Recipe: Mango Goji Oat Slices (aka Sunshine Slices)

Mango season has started in Australia! Yay! 

I really liked the blueberry banana porridge squares that I made before using a recipe from Livia's Kitchen. They're such a great breakfast and snack that I decided to make them again with other fruits. Mango banana goji berry this time. 

These were a really big hit with my family. They coined them Sunshine Slices because mango banana goji berry slices was too much of a mouthful to say. Quite an appropriate name because they came out of the oven with a really vibrant golden colour like slices of sunshine. 

These porridge squares or oat slices (whatever you prefer to call them) are a great way of getting some extra fruit in your diet. Mangoes are an extremely popular fruit in Australia with it's sweet, juicy, nectary taste and like all fruits, they come with a plethora of health benefits. 

In 100g (about one cheek) of fresh mango, you are getting more than half the recommended daily intake (RDI) of vitamin C and vitamin A. Mangoes are also low GI so it helps to control your blood sugar levels and keeps you fuller for longer. 

Vitamin C is needed for collagen formation, a protein that gives your skin the nice youthful spring and keeps your blood vessels stretchy. Vitamin C also helps with iron absorption which is needed in the formation of red blood cells to carry oxygen around the body. 

Sunshine Slice
Ingredients (30 small slices)

• 300 g oats 
• 1 medium banana
• 1 large mango (~ 240g) 
• 30 g goji berries (~2 tbsp)
• 225ml milk 
• 20 g honey (~1 tbsp)
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. 
2. Place oats in a food processor and process until it is a fine flour and transfer to a large mixing bowl. 
3. Puree the banana, flesh of the mango and 1 tbsp of goji berries in the food processor. Add the pureed fruit to the mixing bowl. (Depending on how big your food processor is you may have to puree the fruits individually). 
4. Add the milk, the remaining tbsp of goji berries (left whole), and honey to the bowl and mix everything until well combined.  
5. Pour the batter into a lined/greased baking tray and sprinkle coconut on top
6. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until firm to the touch. Allow to cool before slicing. 

Recipe: Blueberry and Banana Porridge Slice

If you couldn't tell already from my previous recipes, I love my oats. So when I came across this recipe by Livia's Kitchen, I just had to make it. The recipe I made is slightly modified using ingredients I had. I also had some shredded coconut on hand so I sprinkled some on top to give some contrast in colour and texture. 

Compared to wheat flour, oat flour is lower in carbs and higher in protein and fibre. Oats contain the type of fibre called beta-glucan which can help to naturally lower cholesterol. The original recipe by Livia's Kitchen used oat milk which will give this recipe an extra beta-glucan boost. I used LIddells lactose free skim milk instead since I didn't have any oat milk, and thanks to the banana, my modified recipe has a similar amount of fibre. 

This is such a great recipe for breakfast or a healthy snack and it's so easy to make as well. 

Blueberry Banana Porridge Slice
Ingredients (makes 12 slices)

• 300 g oat flour 
• 225 g blueberries (pureed) + 60 g whole 
• 110 g (1 medium) banana
• 225 ml skim milk 
• 2.5 tbsp (55 g) honey 
• 1/4 cup (~20g) shredded coconut 

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. 

Place the first 5 ingredients in a food processor and blend until well combined. Pour into a bowl and stir through the 60 g of blueberries then pour mixture into a lined brownie tin. Sprinkle shredded coconut onto the mixture. 

Bake for 15-18 min or until firm. Cool on a cooling rack and cut into slices. 

Using the FSANZ NIP Calculator, this is the nutrition information for this recipe. It's a pretty interesting tool to play around with.