Apple Oats bar

I stumbled upon this "Apple oats bar" recipe when I was searching for dry and healthy snacks to send for school for my 2 year old. It is made from wholewheat and oats which rate really high in my health meter and it  passes for a cake which is the only meter for my daughter. As this is vegan and is a prime candidate for low fat diet I have added it in this blog. In addition you get to add apple sauce and banana which ups the nutrition even though most of the fiber is lost due to pureeing. So here goes the recipe.

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup    - Wholewheat flour

1 cup    - Quick cooking oats

1 cup    - Apple sauce (made by steaming cored-peeled apples & pureeing)

1 medium sized banana pureed

1 cup    - walnuts, almonds, cashews coarsely grounded

1/2 cup - Raisins (if desired)
1/4 cup - Sunflower oil

2-3 tbsp - honey

1 tsp      - vanilla essence

 

Method

 

1. Add all dry ingredients to a bowl and mix

2. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly

3. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C for 10 min

4. Grease a baking tin and pour the batter onto it

 

Before baking

 

 

After baking

 

5. Bake for 15-20 min till a toothpick/knife inserted into it comes clean.

6. Cut into bars and stock in an air tight container.

                                                              

This bar is wholesome and is very filling due to the oats and the nuts added to it. Instead of honey you could add any other sugar substitute like raisin/dates puree and make it more moist and nutritious. The original recipe did not have the banana. I added it because I had an over ripe banana sitting on the fruits bowl that no one wanted to eat and I didn't have the heart to throw it out. It gave a beautiful banana-ish flavor to the bar that was really yummy.

References
[1] Eating healthy cook book - Edwin Keister,Jr