Scrum Yum Muesli Bars

As a growing family we are always looking for quick and simple ways to reduce the grocery bills without compromising nutrition and volume of necessary food consumed... We've managed to achieve huge savings in general by baking our own bread, making our own muesli, getting clever about ways to make meals stretch further and so on...

The most recent "home-made" conversion has been muesli bars.  All 5 of us have at least one a day on average - tasty, filling and generally not too unhealthy.  It didn't seam a big stretch to make these ourselves.  I turned to my good friend Pinterest and found a recipe that I liked the sound of... not so dense that you feel like your jaw will drop from exhaustion from all that chewing, toasted and full of good bits.

Here's the recipe if you're keen to try it!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup caster sugar
125g butter
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup rice bubbles
1/2 cu raisins/sultanas
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cranberries/mixed dried berries
1/2 cup almonds/nuts
1/4 cup seeds (combinations of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, etc)

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 180'C.
2.  Grease/line a slice tray with baking paper - I use a cookie tray.
3.  Combine honey, sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
4.  Cook stirring, for 2-3 minutes until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
5.  Bring to the boil and cook for 2 minutes or until the syrup thickens slightly.
6.  Remove from heat.
7.  Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl.
8.  Pour hot syrup over dry ingredients and stir to combine.
9.  Spoon into prepared tray and press firmly to make sure the mixture will stick together (you can use baking baker to press down so it doesn't stick to your fingers).
10.  Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden.
11.  To help it stick together when it comes out of the oven, put some baking paper on top of the cooked slice, then stack another tray on top and load it up with some weight for a couple of hours.  I use some heavy dishes, cans, etc.
12.  Once cool, slice and refrigerate until well chilled.

-  Ours keep well in an airtight container and we get about 40 slices from a tray.  Hubby likes a bit of chocolate on his so we just spread some melted chocolate over a few :)
-  I also add a handful of shredded coconut to our slice.
-  The mixture has 1.5 cups of dried fruit so use whatever combination you like.
-  If you need to be nut free you can replace the nuts with coconut, seeds or fruit.
-  You could use half honey, half smooth peanut butter in the syrup.
-  You can make them gluten free by using 2 cups of crushed cornflakes and 2 cups of rice bubbles (gluten free of course) or use gluten free oats.
-  And apparently the sugar content is better than commercial bars too!

So there you go.  Would love to know if you try it and if you liked it!
Do you have any nifty ideas on how to make food go further in your house?
Joining in with lovely Ange.
Happy Tuesday!
L xx