RECIPE: Homemade Chocolate Banana Oat Bars | #ThisGirlEats

Serves: 4 (makes four bars)
How much does it cost? This recipe cost me less than 25p per person.
What are the benefits? This recipe is very high in antioxidants and fibre but low in salt.


The idea from this recipe sprung from two things: laziness and forgetfulness.

It’s been waaay too hot in the mornings lately to do… Well, anything! It’s definitely too hot to sit down to my usual breakfast, a bowl of steaming porridge. In fact, I can barely be bothered to peel myself off the sticky leather sofa to make a cup of tea, let alone sort out food! I need something to just grab ’n’ go, so that’s where the laziness comes in.

Now, as for being forgetful, I’m always in charge of the shopping list and sometimes I get so carried away creating all these recipes that I miss out the basics. Most recently I forgot to get cereal bars, an essential part of our speedy packed lunches which are sorely missed alongside our jam sandwiches. 🤦‍♀️

The solution? Make my own version! These chocolate banana oat bars are so easy to make, even the kids can get involved (although things might get messy!). They can be rustled up with pretty basic ingredients and, best of all, they’re really yummy! Make a batch so you can just grab one whenever you fancy, perfect on the go. With these, you know exactly what goes into them – just five simple ingredients! Easy peasy.

There’s a lot of nutrition packed into these little bars; bananas are one of your five a day 🍌 oats help lower blood sugar 🥣 honey is a wonderful natural sweetener 🍯 And the chocolate spread? Well, that’s just for fun! 🍫

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INGREDIENTS
8 tbsp Plain Oats
2 Bananas 
1 ½ tsp Clear, Runny Honey
1 tsp Chocolate Spread
3 tbsp Milk (or Milk Alternative) 


So, this is how I did it…

1. Grab a bowl and mix together most of the ingredients – the oats, honey, chocolate spread and milk.

2. Add the banana, mash like crazy with a fork and stir into the mixture until everything is well combined.

3. Lightly grease a baking tray, or line with greaseproof baking paper, and divide the mixture into four bars on the tray.

4. Cook on 180°C for around 30 minutes, or until the bars have firmed up.

 

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How Much Exercise Did It Take to Burn Off My Easter Eggs? I DON’T CARE! | #ThisGirlEats

The entire lead-up to this Easter, I saw countless posts about working off the weekend’s chocolate. You know the type – telling me how calorific Easter eggs are, or how many miles I’d have to run just to counteract a Malteser bunny. That’s what you get for following fitness bloggers and Instagram models, I guess.

I have a big issue with this. I’m not really religious so I’ll be completely honest, I celebrate Easter mostly for the food – tonnes of chocolate and a big ol’ Sunday roast. I’m very aware that gorging on sweet treats for a long weekend (I start as soon as Good Friday hits) isn’t exactly healthy, but it’s also not something I plan on making a habit of. I refuse to let strangers on the internet make me feel bad about it.

I totally get if you don’t want to ruin all your hard work in the gym by carelessly binging on chocolate. Good on ya 👍 But so what if someone else does? What gives anyone the right to tell me that I’m not allowed to eat my Easter eggs without feeling some sort of “shame”? Perhaps I’m not into counting every single calorie I consume on a bank holiday, or maybe I don’t fancy figuring out the complexities of exactly how many minutes of exercise it’d take to burn off my weekend of chronic chocoholicism.

homer chocolate
knowyourmeme.com

I’m all for advocating a healthy lifestyle. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make up for a few extra pounds you’ve gained, that’s a great attitude towards your diet. But there’s a difference between keeping yourself healthy and making others feel bad because they don’t necessarily do things the same way as you.

You don’t know how hard someone works to get where they are. You don’t know how careful someone might be about what they eat, you don’t know how much time they might spend prepping, planning and stressing over meals. You don’t know how much someone works out, or how carefully someone looks after themselves. You just don’t know these things about a person, so it’s unfair to judge their health solely on one weekend.

So maybe we just deserved to have our few days completely guilt-free, frolicking in a chocolate haven – if we want one.

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SERIES: My Journey to a Healthier Lifestyle #11 | #ThisGirlEats

8:30PM: Oh. My. God.

8:40PM: This dessert is amazing. I mean, I know I say lots of food is amazing, but this one really is. We’re out for dinner this evening for a birthday and are talked into having this particular dessert by someone who swears by it and, to be honest, I’m not exactly going to put up much of a fight. Chocolate? Tick. Ice cream? Tick. Gooey sauce? Tick. But then it comes out looking like this…

chocolate etna

And it tastes EVEN BETTER than it looks. Try to imagine that! You can’t. The only way you can truly understand the pure indulgence of this gorgeous dessert is to go have some for yourself. Believe me, this is not a dessert you’ll want to share…

FOOD DIARY

Breakfast
🌺 Cup of green tea
🌺 Strawberry jam on toast

Lunch
🌺 EAT. – Firecracker chicken toastie, salt and vinegar crisps, Diet Coke

Dinner
🌺 Out for a birthday meal at ASK Italian – Penne al Pollo Della Casa (oven baked chicken and mushroom pasta) with shared Parmesan Garlic Chips ; Chocolate Etna for dessert (chocolate dome with melted toffee sauced over the top and vanilla ice cream inside)
🌺 White wine spritzer