Healthy Apricot, Date Oat Bars

When it comes to easy cooking and something the kids love, look no further than these healthy apricot date oat bars.  Packed with goodness and very little bad stuff, although you could put some choc chips in it because why not!  It is hard to not give the kids the same thing each day for morning tea and lunch and when I popped these in the lunch boxes they were eaten faster than you can say “we don’t need Uncle Tobys”.  I was given the recipe from Social Soup who I have done some ambassador work for and I love it because it tastes good and it is dead set easy.  Like 12 minutes prep and 30 minutes bake easy

 

Healthy Apricot, Date Oat Bars:

Ingredients:

3 x large ripe bananas

3 x cups of rolled oats

1/4 x cup of finely chopped Dates

1/4 x cup of finely chopped Apricots (I chose to add more than this and used a mixed fruit)

1/4 x cup of Slivered Almonds

1 x teaspoon of ground Cinnamon

1 1/2 x teaspoons of Vanilla Extract

 

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius/160 degrees Celsius fan forced.  Grease a 16cm x 25.5cm based slice pan.  Line the tray with baking paper and extend around 2cm up and over the top of the pan.

Mash the bananas until they are smooth.  Go on, really get your hands in there!  Add your oats, dates, apricots or fruit mix, almonds, cinnamon and vanilla extract.  Get that elbow grease and stir that bowl to really mix the ingredients up.  Spoon the mixture into the pan and use your hands and the spoon to press and even out the mixture in the pan.  Pop that pan in the oven for around 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.  When you hear the ding, take it out of the oven and let the bars cool.  Once it has cool cut them into nice slices so they are perfect for afternoon tea or in the lunch box.  And that is it!

I told you it was easy!!  Let me know if you try them, I would love to know what you thought, or if you added anything to them!