Vegan Mofo #12: Breakfasts on the go - healthy breakfast bars

Nat is a tour/bushwalking guide. His job has its perks (ie. getting to go bushwalking around many pretty places in Tasmania and getting paid to do it) but it also has its drawbacks (a day trip starts by nat leaving before 6.30am and getting back well after 7.30pm). Having said that - some of his multiday trips require him to leave before 5am so I am not complaining too much about getting up at 5.45am for the day trips.

Because its way too early to have a decent breakfast I have been looking into cooking some breakfast bars for Nat to take. I was having trouble finding something that I thought looked nice and had almost given up hope (it either had too much oil or sugar or used banana or tofu so wouldn't keep for very long). But then as I was making myself a dandelion coffee (really good coffee substittue - I would reccommend it) I saw on the back of the soymilk container the perfect recipe... ok, well almost the perfect recipe. (It was a different soy milk that I had because I had run out of my normal one and the local shop only stocked this one)
I pretty much followed the recipe but veganised some of the ingredients and changed the nuts and fruit (ok -I didn't actually measure anything specifically - I just bunged it all in roughly according to the directions- I was really tired).

I was really pleased with the results. Its crunchy but not too crunchy - sweet but not too sweet and held together really well. And it was really REALLY easy. I will be making these a lot more often.


Breakfast on the go breakfast bars

2 cups rolled oats
1/3cup dried apricots - chopped
1/2 cup dried dates - chopped
1/4 cup almonds (chopped) or sunflower seeds
1/4 cup coconut flakes (optional - I was going to put them in because I thought they would be nice but I forgot when I was making it)
3 tbsp agave or maple syrup
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp coconut extract (or vanilla)
1 cup soymilk
egg replacer for one egg (I used organ no-egg)

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celcius
2. Place all ingredients in large bowl
3. Spray bottom of pyrex dish (20cm square) with cooking spray or line with baking paper
4. Press mix into pan and bake until golden (approx 30mins)
5. Let cool completely and then cut into bars.

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Oh before I go - I got so SUPER excited yesterday. I was walking back from the city Library and I walked past a little store that I know sells foreign food (ie. American and British comfort food mainly). I have never had the need to go in there but I thought that now I see so many recipes online with american ingredients maybe I should check it out. Well what did I see... a few really gross things like marshmallow spread and peanut butter and jam swirled into a jar - "biscuit" mix (which I now realise to be scones) and lots of Hershey's chocolate products to name a few. But what got me super excited was that I found this:




LIQUID SMOKE!!
YAY!!!

I was hoping that this would be in there but I didn't want to get my hopes up. So now as the BBQ season approaches I will not feel deprived when I find recipes calling for this little baby. I am rather happy right now.