My delicious homemade dairy free banana flapjack recipe

It's 5pm today and I fancy a snack...just a little something to nibble on. Now what can I have that won't ruin my waistline but that is sweet and yummy?  A little chocolate bar sounds rather tempting I think!  But I want to make it clean eating and really good for me...how about a flapjack instead?  

There has been lots of hype about how unhealthy flapjacks can be - full of oil, sugar and therefore calories.  Just because they contain oats and dried fruit doesn't necessarily make them the best health food option.  Some typical flapjacks found in almost any UK newsagents or supermarket have alarmingly high levels of calories and fat - more so than just a simple chocolate bar.
 
For example, Frusli "raisin and hazelnut chewy cereal bar" contains 120 calories, 3.7g fat; Jordan's Crunchy Bar "honey and almond" holds 134 calories, 5.0g fat and the Tracker Bar "Chocolate Chip Cereal Bar" is 126 calories, 6.2g fat!!  Can you believe that?! No wonder they are so sweet and delicious...they are full of sugar and fat!! ;)

But my own recipe is nicer and healthier!

One of the reasons these bars are so calorific compared to your average chocolate bar is because flapjacks often come in 100g bars, and other chocolate bars are smaller at 60g.  So, anyway, can you guess where this story's leading?! Haha! Yes - I've invented my own delicious, low calorie and low fat alternative to these fatty flapjacks.

Basically there are two secret ingredients - the main ingredient is using ripe or overripe bananas.  These are great to mush up with a fork and form as the basis of the flapjack.  The other secret (or magical than rather than secret) ingredient is almonds and almond milk.  I use a lighter, unsweetened almond milk option to cut down on the calories.

Almonds are full of monounsaturated fat - one of the healthiest fats, and their composition is 25% protein, containing plenty of vitamin E and no cholesterol. This means they are a great health food, not forgetting how deliciously moreish they are.  They also have a low glycaemic index value, (this means their energy boost they give lasts longer).

So here is my flapjack recipe video recipe:

Ingredients

2 bananas (as ripe as you can possibly get them), 2 cups (170g) of porridge oats (or normal oats), 2 tbsps dessicated coconut, 2 tbsps chopped almonds, 1 cup (240 ml) of unsweetened  almond milk, 3 tablespoons of honey, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds, 2-3 tablespoons of dried fruit chopped up (including raisins, dried apricot, dates, dried cranberries, prunes etc).

Method

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees centigrade.

In a recipient, add the 2 tablespoons of dried chopped up fruit.  Mash up the two bananas on a chopping board.  Add them to the dried fruit.  Add the dessicated coconut, honey, oats, chopped up almonds, almond milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract, sesame seeds.  Whisk up the mixture:-

Place some grease proof paper onto a medium sized baking tray.  Spread the mixture around the baking tray, making sure it is smooth and reaches the edges in order to obtain a square form, and place in the oven:-

Leave for around 55 minutes or until golden brown and toasted.  Take out of the oven.  Mark out with a sharp knife the form and size of the individual flapjacks.  This will make it easier to cut them later:-

Leave them to wait until they have cooled down. Slice and serve!  

They are so delicious and great for your health! They are also really handy to pop in a tupperware box, or wrap in tin foil, and keep them in the fridge.  You can take them to work, pop them in the kids' lunchbox, or take them on a picnic. Or, in my case, just snack on them whenever!!

So I hope you've enjoyed learning about this healthy yet delicious clean eating snack idea.  Let me know what you think, and feel free to subscribe to my youtube channel here and also please visit my Instagram page, my facebook page, my pinterest page and my twitter account.

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