Apricot, tahini, honey and coconut breakfast bars

Quick, easy and so convenient. Fridge and freezer friendly, stash these away for when you need something to grab-and-go. Mix them up by swapping in your favourite flavour combinations or whatever you have leftover in your cupboards. Eat them as they are or crumble over yogurts and smoothies to add somechewy texture. Not overly sweet like most commercial bars, tahini gives these a smooth, chewy and earthy finish.

Total time to make : 20 minutes + chill time

Servings : 8 large bars or 16 squares

Ingredients

240g rolled oats*

240g tahini*

120g honey*

8 tbsp maple syrup

6 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract or essence180g dried apricots, finely chopped

50g macadamia nuts

80g desiccated coconut

30g flaked almonds

30g white sesame seeds

30g sunflower seeds

2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger*

Greek yogurt drizzle

6 tbsp Greek yogurt

1 tbsp Coconut oil

5 tbsp icing sugar

Method

1. Line an 8 x 8” square baking tin with baking paper and set to one side.

2. Use a sharp knife to roughly chop the apricots and macadamias (and any other large ingredients).

3. In a large saucepan over a medium to low heat, melt the tahini, honey, maple syrup and coconut oil together until everything has melted down - this will be the 'glue' for our ingredients! Remove from the heat and add the vanilla.

4. In a large mixing bowl, mix the oats, chopped apricots and macadamias, desiccated coconut, flaked almonds and sesame and sunflower seeds together. Add in the salt and ginger, mix everything together and then pour over the melted wet ingredients. Use a spatula or spoon to mix everything together until evenly coated.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and use a spatula or back of spoon to spread everything evenly, pressing down firmly to compact everything together. Leave to chill in the fridge (for at least 2 hours).

6. To make the greek yogurt drizzle, gently warm the coconut oil in a small saucepan, remove from the heatimmediately once melted. Add in the greek yogurt and icing sugar and mix well. Drizzle over the top of the bars once cooled either with a spoon or use a piping bag with the end snipped off.

Nutritional Information

(per serving)

367 calories

24g fat, 33g carbs, 8g protein

Good to know:

• Use any oats you like (porridge, jumbo, whole) except 'instant/quick' oats as they are quite powder-y, but will still work if it's all you have.

• Instead of tahini you could use any nut-butter.

• Instead of honey, you could use agave, rice malt or golden syrup.

• As long as you keep the weights the same, you can swap in and out dried fruit or nuts for whatever combination you like or what you have in the cupboards. Dried cherries or raisins, pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts - just be sure to chop up any chunky ones. And you can also throw 100g of chocolate chips if you like or melt them down to use as a drizzle in place of the greek yogurt.

• You can omit the ginger altogether or use cinnamon.

• Oats are naturally gluten free but please use certified ‘gluten free’ oats if it's an important factor for you.

• To make these vegan, swap out the honey for one of the options above.

• Keep in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.