GRANOLA BARS

05.08.2020: I love, absolutely love Granola Bars. I have been meaning to make granola bars at home for the longest time, but I always ended up buying them from the store. I do think some of the store-bought ones are overpriced and probably not as nutritious as they claim to be.

Pre-covid days, I would reserve weekends/holidays for cooking and when weekend arrived, I thought it wasn’t fair that I should be sweating it out in the kitchen when I could just relax with my feet propped up on the table and go through recipes online, bookmarking them  for eternity. 

Now that I am working from home,  I have the inclination to bake and cook all dishes that I have always wanted to. WFH cons: my break from office work involves doing household chores.

I am stuck with ironing a pile of Sky’s shirts! (How many shirts can a man have!!!) I wish I hadn’t banned our clothes from being sent out for ironing. I got it in my mind that our clothes mixed with strangers’ clothes would bring the virus back home. Skip and I are fine wearing crumpled clothes at home. I realised Sky had run out of ironed clothes for office when I saw the HUGE pile of washed clothes on his bed. I am currently ironing 5 shirts a day and yet the pile doesn’t reduce in size. I HATE ironing and the fact that Skip calls me Ironwoman doesn’t amuse me! Sky reminds me daily that I needn’t iron the shirts (I think he wants me to stop as I do such a bad job of it) but I strive on untiringly after having noticed some weight loss on my arms.

Jenga time with Granola Bars

I got a batch of dry fruits and seeds from my parents and decided to make granola bars since I finally had ALL the ingredients to make it. These make for great snack bars as they provide you with guilt-free snacking (not that I have ever felt guilty about snacking), are a good source of fiber, curb your hunger, boost your energy, is made up of healthy ingredients and most importantly is easy to make.

You can be flexible with the quantities of the ingredients.

The recipe is from the minimalistbaker's blog.  i have added  a few extra ingredients. 

GRANOLA BARS

Ingredients:

Dates – 200 gms ( about 2 cups)

Honey  - 80 gms (1/2 cup)

Peanut butter- 50 gms (1/2 cup)

Chopped Almonds – 100 gms (3/4 cup)

Pumpkin and sunflower seeds – 20 gms (¼ cup)

Rolled oats –120 gms ( 2 cups)

Method:

1.   De-seed the dates and grind it in a mixie until it attains a dough like texture. Place it in a mixing bowl.

2.    Toast the oats, almonds and seeds for about 10 minutes. Add these to the dates.

3.   Add the honey and peanut butter to another dish and lightly warm it and mix it well.

4.    Pour the honey-peanut butter mixture to the mixing bowl and mix all ingredients well.

5.  Transfer the contents to a greased dish. I used a 9 inch baking dish. Press the mixture down firmly. I used the back of a bowl.

6.   Cover it and place it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Remove from freezer and cut it into bars.

7.    Store the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

8.     Done.

Recipe Notes:

•    You may add additional ingredients such as dried fruits (apricots, cranberries, sultanas), walnuts, candied peel, bits of chocolate or coat the bars in melted chocolate.

I'm also on Facebook and Instagram @lucidlucent. Follow me for more of such simple recipes !