Eating healthy is hard work, especially between meals when the communal donuts in the tea room are calling to you. Sure you can eat a piece of fruit, it never quite fils you up though. Or you can eat some almonds for some filling protein, but you tend to get sick of eating almonds everyday for a month.

So what can you do? Cook some snacks? Well if your a hopeless cook like me, you need something that's super easy to cook. This protein bar recipe quick to prepare and because it's oven baked, requires no supervision while cooking.

As well as being a healthy alternative to donuts etc these bars are quite filling and are excellent sources of long lasting energy. Give it a go, if you muck it up the first time, don't worry. It takes a few goes to get it the way you like it.

• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup sultanas
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
• 1/4 cup dried ginger, chopped
• 2 cups oats, raw
• 4 scoops (120g) vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 cup skim milk

Put oven on to 350ºF to heat before you start preparing ingredients.

Get a large mixing bowl and tip all the ingredients in. Stir with a large spoon, slowly add small amounts of water until the mixture becomes wet all the way through but not runny. Get an 8"x8" baking tray and spray with olive oil. Pour the mixture into the tray and spread it evenly.

Place the tray into the preheated oven and leave it for around 20-30 minutes. You will know it's done when the top of the mixture becomes golden brown on top and has come away from the edges of the tray. Leave for an hour to cool with a clean tea towel covering it before cutting into eight pieces and storing in the fridge to eat during the week.

These bars make an excellent snack in the morning or even breakfast for those who are in a hurry. Eat with a piece of fruit to really fill you up.

Feel free to use different dried fuit and nut combinations to design your own perfect bar.