Feel Better Bars-A Post-Pilates Snack Recipe

These delicious nut bars are an ideal way to refuel after movement because they have plenty of protein and minerals, they’re filling, and they’ll replenish your energy. Because you can use any nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and nut butter you like, there’s lots ofways to keep these interesting.
Some variations:

• Peanuts, peanut butter and dates

• Hazelnuts, cashew butter and cranberries

• Cashews, cashew butter, and dried figs

• You could also add a drizzle of chocolate over the finished bars

If you do use different nuts or fruit, just be sure not to change out the oats or chia seeds, as they help hold it all together.

What’s great about the ingredients:

• Chia seeds-for protein, fibre, magnesium, iron, and omega-3

• Oats-for iron, protein, fibre, and zinc

• Nuts and nut butter-for protein, iron, fibre, zinc, magnesium, and vitamin E

• Dried Fruit-for antioxidants, fibre, and magnesium

These bars are dairy-free and vegan, and you probably already have most of the 6 ingredients in your pantry.

The recipe here makes 8 bars, each containing 11g of protein, 8g of fibre, 3mg of iron,150mg of magnesium and 10mg of vitamin E.

It can be easily doubled or tripled.

Feel Better Bars

Makes: 8 Bars
Time: 10 minutes prep, 30 minutes resting, 10 minutes baking

Ingredients:
100mL maple syrup
200g nut butter of your choice-I used almond butter for the bars pictured
150g nuts of your choice, chopped-I used almonds
100g dried fruit of your choice, roughly chopped-I used apricots and cranberries
150g rolled oats
2tbsp chia seeds

What to do:

First, get your pan ready-line a 18 x 18cm or 25 x 12cm baking tin with baking paper.

Preheat your oven to 160°C.

Add the maple syrup and nut butter to a small saucepan over low heat. Gently warm while stirring together, then remove from the heat.

Place all the other ingredients in a bowl, then add the maple syrup and peanut butter and mix well. Tip the mix into your prepared pan, and press it down really well. Set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes-this lets the oats and seeds absorb some of the liquid so it holds together better.

Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, let it cool completely, then pop it in the fridge overnight.

Cut into 8 bars and store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 10 days. Enjoy!

Stay tuned for next month when we’ll be doing a deep dive into what you should eat before and after movement, and how best to support your training and recovery with food.