn into tin and cool in the fridge until set. Cut into squares and store in an airtight box.