HEALTHY EATING
Playgroup Granola Bars 

INGREDIENTS 
2 cups rolled oats 
3/4 cup packed brown sugar 
1/2 cup wheat germ 
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1 cup all-purpose flour 
3/4 cup raisins (optional) 
3/4 teaspoon salt 
1/2 cup honey 
1 egg, beaten 
1/2 cup vegetable oil 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut. 

Nutritional Information
Playgroup Granola Bars
Servings Per Recipe: 24
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 161
Total Fat: 5.5g 
Cholesterol: 9mg 
Sodium: 80mg 
Total Carbs: 26.5g 
Dietary Fiber: 1.4g 
Protein: 2.6g

FRUIT OF THE MONTH                   
  
Olives
Small bitter oval fruit, green when unripe and black when ripe, used for food and for oil.

Olive oil
Olive oil is a fruit-juice. Olive oil is cold pressed olive juice and olives are a fruit. That’s why it's so healthy and is used in the finest cuisines all over the world. Cold pressed means that the olives are picked and squeezed and are not boiled before squeezing.

Sorts
There are three types of olive oil:

• Extra vierge: the purest oil with an excellent taste and a low acidic level;
• Vierge: oil with a very good taste and a higher acidic level;
• Normal olive oil: this consists of a mix of refined olive oil and an oil between extra vierge and vierge olive oil, it has a good to normal taste. 
  

  The benefits of olives and olive-oil

  • In the mediterranean countries of Europe people eat a lot of olive oil. It is common to eat bread or toast just dipped in olive oil. Because of the daily use of olive oil the people that live in these countries suffer less from heart diseases than people of other countries in Europe.
  • The use of olive oil has a positive effect on the cholesterol level in our blood. 
  • Because olives grow in a warm environment and the fruit has to protect itself from heat and bright sunshine, olives contain a lot of fenol-like substances. These substances could possibly play a role in the prevention and cure of thrombosis and arteriosclerosis.
  • It is often said that olive oil causes problems with the stomach or intestines. This is simply not the case. Olive oil is very easy to digest and mild for the intestines!

  Test it yourself
  You can do a little test. If you spill some olive oil on your hands you can easily wash it off. It disappears fast in the sink and you don't need a lot of hot water and detergent to wash it away. Because your body is like a glass of water it reacts the same.
  If you have eaten some olive oil your body will evaporate it within 1½ hour via your pores. This means your body can handle it easily and does not have to waste any energy to digest it. This works differently with baking butter and other products, especially those based on animal products. In this case you have to scrub hard and need hot water and detergent to dissolve the fat in the water so it can be washed away.