Healthy, easy breakfast: Oat and berry breakfast bars

These delicious breakfast bars are jam-packed with pro- and prebiotics, and the addition of chia seeds supplies healthy omega-3 fats. Make them tonight for a healthy start to the rest of your week. They also make great snacks and healthy after-school treats.

Oat and Berry Breakfast Bars
Makes 14 slices

Prep overnight chilling

Ingredients

• 90g pack coconut chunks
• 200g organic porridge oats
• 40g chia seeds
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• 2 tbsp raw honey (unprocessed, not heat-treated)
• 1 tbsp plain Greek yoghurt
• 150g blueberries

For the topping

• 1 tbsp plain Greek yoghurt
• 1 capful real vanilla extract (or the scrapings of a vanilla pod)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Put the coconut chunks in a small (about 29cmx19cm) lightly greased baking tin, then put in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden. Remove and leave to cool a little, then finely chop and set aside.
2. Meanwhile into a large bowl put the oats and chia seeds, the almond butter and the honey, and beat together until the oats are well combined. Add the yoghurt and mix again, then tip in the blueberries and cooled coconut and stir well.
3. Line the tin with the parchment paper, leaving the edges overlapping, then spoon in the oat mixture, spread over the tin until even and pack it down well using the back of a wooden spoon. Put in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.
4. For the topping, mix the yoghurt and vanilla extract together, then spoon it over the oat and blueberry slab in a drizzle effect. Put in the fridge overnight or for a few hours to chill and set, then slice, to serve.

Extracted from The Good Gut Guide: Delicious Recipes & a Simple 6-Week Plan for Inner Health & Outer Beauty by Liz Earle (Orion Spring).