Someone asked me once – does the recipe come first or the story behind it? I’d have to say it’s definitely a mixture, I love storytelling, but I also love creating things and sometimes I just can’t remember which comes first. I actually can’t remember much at the moment, but I guess that’s #mumlife for you.

Now I’m not the biggest fan of winter. Being totally honest, I sometimes wish for it to be over which I know is bad and I’m trying to train myself out of but I can’t help that I’m a total sun lover and adore the beauty of spring, the warmth of summer and the colours of autumn. But winter not so much.

It is because of my aversion to the cold that I always try to insist to Mr H that we ‘break up the winter’ by going in search of sunshine in December or Jan. This year we headed off to the sunnier climes of the Dominican Republic and I’m hoping that the top up of vitamins Sea and D will keep me going until springtime.

Of course with holidays comes the dreaded packing (not a fan) and all that goes with it – cleaning, tidying and making the most random meals of whatever’s left in the fridge. I know that strawberries are definitely not in season right now in the UK, and I’m trying to wean her onto more seasonal fruits, but the fact is that baby H loves her strawberries. Big time. My smother in law knows that the way to any Hollingsworth’s heart is through their tummy, so whenever she comes over she always turns up laden down with baby H’s fave fruit. So much so that now when she enters our house baby H runs up to the door and shouts ‘BWEEEEE’ (her word for berries) at her until she delivers the goods.

So this is why I had a glut of strawbs to use up. I HATE food going to waste, even more so if it’s travelled a long way to get to my fridge, so I decided to bake something for the plane that involved baby H’s beloved strawberries, would keep her snack happy and wasn’t toooo messy. Spoiler alert: I actually left them in the fridge so we will never know if they were a good plane snack or not (told you my memory’s gone to shit) but she had started tucking into them beforehand and they went down pretty well. FYI I am totally aware of the irony of me baking to avoid food wastage and then forgetting to take said bakes with me but don’t worry, I managed to offload them to my lovely neighbour when she popped in to water the plants.

Anyway, you should make these too. They’re great for little ones as they’re low in sugars, full of fibre and healthy fats and are basically just super yummy. Eat them at home, on the bus or at work, just don’t forget them in your fridge when you go on holiday!

Makes 16 squares

Ingredients 

• 2 bananas
• 4 medjool dates, pitted
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 cups oats
• 1 cup strawberries, sliced

Preheat your oven to 180C. All all the ingredients except the oats and strawberries into a food processor or blender and whizz until smooth, then pour the mixture into a bowl and stir in the oats and strawberries.

Mix well, then spoon the mixture into a lined baking tray or foil tray (mine is 8″ by 8″) and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until golden on top.

Leave to cool, then cut into squares. Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freeze for upto a month.

Love, Mrs H xx