Muesli Bars!

Pistachio and Apple, and Almond and Apricot Muesli Bars

I'm in a constant battle to come up with healthy snacks to take to uni with me. I want high protein, low calorie, filling, tasty.. and it's not easy to come up with new ideas.
These energy bars I'm hoping to develop further to pack in more protein and take out some sugar but here is my skeleton recipe:

Muesli Bar Skeleton Recipe
1 1/4 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1 cup chopped nuts (any combination you like!)
1 cup chopped dried fruit (try naturally sweetened cranberries, or a combination of apricots, apples and raisins!)
3/4 cup ground flax seed* or a combination of: flax, bran, sesame seeds, coconut, or extra ground nuts (I like 2/4c flax:1/4c coconut)
1 1/2 cups gluten-free puffed rice cereal (without added sugar)
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup raw honey or brown rice syrup (the rice syrup isn't so sweet)**
1/4 cup nut or seed butter (I like tahini, but peanut butter works great to - or maybe try sunflower or almond butter!)**
1 tsp vanilla extract (I like to use Queen's vanilla bean paste)
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. Cover a 18x28cm lamington/slice pan with baking paper (it needs to be 5cm or so deep)
2. Combine the oats, nuts, fruit, ground seeds, cereal and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. Warm the honey/syrup with the nut butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat and stir until smooth. Turn off the heat and add the vanilla and salt.
4. Mix the syrup into the dry ingredients thoroughly and press into the slice tin. To make it even, try covering the mixture in the pan with another sheet of baking paper and smoothing with the back of a spoon.
5. Refrigerate overnight, then slice into 16 bars!

Each bar contains: 178calories, 4g protein, 22g carbs and 13g fat.
**Next time I'll try to use 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 nut/seed butter to reduce the sugar.


*did you know you can only absorb the goodness of flax when it's ground? when whole they go straight through you!