Healthy Oat Fruit Bars

I have been experimenting with Oat fruit bars/slice suitable for baby led weaning for my 8 month old who is lactose intolerant. We are trying to build up her tolerance a little by including very small amounts of lactose in her diet, but let’s be real, many of these types of things have dairy. So here’s one I have messed around with that made up a LOT of slice, she LOVES it!!! It also freezes great and I like it with a coffee or tea too, so bonus!

Ingredients

3 cups of rolled oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 1/4 cup A2 milk
1 1/4 cup oat milk
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup of finely chopped dried prunes
3/4 cup of finely chopped dried apricots
1 mashed overripe banana
1 grated granny smith apple
2 tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (fan forced oven). Grease a slice tin – I use two medium sized ones as this is what I have.
2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Pour into slice tins. Bake in oven for around 45mins. You can check it’s done when it is firm and springs back to touch.
4. Once it has cooled you can cut and serve.

Notes

• This makes a LOT. I wanted this so I could cut into baby sized pieces and freeze. If you want a more normal sized amount you could halve everything, but I also did not want to waste half an apple and banana.
• I used prunes and apricots, but you could replace these with any dried fruit.

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Salt isn’t evil?

I have learned a lot about salt, I used to think it was evil so there wasn’t much of it in my diet which led to potato chip cravings (potato chips are evil lol). Now I make sure to include a healthy amount of salt with each meal and if I am craving potato chips I have cruskit with vegemite on it and magically I don’t need potato chips anymore. It might seem really obvious to some of you, but when you don’t grow up learning these things about nutrition trust me everything is new.

I honestly used to believe (quite naively) that I had a healthy diet because I ate vegies and fruits and did not eat take out often. I stayed away from salt (didn’t even have it on eggs) and avoided a lot of fried and fatty (or what I thought was fatty) foods. Guess what… still fat, still got insulin resistance, still got PCOS…

What I have realised is that I know very little about proper nutrition. Since I found out about my condition a couple of months ago I have done tonnes of research – I am talking almost daily. I have looked at treatments, recommended diets, statistics, and so many low GI recipes it makes my head spin. What is killing me is that I know I need to make these massive changes in my life (and I have done quite a bit to date, but I have a heap more to do) and even though I have read so much literature on everything I could find to do with it I still feel really ignorant.

Does anyone else feel like this about their diets or medical conditions?

I feel like when I go to a doctor they jabber at me in jargon and when I tried to talk to a nutritionist she started babbling on about gluten free and something else before my ears packed up and went home. I know these people are learned and know their stuff, but so often they aren’t able to put their knowledge and advice in terms I will understand. I am a pretty intelligent person with a pretty impressive understanding of vocabulary and the English language… if I don’t get it there must be more out there like me, right?

Meanwhile I have had some random cravings lately since I have drastically reduced my sugar intake. Funny story – last night I dreamt I had a Mars Bar that I had been saving for an emergency, in the dream that time had come, just as I was about to take a bite I woke up and realised there was no Mars Bar and was sad. Then I realised that I don’t like Mars Bars anyway hahaha.