What packed lunch treats can i make from these ingredients?

WantToBeSE

I have £100 left for food for the month, but have a full freezer and plenty of other stuff.
So, I'm not too concerned about feeding us, apart from when it comes to packed lunch treats.


I have almonds (whole), glace cherries, walnut pieces, dates, raisons and sultanas.


Without adding honey, golden syrup or sweet stuff like that, could I make some treats to pack in the kids lunch boxes do you think?


Also, any other recipes I could make with those ingredients ( I don't mind adding sugar or honey to the other recipes)?


I have all the usual baking ingredients (flours, sugars, baking powder, bicarb, cocoa powder etc).


I really don't want to spend any money buying anything extra.


Any help would really be appreciated, thanks

[Deleted User]

You could blitz some of everything with the main bulk being dates in your food processor with a good tablespoon of cocoa powder until it is completely broken down, particularly the almonds, until they are just tiny white specks and perhaps if it needs it add 1 teaspoon or so of honey and this makes a Nakd Bar lookalike. When the mix comes together put it on to some cling film, roll the cling film over the top them roll the mix into a long sausage shape. Seal the ends and them pop it into the fridge for a few hours to harden up. Cut it into slices for their lunch boxes, it's so yummy. Alternately you could roll the mix into balls and wrap them individually. It's a nice and not naughty treat.

patchwork_cat

Does your school have a no nuts policy? Do your children like fruit cake? IMHO you are going to struggle to make a treat with those ingredients without adding some sugar.

SpikyHedgehog

What about scones? I use 1 measure of SR flour with a quarter measure of fat rubbed into it (so, if you're using 8oz flour, you use 2oz marge), flavours (raisins and cinnamon?) added (maybe a dessert spoon of sugar?) and liquid to bind it until you've got a dough you can roll out. I find the scones are lighter with water than milk. Bake at 180C for about 12 minutes.

I'd do a sort of date slice with the dates, but all the recipes I'm looking at online look complex and with lots of added sugar... Checked my trusty and disintegrating Rose Elliot Cheap and Easy, and her recipe calls for cooking the dates in a little water till soft then mashing up to make a paste, which you put between 2 layers of shortcrust pastry. Bake for about 30 minutes at 200C (that seems high to me though?).

torbrex

If you have some porridge oats available you could make oat biscuits and easily add some or all of your ingredients to the mix before baking.

Alternately with some cooking chocolate and rice crispies you could do the same (even better if you have any marshmallows)

kiss_me_now9

Can I ask why no honey/sugar with the first lot? You could make a cracking flapjack/granola bar with some oats and that lot, and a squeeze of honey to bind it.

WantToBeSE

Thanks for the ideas.


Kiss_me_now9 its because I feel that with having a lot of sugar (in the form of fruit) I don't want to add any more sugar to them.
I know its fruit sugar, and healthy for you, but its still sugar.

kiss_me_now9

If you didn't use the glace cherries there's not that much sugar in the rest of the ingredients

Personally I don't actually eat any of the listed ingredients so apart from a flapjack I'm stumped

WantToBeSE

Thanks KM9 Looking at some of the sugar free sites that I go on, they say that I can add coconut oil to help it stick together instead of honey or syrup (if making flapjacks or granola bars for example).

Lizling

How about just putting little portions of a mix of those ingredients in their lunch boxes just as they are?

Or, what I like to do with ingredients like that is throw in a small bit of dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is pretty healthy, and the sweetness of the fruit takes most of the bitterness off.

jackyann

coconut oil is very expensive (at least in our local shops!)
I have to say that I would buy some porridge oats (cheap, and use them for breakfast porridge), and use honey or golden syrup to make some fruity flapjacks, leaving out the glace cherries (or, just put a quarter on top of each square)
Kids burn off a lot of energy, so I wouldn't worry about making flapjacks with a bit of extra sugar - there will still be less than in most commercial granola bars.

And if that really isn't on, then I would follow Lizling's advice. I used to do that for our kids, chopping the dark chocolate into small chunks.