Hello! I got up recently and felt like making something in the kitchen. While I ate breaky, I had a think about what ingredients were in the cupboards and what I could create that was healthy and fast to make. I am currently trying to concentrate on my sugar intake for my health, so that was something I had forefront in my mind. I have also dabbled with oats and peanuts lately and seem to tolerate small amounts of them (still testing!), so I thought I’d try them out too. This is what I came up with!
Nutty seed slices
Ingredients
¾ cup oats, or oat flour (use gluten free/uncontaminated oats if need be. I think almond meal would work well too, if you want to avoid oats)
½ cup seeds (I used a mix of pepitas, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, and buckwheat groats. You could use any you like, and/or more nuts, and/or protein powder)
10 medjool dates + approx. 5 tablespoons of water
½ cup nut butter (I used a combination of almond and peanut butters)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ nut meal (I used almond)
1-2 teaspoon cinnamon
80 – 200 g chocolate (I used 70% Lindt dark chocolate) or make your own raw chocolate
Method
- Grind the oats in a blender until they resemble a flour. Add to a bowl
- Grind the seeds in the blender to desired texture. I blended mine until they were mostly a powder, but left some bigger bits. I added the buckwheat groats in after blending to keep their crunch. Add to the bowl
- Add the water and dates to the blender and mix until it is a paste
- Add this to the bowl with the nut butter, vanilla extract, nut meal and cinnamon
- Mix together until well combined. I found using my hands was the best way as it is quite thick and sticky
- Taste test the mixture and adjust if you want to enhance a certain flavour.
- Press the mix firmly into a loaf pan lined with baking paper and make the top smooth
- Pop into the freezer
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan with boiling water, stirring frequently. You could add nut butter, maple syrup, or vanilla extract, if you like (all at room temperature)
- Remove the pan from the freezer and pour the chocolate over the top of the mix, making it smooth. If you would rather make this without chocolate, go for it! If so, you could make the mix into balls instead of slices, if you like
- Return to the freezer until the chocolate is set. Cut into squares or slices, and keep in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container.
*You could also add some maple syrup or sugar if you’d like it sweeter, or the zest or juice of citrus fruit, cacao powder, cacano nibs, chopped chocolate, ground ginger, chopped crystalised ginger, mixed spice, chopped dried fruit, shredded/desiccated coconut, chopped nuts, another extract such as orange or almond, or a ripe banana. Be creative, add gradually, and adjust accordingly (any excuse will do for sampling the goods!)
Enjoy!
