Pumpkin protein oaty breakfast bars with vanilla, maple and spice

I like to have these as a post work out snack. I thought I would add some protein in the to make them more festive in time for Halloween! I have found protein powder on the internet, but it can also be found at some of the online supermarkets. I am using a vanilla flavoured one here. The pumpkin needs quite a lot of spice to get the flavour going and a pinch of salt which is optional helps lots too. They have 10g of protein per bar, but you can up that amount by adding more protein powder. If you do double the protein powder then you will just also need to add a one whole egg white and a couple of tbsp. of water to give you a thick stodgy (not very sticky) mixture.

INGREDIENTS

165g pumpkin puree

75g protein powder

125g oats

20ml of maple syrup

3 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp of ground ginger

1 tsp of ground cloves

1 tsp of vanilla extract

½ egg white

1 tsp of pumpkin seeds

pinch of salt-optional

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180c.

2. Put all of the ingredients together in a bowl and then mix everything together. You will need do squidge the mixture on the sides of the bowl to get it all mixed in as the mixture is quite stodgy and thick.

3. Line a 8x8 baking tray with greaseproof paper. And spray the bottom with some spray oil. Then tip the mixture in to the tin and squidge it down. I found that this mixture filled up three quarters of the tin and not the whole tin, so I squidged it down in an L shape. Get it nice and flat.

4. Then sprinkle over the pumpkin seeds and pop in to the oven for 8-10 minutes. Once cooked remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes or so.

5. Then using a sharp knife cut in to 7-8 shortbread sized fingers and serve. I keep them in Tupperware for just about 5 days or so.

If you divide them in to 8 pieces then the macros per ‘bar’ are:

118 calories

1.4g fat

16g carbs

10g protein