
Last weekend I went to the best music festival in the Netherlands: Lowlands. I was excited to watch some of my favourite bands, like the Low Anthem, The National and Mumford and Sons play. But, you know, I’m getting older and must admit I was a little worried if I’d survive. More specifically, I was worried about falling asleep in the middle of a performance and not eating well. Not that I mind the latter so much for one weekend, but I didn’t want to spent the entire weekend either walking to, waiting in line for, or sitting on the toilet. You know, with the belly problems and all.
I figured that if I just made sure to start the day of with some powerful and healthy foods, I just might get rid of all my worries in one go. Of course that meant lots of tomatoes and water, but also my old pal granola bar, or, as I like to call him, Survival Bar.

These Survival Bars were originally inspired by these bars over at Smitten Kitchen. I’ve made some adjustments, like using only honey and no sugar and using oil instead of butter. I’ve made these several times and I’m going to give you the version I like best. But you can certainly adjust these to taste or diet preference and I’ll help you by saying when you can substitute.
They are great. They’re chuck full of fibres, for the toilet part, and other good stuff that give you energy, for the not-falling-asleep part. And best of all, they are delicious. It’s almost a miracle.
And I made it through the festival, happily. I survived.

Survival Bars
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients:
- 165 g quick rolled oats
- 50 g oat flour
- 50 g oat bran (or wheat bran)
- 100 g cranberries (or other dried fruit, or mix of dried fruit)
- 100 g pecans (or other nuts, or mix of nuts)
- 50 gram pumpkin seeds (or other seeds or mix of seeds)
- 50 g unsweetened coconut flakes (or more bran)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 75 ml vegetable or nut oil
- 150 g honey
- 1 tablespoon water
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F) and line a brownie pan with parchment paper.
- Stir together the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the wet ingredients (oil, honey and water).
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, until all the dry ingredients are somewhat wet.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and press it in firmly with the back of a spoon.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, until it’s brown around the edges and golden on top.
- Let cool completely before cooling further in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
- Now you can easily cut the Survival Bar into small Survival Bars of your desired size.



Category:










