This is a ridiculously easy no bake recipe, packed full of high fibre oats and heart healthy unsaturated fats. Yes it contains some honey as well, so this is a healthy in moderation type snack for kids. See below for my thoughts on honey in kids foods. I don’t claim to have invented this recipe, there are a number of versions on Pinterest, but I have played around with the ingredient ratios to try and reduce the sugar as much as possible whilst maintaining the yum factor.
Free from: Wheat, Dairy, Egg
Be sure to check out the video of my 3 year old preparing the recipe! Get your kids in the kitchen too!
Ingredients
- 3/4 Cup no added salt no added sugar peanut butter (or any other nut butter that takes your fancy)
- 1/4 Cup Honey
- 1 ½ Cups rolled oats
Method
- Melt peanut butter and honey together. Can either be done on the stove or in a microwave on low power. It melts quickly so take it slowly
- Stir in the rolled oats
- Press into a lined loaf tin
- Pop in the fridge until set and slice. (Over night is best, I actually store this in the fridge as my kids like the chewy cold texture)
Recipe Sugar Content
By my calculations this recipe ends up with a total sugar content of 15g/100g. This is relatively low when you compare it to some similar products
- Mother Earth Fruit Sticks Apple 37.7g/100g
- Tasti Fruitsies Apple and Vanilla 36g/100g
- Mother Earth Baked Oaty Slices Golden Oats 23.9g/100g
- Flemings Chewy Choc Chip 17.3g/100g
I am by no means trying to pick on any specific brands or products, just making the point that 15g/100g is not really that high compared to similar products.
A nutritionist mum’s thoughts on honey
This recipe uses honey not sugar. In my mind sugar is sugar is sugar no matter what the source. i.e. White cane sugar, brown sugar, organic sugar, honey, coconut/palm sugar, refined fruit juices, maple syrup. Our body ends up treating it all in much the same way. They are all concentrated sources of energy/calories/kilojoules with little vitamin or mineral content. So I haven’t chosen to use honey for superior health benefits. I’ve chosen it purely because in this case it is the best sugar/sweetener for the job. I definitely believe that over time our diets have become too high in sugar and think we should be looking to reduce our intake. Here is an article that looks at my thoughts in more detail
In my kids diet I see honey as something nice that can be used sparingly to improve the the yum factor of nutritious high fibre foods like rolled oats. Please also be aware that honey shouldn’t be included in the diet of children under 1 yr of age.
4
