Ever fancied eating a chocolate orange for breakfast? Well, now you can. This gluten-free granola is infused with fresh orange and cocoa powder to make delicious chocolatey orange oaty clusters, then tossed with toasted cashews and dark chocolate chunks.
Raspberry yoghurt baked oats Change up your usual morning porridge with a comforting dish of gluten-free baked oats, served warm from the oven. This recipe is stuffed with fresh raspberries and creamy dairy-free yoghurt for a filling, tangy breakfast. PREP TIME: 10 MINS COOK TIME:…
These soft and chewy breakfast bars are great eaten as a snack or as an easy breakfast on the go. They’re super portable, gluten-free & dairy-free, and can be easily prepared in advance. With no refined sugars, they derive their sweetness from a banana and half a spoonful of honey.
PREP TIME: 10 MINS
COOK TIME: 15 MINS
TOTAL TIME: 35 MINS
These versatile little bars are packed with slow-release, filling ingredients. They’re great to have on hand for anything from hiking and long-distance running to long car journeys, or simply as a fun breakfast at home.
People are slowly waking up to the fact that shop-bought granola bars tend to be stuffed with refined sugars, palm oil and whole host of other nasty ingredients – as well as being ridiculously expensive.
It’s much less of a headache to make healthier homemade versions, as you can control what goes in them. To keep the sugar content down, you can:
Having said this, the essence of a granola bar is very dense in calories, even if you reduce the amount of sugar in them. This is because the bulk formula consists of oats, which are high in carbohydrates, and some form of nuts and oils, which are both high in fat and calories.
This really isn’t an issue if you’re able to just have 1 or 2 bars at a time as an occasional breakfast or snack. However, it’s worth being clear that this is not a food conducive to long-term weight loss, if eaten regularly or in large quantities.
The ingredients for these granola bars can be roughly divided into four camps. You have a few different bulking agents; ingredients that help stick the whole thing together into solid bars; sweeteners; and optional yummy flavourings.
Coconut – the desiccated coconut flavour is really quite mild in this recipe, however for those who really want to avoid it, there are plenty of easy substitutions. Add an extra 3/4 cup (40g) of rolled oats, or swap it out for a cup of ground almonds for a more nutty flavour
Cranberry – quite honestly, any dried fruit works wonders if cranberries aren’t your jam. Try sultanas, raisins, dried apple pieces, apricots, chopped dates or any mixture of these
Cashews – again, the majority of nuts would be delicious here, from walnuts to pecans or almonds. Similarly, feel free to change up the peanut butter for almond or cashew butter instead
Chocolate – I don’t trust myself around the stuff, but these bars would be delicious with some dark chocolate chips thrown in. Or, if you lean to the sweeter side, some white chocolate chunks. Simply add them into the mixture along with the fruit and bake as normal
Spices – I stuck with a bit of vanilla essence for the base recipe, but a couple of teaspoons of ground cinnamon or mixed spice would be a great way to change it up a bit
Seeds – Add a bit of extra protein and texture with a few sprinkles of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.
These bars will keep in an airtight container for at least 1 week, so they’re great for making in advance. Beyond this they might start going a bit stale. In case you want to keep any leftovers for much longer, they’re also freezer friendly.
To freeze properly, wrap the bars individually in baking parchment or aluminium foil, and then seal in a tupperware container or ziplock bag. Keep for up to 2 months in the freezer. To defrost, just leave them out on the kitchen counter for 30-45 mins.
Check out one of these recipes for more yummy baking ideas using oats!
The best homemade granola This is a chunky, oaty, nutty, ridiculously easy granola. All you’ll need are three main ingredients for those golden brown clusters, plus whatever toppings and flavourings take your fancy. PREP TIME: 5 MINUTES COOK TIME: 25 MINUTES RESTING TIME: 15 MINUTES…
A guide to gluten free oats For those of us new to eating gluten free, it can be a bit of a challenge figuring out what carbs we now can or cannot eat. Some of them – like pasta – we often already know is…
Not quite porridge and not quite a cake bar – this baked oats recipe is an alternate gluten free breakfast idea with an added protein powder kick. Mix it up with different berries and a swirl or two of peanut butter.
PREP TIME: 5 MINS
COOK TIME: 20 MINS
TOTAL TIME: 25 MINS
I usually get up disgustingly early to work out before heading to the office for the day, so I’ve got into the habit of saving a precious 15 minutes in bed by taking breakfast to work. That being said, I’m not hard-core enough to just chug a post-workout recovery shake and count that as actual food.
Thus began my quest for high protein, portable, gluten free recipes. Porridge was my starting point, mostly because I’ve been eating it for breakfast every day for almost as long as I can remember. When I first got a personal trainer however, he pointed out that this was basically all carbs and not much else. As a result, I’ve been on the lookout for ways to customise oats with some extra healthy fats and protein.
This has been a bit more complicated than I initially thought. Adding protein powder straight to the mix made the consistency pretty gross, and having oats with a side of sausage or eggs felt a bit weird.
Then, during my weekly Sunday session of meal-prep improv, I discovered that baking eggs, oats and protein powder together creates a thick crumpet-like consistency without the need to add any flour, sugar or butter.
Kind of a banger if you ask me.
As far as using protein powder goes, you could happily get away with using most types, and probably most flavours too. Being dairy-free, I used unflavoured soya protein isolate powder – however any other vegan or whey based powder should be fine too.
Alternately, if you can tolerate lactose-free dairy, whey isolate protein is probably the most neutral powder you can add. I’ll shortly be releasing a full guide to gluten free, vegan, dairy free and sweetener-free protein powders, as finding ones that work for me has been a bit of a minefield this last year.
Although I tend to opt for unflavoured powders in order to avoid the artificial sweeteners, people who are less fussed should have no problems adding a flavoured powder to this recipe. Your best bet is sticking with delicate flavours that would compliment any oat-based breakfast like vanilla or cinnamon, but feel free to try out some more exciting ones too.
Maybe give the mint choc chip a miss though…
You don’t actually need to include protein powder at all if you don’t want to – just double up the flour content instead.
A lot of people get a bit freaked out at the association with gym buffs who flex at themselves whenever they walk past a mirror. In reality, it’s really just a more convenient way to get enough protein in your diet – particularly if you’re a vegetarian or trying to cut down on your meat intake.
For some body types – particularly endomorphs like me who have a tendency to gain fat as soon as they sniff a bit of cake – the best day-to-day diet to follow is one higher in fat and protein but lower in carbs.
The issue with following this kind of diet is that you’ll probably find yourself struggling to get enough protein to curb the hunger from eating less pasta and rice. This is where a scoop of protein powder here and there comes in handy.
Personally, I’m not really a fan of drinking shakes, so recipes like this one which hide the powder in a more edible form is ideal.
