Microwave Muesli Bars (Egg-free and Dairy-free)

The kids are eating soooo many muesli bars these days, I can barely keep up! To make matters worse, Uncle Toby bars have milk powder in them and a large number of the rest contain nuts, which are a no-no for school. So I found a recipe that is quick & easy to make. These get devoured very quickly, so it's just as well that they are easy to make!

Microwave Muesli Bars

Ingredients

• 75g non-dairy spread e.g. nuttelex
• 5 tablespoons light brown soft sugar
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 150g rolled oats
• 75g sultanas*
• 75g dried apricots, chopped*

Method

1. Place the butter, sugar and syrup in a microwave safe bowl and cook on high power for 1 to 2 minutes, or until butter is melted.
2. Stir in the oats, sultanas, and apricots and mix thoroughly.
3. Press mixture into a small greased and lined baking dish. (I used a medium-sized rectangular pyrex dish)
4. Cook on high power for 4-5 minutes or until the centre is bubbling. Allow to cool then cut into squares.

Notes

1. * all that is required is approximately 150g of add-ins. You can split it any way you like: e.g. 50g sultanas, 50g apricot, 50g glace cherries, or just all sultanas. Try nuts or chocolate chips if your family can take it
2. I know it's tempting to cut it while it's still warm, but I found that this makes it disintegrate a bit as it is not set yet.
3. You don't have to line the dish, but it is easier to remove the bars if you do.

Persimmon Cookies (Egg-free and dairy-free)

When I was little, persimmons were a rare treat. They were also astringent, which means that the skin is inedible. So we had to wait until they were soft and squishy on the inside, and then scoop the sweet pulp out with a spoon.

These days you can buy persimmons with edible skin, and eat them hard like apples, or wait until they become so ripe that they're soft and mushy. We had a few too many mushy ones, so I decided to try making some persimmon cookies.

These cookies are quite easy to make. The Carnivore's sister helped me do the mixing. The cookies are a bit soft & cakey on the inside and remind me a little of gingerbread. These yummy treats only survived two days in our house, and I made four trays of them!

Egg-free and Dairy-free Persimmon Cookies

` Makes about 40

Ingredients

• 2 ripe persimmons, pureed (I also peeled mine)
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 egg replacer (1 heaped tsp No Egg with 2 tbsp water)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup (100g) non-dairy spread e.g. nuttelex
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced/350°F ).
2. Stir flour, bicarb soda and spices together, set aside.
3. Cream together nuttelex and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add egg replacer and persimmon and beat until combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients from step 2 and mix with the beater.
6. Stir in nuts and raisins.
7. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased tray. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

Note: These cookies don't really spread much when cooked, so you can place them fairly close together on the tray

Eating out

Eating out is often a challenge. To make things easier, we tend to stick to sushi when we are in a food court (being mindful that california and tuna rolls may have mayonnaise). When we dine out, we don't want to be "difficult diners", so it's usually Chinese.

So I was really happy to see a list of places we could try other than our usual haunts! We might have to go and dine out some time :)

Here is the list of places to eat:

Sydney restaurants for "difficult diners"