Waiting for a break is something that we all do. We just look forward to it, don’t we? Last year, we had decided to take a year off going home this year, since it involves too much of pressure financially. After all, four people travelling up and down to Kerala during the peak season is no joke. If you combine all the money spent on tickets, wardrobe updates, gifts and chocolates, etc, you can go on two international trips to decent countries. I am not joking about it. For an average middle class family, the daylight robbery that every airline does during the school closing time does put a lot of pressure on their budgets.
Somehow, despite so much hue and cry, this practice repeats year after year. Since the number of people travelling home at that time doesn’t seem to diminish, I guess the authorities see no reason to end this practice. 🙁 When we have parents back home, grandparents waiting to see us and their great grand children, close relatives and family like friends, we can’t ignore the call of going every year, isn’t it? I feel it is an unfortunate dilemma every year for every family when it comes to travelling during the peak times. I know it doesn’t make much difference to how things will be in the coming years, however, rant I still can… 🙂
This year, as I go home, I do feel a tinge of sadness, that I won’t be able to see my uncle that I wait to eagerly see every year. But Alhamdulillah Ala Kulli haal, we believe he is in a happier place. I am hoping that there are too many functions to attend, since I just want to relax. We have Eid-ul-Adha just around the corner, so it will be a good time to catch up with the full family at once. The rains are still on, so I hope it stays too. InShaAllah, hoping to come back rejuvenated. 🙂 Do follow me on my Instagram handle so that you can have a daily look on my stories at how my vacation is going to be – those who follow me there surely know how addicted I am to posting stories. 😀 Not going to be exciting as such, but surely a time pass… 🙂
I must say that this post has been pending since so long. Every month, I schedule it and then because other posts come in between, and it gets pushed off. I guess now it is time to push it out on the blog. 🙂
Almond butter is said to be a much better alternative to peanut butter for its good fats. Even though we love to eat almonds, I realized we didn’t have that same love towards the butter. I had bought a small pack of freshly ground almond butter from our Global Village visit. However, it just remained untouched since nobody liked it with their toast. I even tried slathering honey along with it. Though it was passable, but still did not gain acceptance. While wondering what to do with it, I thought the best way to finish it off was to make granola.
I love granola and if I could, I would have had it for breakfast every other day. I have already made a few batches of granola before and posted them on the blog as well – a basic version, one with cookie butter, a chocolate honey version – my favorite of all, and one flavored with brown butter, which was a total bomb! Along with finishing the almond butter before it went rancid, I managed to finish my stock of maple syrup that I had bought to make the butterscotch pudding cake. It was a very mildly sweet granola, which I finished off by adding some goji berries, nuts and cut fruits into my yogurt while having it. Since I had not added any additional fats to it, it was slightly dry, so it could do with around 1/4 cup of coconut oil to make up. I didn’t add the oil because I would always prefer butter, but wanted to keep this recipe vegan. 🙂 Off to the recipe…
Almond Butter Maple Granola
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- A pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Keep a baking sheet ready.
- Melt the butter and syrup on low flame till it becomes a smooth mixture. Whisk in the vanilla and salt.
- Pour over the oats and toss to coat well. Spread on the sheet.
- Bake for 30 minutes, stirring the mixture every 10 minutes to ensure even baking.
- Cool and enjoy with your choice of milk or yogurt.
Notes
So InShaAllah, I am leaving the blog empty for this month. I will be back by August 29, provided that everything will be fine and then hopefully will jump onto the blogging bandwagon as soon as I can, just like I usually do. 🙂 I do have draft to support me, so recipes won’t be a problem. Do keep coming back to the blog, discovering the oldies already on the blog and hopefully will meet all of you on this side once I am back, InShaAllah… Much love and BarakAllah (God bless)…
I would snack on those all day long until it’s all gone!
Thanks a lot Angie…
wow.. your granola looks so good… bookmarked your recipe… will try it soon…
Thank you so much Amina…
The granola looks super scrumptious 😍 And like Angie, I too will end up snacking on it 😁
Thank you so much Taruna…
Claps!Claps! I ll need A WHOLE YEAR TO TRY ALL THE BOOKMARKED RECIPES FROM THE BST
Aww… thank you for your lovely comments dear Tum…