Choc Banana Granola Bites

These beautiful energy and nutrient-dense bites are a great snack when you're travelling, on the road or at work, and make perfect lunchbox fillers for kids. The banana binds them together surprisingly well and gives them a lovely chewy texture, while the cacao nibs add a bit of crunch and chocolate flavour. Buckwheat flakes also give a lovely soft texture and together with the cacao nibs, as well as the nuts and seeds, provide an excellent source of magnesium.

This recipe is a slight variation of Kumquat's Blueberry Coconut Pecan Breakfast Cookies, which is a variation of Anja's Food 4 Thought Banana Pecan Granola Bars - that's the beauty of this recipe, it's easy to adjust to suit your needs!

If you or your kids have a nut allergy, replace the nuts with seeds (such as sunflower seeds). To make it gluten free, replace the oats completely with buckwheat flakes (this also makes it suited to those following the paleo diet). Use apple puree instead of banana for a different flavour (rhubarb would be nice too), or replace the cacao nibs for dried cranberries or figs. Date paste is my preferred choice of sweetener, however if you don't have it use raw honey. The options are endless; get creative!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole rolled oats
• 1/2 cup rolled buckwheat
• 1 cup coconut flakes
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped almonds
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cacao nibs
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch sea salt
• 1 teaspoon natural vanilla essence
• 1-2 tablespoons date paste (to taste)
• 2-3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup coconut oil (about 7 tablespoons)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Line two oven trays with baking paper and rub over with a little coconut oil. 
2. Combine the oats, buckwheat, coconut flakes, seeds, almonds, cacao nibs, cinnamon and sea salt together in a large bowl.
3. Gently melt the coconut oil on low heat and whisk in the date paste, vanilla and bananas. Add to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
4. Press a heaped tablespoonful into a round cookie cutter on the lined baking tray. Repeat with remaining mixture (should make 15-20).
5. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until golden. Cool.
6. Eat as is, or top with a drizzle of melted dark chocolate* and fresh sliced strawberries. 

*I simply melted 4 tablespoons of coconut oil and whisked in 30g of raw cacao powder with a tablespoon of coconut syrup and a drop of vanilla. Spoon into chocolate moulds (or ice cube moulds) and freeze for a few minutes and voila! You'll have delicious and healthy dark chocolates!

Know your food!

I love food. I love the smells, tastes and preparation involved in cooking, but most of all the satisfaction of creating good food that is good for our health. I love sourcing fresh ingredients, meeting producers and learning where our food comes from. And I love my home. I'm so lucky to live in beautiful little Hobart; a city buzzing with delicious eateries, amazing local produce and good coffee.

I guess I've always been a bit of a foodie, thanks to my parents' encouragement to cook and help in the kitchen and to certain celebrity chefs that I (secretly) preferred to watch after school over cartoons or soaps. But I think its also in my blood - I'm lucky to have grown up in a family rich in culture who all have a passion for delicious, wholesome food. 

My grandmother on my mother's side grew up on a farm in northern Japan and helped her mother plant, grow and prepare food all year round. They had no fridge so they prepared and ate as they needed, staggered the planting of their vegetables so they would last, pickled and preserved food to feed them through winter and swapped produce with neighbours so they all had a bit of everything. 

As much as I romanticise about this way of living off the land, it is in reality incredibly hard work and an entire way of life. With modern lifestyles and fast paced environments, most of us in the Western world have small living spaces, work long hours and no longer live from our garden's bounty and fattened backyard pigs. Whilst we are lucky to have more freedom and comfort, we are also surrounded by constant temptations and marketing ploys - cheap restaurants, drive-through takeaway joints and supermarkets filled with food containing numbers for ingredients. The bombardment of advertising, health fads and 'magical' diets that usually focus on overtly sexual and 'perfected' body shapes makes many of us question ourselves and how we should actually behave in relation to our food.

Because of this, many people have negative experiences and associations to food and can be far removed from where our food comes from or what is actually in it. So much choice, ease of living and access to all sorts of food from around the globe can be incredibly overwhelming and make it difficult to know where to start.

That is why understanding and appreciating where the food you eat has come from and cooking from scratch is so fantastic - it gives you ownership over your food and greater satisfaction. This also goes for growing your own food, no matter how little - it is amazing how rewarding it feels to simply grow your own parsley in a pot! And for those who don't think they can cook, don't be scared of messing up or making mistakes (trust me, I have made plenty) - the more you cook, the more confident you get in the kitchen and the easier it becomes.

As a nutritionist, I am passionate about feeding our bodies with wholesome, real food that prevents disease and enhances our quality of life. I believe its never too late to spin around bad habits and attitudes and learn how to cook, love what you eat and love your body. It may take time, but we do have a choice on what we eat and eating wholesome foods doesn't need to be expensive, as many people believe. 

So go and get inspired! Buy a cookbook, visit the farmer's markets, talk to producers, try a new vegetable, watch a cooking show, plant some herbs, invite a friend over, buy a good knife or if it all seems too much, ask for help!

xT