As I’m sure it is in most parts of the world, pretty much all pre-schools/kindys/daycares here have a nut ban, i.e. no nut butters, no loose nuts, no nuts in anything. Some even have dairy/wheat/egg bans too. It generally eases off at school which makes packing lunchboxes a bit easier. I’ve mentioned before the struggle I have with my son and muesli bars, and now my daughter is at kindy, I needed something they could both eat. Enter these muesli bars – chock full of seeds with not a nut in sight, and bound together with a mix of delish sunflower seed butter and honey. Nut free! Wheat free! Leave off the chocolate and they’re dairy free! Winning!
And can we just talk for a second about how expensive honey is? I just paid $12 for 500g of runny honey. I’m pretty sure it was about $8 last year. I’m not sure what it’s like in your part of the world (let me know in the comments) but here in NZ in an effort to keep our bees disease free, we don’t import any honey. Most of it gets exported, and we pay the export prices. But I digress. Let’s talk some more about these muesli bars instead.
These are so easy to make. I usually double the amount and tip it into a big roasting tin. They’re also super adaptable; if you’re ok with nuts, replace some of the seeds, or use a nut butter instead. And God forbid I put dried fruit in anything, but feel free to sub that in too.
Ingredients
3c puffed brown rice
½c sunflower seeds
½c pumpkin seeds
½c linseed
½c honey
½c sunflower seed butter (I used Ceres)
25g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
tiny bit of coconut oil (optional, see notes)
Method
Grease a 9×9″ baking pan and line it with baking paper, set aside.
In a large bowl mix the rice puffs and seeds together.
Place the honey and sunflower seed butter in a small saucepan and heat gently until it’s smooth and runny. It will take about 3 minutes.
Tip the honey mixture into the bowl and gently mix it into the puffs etc until everything is coated.
Tip it into the prepared tin and press it flat with a spatula or your hand. Pack it in tight.
Melt the chocolate and coconut oil (if using) together in the microwave until it’s nice and runny, then drizzle it over the mixture in the pan.
Chill for at least one hour before removing from the pan and slicing into bars. Store it in a container in the fridge.
Notes
- You can leave out the coconut oil, it just makes the chocolate a bit easier to drizzle.
- If you double the recipe, I recommend using a roasting tin. A slice tin isn’t deep enough.
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