In my previous blog post I mentioned how much of a fan I have become of food writers such as Deliciously Ella and Madeliene Shaw. I love Deliciously Ella for her complete vegan and gluten, dairy and sugar free recipes. I also find Madeleine Shaw’s recipes absolutely delicious (and quick and easy!) where she simply takes on a dairy, sugar and gluten free diet and still uses fresh fish and meat, something that I could not wipe out from my food intake completely! What got me to really test out their recipes properly and also start playing around with a few new ideas myself was the idea of a sugar free diet. Sugar has always made me tired and dizzy and because of this I avoided sweet things altogther. I already eat plenty of vegetables and have never overloaded on the carbs so trying out a few new gluten and dairy free recipes was not a drastic change to my diet but I suddenly realised that I can still eat ‘sweet’ things. I started to follow some recipes that use natural sweeteners such as fruit or raw cocao and avacodo to make gooey delicious brownies. I found a whole new way of being able to have my sweets – and enjoy it!
We consume way too much sugar. You don’t need to get through a whole bag in order to start feeling hyper and then crashing down – just a small amount of sugar is damaging to our diets. The real concern is that a lot of us are eating more than we realise through hidden sugars in foods – fizzy drinks, orange juice, cereals for example. Yet many of us just can’t help but have a sweet tooth no matter how much we try to push it away and unfortunately that means we gorge on a bar of chocolate whenever we want a sugar fix – and for some this is regularly!
When I first made these cereal bars my sugar, anything sweet loving husband said that these are the most delicious, rich, sticky and sweet cereal bars he has eaten – and the shop bought ones certainly have a LOT of sugar in them to make them that sweet! I use bananas and raw honey as a natural sweetener and some cashew butter to give them a bit of a nutty flavour. The sultanas are so moist and sweet that you honesty don’t realise that this is a completey sugar, dairy and gluten free recipe. These cereal bars are practically good for you! I make a big batch on a sunday and store them in an airtight container ready to grab during the week to take to work for a mid morning – or afternoon – snack. They are also great for a grab and go breakfast.
- 4 bananas
- 3 tbpsn honey
- 1 tbpsn cashew butter
- 280g oats
- 190g raisins or sultanas
- 1 tspn vanilla powder
- Preheat the oven to 200C (180 fan)/400F/gas mark 6.
- Peel the bananas and add to a large mixing bowl. Mash them with a fork.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and mix everything together until combined.
- Take a non stick baking dish (if using non stick then grease with a little coconut oil) and pour the mixture in the dish. Flatten the mixture so that the top is smooth and place in the oven for around 30/ 35 minutes.
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