Pink Gluten Free Vegan Buckwheat Muesli Bars! and muesli!

The finished product!

In progess- you can eat this as muesli too!

I'm not sure about you but the muesli bar aisle in the supermarket always makes me a bit cross. More often than not parents choose a muesli bar as a healthy option but they are often horribly misled. Shouting out high in fibre!, low in fat!, good for you!, most are full of sugar and bereft of much real nutrition. And the trendy ones which may be a bit more on the healthy side are so steep you need to take out a second mortgage to be able to buy them on a weekly basis. 

Don't even get me started on the cereal aisle. Bugs in mud? Cocopops, Fruit Loops? No matter how you greenwash this stuff its all just driving our kiddies to diabetes. 

SO I decided to get busy and make a buckwheat cereal (which progressed to muesli bars!) Buckwheat is not related to wheat and contains no gluten, in fact it is in the same family as rhubarb and sorrel. It has lots of antioxidants including rutin which keeps your veins healthy and is pretty high in protein and fibre.  
I also added a whole raft of other things to this cereal including dried goji and blueberry ( which you can get from the bulk bins at the supermarket) and coconut shreds and i made them pink by adding raspberry powder but you could use beetroot juice! 

This does require one night of soaking and then a night in the dehydrator if you want it to be raw but you could just dry it out in the oven for a few hours over a low heat if you like :) 

What is in it?

Muesli

• 2 cups of Buckwheat
• 3 tablespoons of maple syrup 
• 1 tablespoon of raspberry powder 
• 2 tablespoons of coconut shreds
• 2 tablespoons of goji berries
• 2 tablespoons of dried blueberries
• 1 tablespoon of coconut nectar if you want 

To make the muesli into bars- 

• 12 dates 
• 1/4 cup cacao nibs
• rind of a lemon
• 3 tablespoons of coconut oil 

How do you do it?

Muesli

• Grab the buckwheat, chuck in jar, cover with water and leave overnight
• Drain buckwheat and mix with the maple syrup, raspberry powder (or you could use beetroot juice or pomegranate juice) and then arrange in the dehydrator. Leave overnight. Alternatively arrange on baking paper and put in the oven under low heat for a few hours. It will form cute little clusters. 
• Mix through with the other ingredients- coconut, berries ( or whatever dried fruit you have hanging around) and you can add some powdered coconut nectar or some super food powders like mesquite or lucuma.  Store in a jar. 

Muesli Bars

• Take 3/4 of the muesli and add to the processor with the dates. Process until like a paste
• Tranfer to a bowl and mix in the remaining muesli, the cacao nibs, the lemon rind and coconut oil. 
• Mix together and then to save messy hands tip onto glad wrap and shape into a long flat slab
• Refrigerate
• Cut into finger sized slices

Don't add all the fancy ingredients if you don't have them- will work just as nicely with raisins and dried apricots! 

Gluten free, vegan, full of antioxidants, fibre, minerals and protein. You cant go wrong!

Enjoy! 

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