Weve all been there, rushing around in the morning with barely enough time to gulp down a cup of tea or coffee before having to leave the house. On average we only spend about 3 minutes and 15 seconds on a weekday breakfast, according to statistics in the Daily Mail.
Cereal bars are often a good way to ensure we get any breakfast at all, but unfortunately most cereal bars contain far too much sugar and fat. Read about the survey carried out by Which?, the consumer watchdog, back in 2012 that shows that cereal bars do not deserve the healthy image they have been labelled with: NHS Which? report on cereal bars. Adding to this, they often come individually wrapped with some sort of outer packing and generate a lot more waste than necessary.
The bottom line is, we cant really be sure that a shop bought cereal bar is going to give us the nutritional and balanced start to the day that we expect it to, thats not to say there is no alternative.
To save time in the morning and ensure youve got a nutritious and healthy snack waiting to be grabbed before you run out the house, why not try and make your own. There are so many different variations of home-made breakfast bars. Here is just one variation that is super easy to make.
How about making a batch on Sunday evening ready for the week ahead. Preparation time is only 10mins and they need under half an hour in the oven.
Ingredients:
- 2-3 ripe bananas (depending on size)
- 200g jumbo oats
- 100ml milk or a vegan alternative
- 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (the higher the peanut content the better. Try Meridian)
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
Mash the bananas up in a large bowl and then add the oats and the milk. Mix well before adding the other ingredients and then mix until well combined.
Add the mixture to a well-greased baking try, no larger than 25x25cm. I usually use coconut oil to grease the tray for added flavour.
Bake in the oven at about 150 degrees for about 20 mins until the top is golden brown.
Let the bars cool and then slice into snack sized portions and place in a Tupperware and store in the fridge.
Enjoy the oaty goodness of your very own breakfast bar.
