Nutty high protein breakfast bars

I made these simple flapjack bars with a client yesterday - in fact a family who were wanting quick and easy breakfast options to grab pre-school. We wanted something high protein, high fibre to keep hungry tummies feeling full until lunchtime. The addition of tahini was inspired by the amazing Flavio at Charlton Manor School (primary school caterer of the year 2017!). 

Breakfast bars - makes 12 bars

100g Ready to eat stoned prunes

3 tbsp Butter or coconut oil

250g Porridge Oats

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

50g chopped almonds

50g cacao nibs

50g chia seed or pumpkin seed

50g sunflower seeds

4 tbsp tahini

3 tbsp honey 

Instructions:

Chop prunes into small pieces.  Melt butter or coconut oil with the tahini and honey and then in a large bowl add the remaining ingredients and mix everything together well. 

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and press mixture into the tray with the back of a spoon. Refrigerate and chill for at least 2 hours - cut into squares or bars. 

Keep in an air tight container (will keep for around a week). 

Pumpkin pie smoothie bowl

As you can see from previous blog posts I'm a little obsessed with pumpkin pie - I think it's the mix of the spicy, creamy and sweet that gets all my taste buds tingling.

Now obviously we can't have pumpkin pie for breakfast (well, not every day anyway) so as I had some Libby's pumpkin cans in my cupboard I thought I'd experiment with a pumpkin pie smoothie bowl. And it was so good. And quick. It's definitely going to be the bridge between my summer smoothies and wintery porridge bowls.

Ingredients:

100g tinned pumpkin (1/4 of a can)
300ml almond milk (or any other milk of choice)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
sprinkling of ground ginger
a drop of vanilla essence
1 tbsp chia seeds (this makes it nice and thick and more smoothie bowl than smoothie)
1/4 scoop of chocolate protein powder (I just used this for the sweetener but you could use 1/2 tsp of stevia or add more protein powder for a bigger protein boost)
Cacao nibs and dessicated coconut to sprinkle on top

Blitz all the ingredients in a nutri-bullet or high powered blender for around 30 seconds.