Homemade Naked Bars

I have got into a bit of a habit of picking up these Naked bars when I go shopping...

Now I do like them  and it is great that they are all natural but at £2.50 for four they are a bit much for what they are.  I have been telling myself that as I don't eat cake or biscuits it is ok to pick these up as they are handy for work.  The truth is I know these things are easy enough to make I just need to get back into the habit of making them.

 

As I have been home awaiting a delivery I thought I would get on with that, I haven't tried to imitate that flavour as I have gone with what I have in ingredient wise for today.  I may try that flavour on another occasion.  

There are various recipes for oat bars floating around out there but they all seemed to require something I did not have on hand, so I have made my own version using up what needs eating.  This seemed like the best solution.

Here are mine, and I chose to bake them for a little while rather than just have them raw as many recipes suggest, this was mainly due to the moisture form the bananas and raspberries in mine.

Fruit and Oat Bars

140 g oats

130g nuts (ground in the blender) walnuts & almonds

200g prunes

70g raspberries

2 bananas

3tbsp cacao powder

water to blend (just enough to mix it but not too wet)

Blend the nuts in the blender then add to the oats, blend the prunes and raspberries with a little water so it makes a puree, mash the bananas. Add the cacao to the mixture and give a good stir, push it down flat into a tray and score the pieces however big you would like them. I chilled it for ten minutes then baked it on 190 for twenty minutes. 

I have tried one and they are very tasty, I didn't add any additional sugar as that is my taste so if you feel you like things a little sweeter or want them to taste more like shop bought treats then add some maple syrup I will leave the amount on that up to individual tastes.  I think they are spot on without it but then my tastes have changed over the last few years, the Naked bars may be in fact a little too sweet but I have been lazily going for the convenience of them.  I am going to separate each of these with a small piece of baking paper and freeze them that way I can get one out each day for work to keep me going late afternoon. 

As you can see from the above picture I managed to cut it into fourteen pieces, I weighed one and it was 30g maybe a touch over and that is the weight of the Naked ones so I can see that these are going to be much better value and less packaging.  My mixture may change occasionally based on what I have in or what I fancy so I will keep you up to date with any modifications.  For now though this recipe was a hit so I am going to get those in the freezer before I am tempted to just sit eating them.  

Minerva Makes

Today I have a dress featured over on the Minerva crafts Blog   it is for the scuba floral dress I made follow the link to read the full post.  You will have to scroll down a little I am the third project they have on for today.

I have since worn this to go out in as it was a little warm to wear when we were having the heatwave in the summer months.  It is ideal for now though as this fabric is quite thick, I also thought it would be good for straight skirts for the Autumn/ Winter months so why not have a look at what other scuba fabrics they have on offer.   As it is grey and damp now looking back at that picture makes me crave the summer, oh well may as well embrace the boots and tights season instead.

It was a bit of an effort getting up in the dark this morning, I read somewhere that you should make your breakfast a treat so that you have  something to look forward to.  As I generally have the same porridge most days I am not quite sure how this will work but it might be something to think about.
There is a whole movement of people getting up at 5am when they don't need to just to enjoy the peace of the morning. I had enough of that when the children were babies but it would be good to manage 6am consistently on work days just to have a bit of a chilled morning, it is generally the alarm at 6.30 making me sad so some work there is required. I find I can manage a couple of days of jumping out of bed earlier but then  I slip back. The SAD clock does not work so don't waste your money, I found it just starts to come on brightening the room  about half an hour before the alarm actually goes off and therefore steals more of your rest.

There has been a run of poor books recently so I haven't been able to get my teeth into any of them,
I started reading the sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale and it was no where near as good and I gave up about half way through, I started The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night, but after the first few pages I decided that was a bit disturbing and perhaps not for me so I put that down too.  This evening I will start Any Human Heart by William Boyd, it was picked up at the charity shop for 75p so wish me luck with that one. I do like to have a good book on the go and recently they have been disappointing.

Five Frugal Things

I have decided to do a frugal things post this week as I have been reading a few on blogs over the past week, I particularly like Shoestring Cottage as she does a lot of these over there and it gets you thinking how you save each week. There are lots of these types of posts out there and of course you find you have more in common with some more than others depending on your interests and so on.  So here goes mine and just a few things I have found frugal and useful this past week...

• A free origami pattern over at Michelle patterns this is a lovely little butterfly and ideal for using up fabric scraps. Make one in paper first so you know what you are doing then it is just a case of choosing two fabrics to sew together then repeating the process.  It only takes a couple of stitches to keep the whole thing in place once it is folded, it could be used to embellish bags, add to a bouquet or as a brooch.  I also think it would be a lovely little craft activity for a girls party. Here is my first go at this, I'm sure there will be more...

• A trip to the charity shops that resulted in a bargain find of a wool dress, now ok this did involve spending money but at £7.50 it was too good to miss, it looks like new, is incredibly soft, it doesn't need an iron after washing (on cool) and after researching the label Edina Ronay it turns out it is a really good make.  I am not a label fan but it felt such good quality that is what prompted me to look it up. So feeling pretty pleased with this winter dress.

• Another thing I did this week was to print off another recipe to add to my own personal recipe book, I was having a browse on amazon at cook books and I almost bought a used one but then I remembered I only ever like a couple of recipes from each one I own or borrow so what is the point? Something I started doing a little while ago is to print off recipes and put them in a folder, I keep my favourites here now and if they are not a success they don't make it in.  This guarantees that this is one recipe book where I know we like everything in it.  This week it was a sweet potato and kale chilli, very good and one to keep.

  

  The recipes are all from different sites, whatever I spot while browsing and fancy trying.
  

  

  
  

  
  
•  In relation to that the next frugal thing is the three ready meals I have in the freezer from that recipe. I may take one or two to work for lunch or it will be something that is quick to heat up for when I come home from work.  I like to make sure when I am cooking my meat free meals that there is at least one portion left over to take for lunches, as we eat differently here that at least ensures the time and cost are efficiently used.

• I started another course on Future learn this time it is analytics and to be honest it is a little bit dry for me, I will finish it and quickly choose something more fitting.  I thought it was something I should understand a little better, but being a creative type all the data is sort of sending me to sleep!  I know there are those of you out there who are creative and good at that side of things but for me it does not excite.  I have learned a little bit already as you always do whatever you try but the good thing is this a great way to try free study in something you would not normally do.

I'm sure there were other things I could have added this week but these were the things that came to mind, I did a very fast shop actually on Friday and that resulted in a lower than usual bill.  We may find I have forgotten something as the week passes but I'm sure it will be fine.  I must do that as a matter of routine in future get in and out with my list as fast as I can, that way I will be saving time as well as money. I always enjoy reading how everyone else has kept the costs down from day to day so please share in the comments, I also noticed I have a couple of new followers so welcome to you and thanks for reading.