Nutty Brown Rice Salad

1 1/2 cups of brown rice
1 capsicum, finely chopped
3 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon oil
Cashews

1. Cook rice according to the directions on the packet
2. Add capsicum and spring onion
3. Add soy sauce, lemon juice and oil
4. Stir thoroughly and refrigerate
5. Add cashews just before serving

Apricot & Oat Bars

1 1/2 cups traditional rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
250g dried apricots, finely chopped
170g melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

1. Preheat oven to 180'C. Lightly grease a 23cm square pan and line the base with baking paper. Combine oats, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and mix well until combined.

2. Add the apricots, melted butter and vanilla essence to the dry ingredients, stirring well until dough is crumbly and moist. Press dough into prepared pan and level the surface. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

3. Allow to cool before removing from pan. Cut into 18 bars and dust with icing sugar to serve.

*I didn't have enough dried apricots so I used half apricots and half sultanas. I also skipped the icing sugar step as they tasted sweet enough without it, plus I'm planning on giving them to Ella and she doesn't need the extra sugar ;) They turned out very very crumbly (as you can see by the photo) but very nice!*