I am usually very prompt with doing my challenge posts. But for this month’s Muslim Food Blogger challenge, I delayed it as much as I possibly could. It wasn’t that the challenge wasn’t tough. I had a lot of ideas floating in my head. Oh, I didn’t tell what was the challenge. This month, we went with Lubna’s suggestion of making some healthy bites. It is summer vacations back home, and even here, schools were off the past month. When kids are off, then naturally, they are constantly hungry and searching the home up, down and center for something or the other to eat. So this theme couldn’t have come at the correct time. If you have noticed, I did three recipes with the similar theme in the last month’s Blogging Marathon too. 🙂
My first thought was to do something in line with the Dates Bliss Balls. But my girls are not very fond of dates. They do like them, but when used it desserts, it becomes very sweet and they don’t like to eat too much of them. I even finalized on a recipe that didn’t use dates in it. But I thought the idea of balls were really boring. I don’t know why… Even though they would have been the easiest thing to do. That is when I chose something that is a bit away from the idea of balls but still easy to make. So I finalized on making some granola bars.
These granola bars are chewy and spiked with some soft goji berries and a little crunch from chia seeds. I wouldn’t say that I am hundred percent happy but I wish I would have been a little more patient with mixing up the oats and pressing it onto the pan. The whole recipe comes together in hardly 15 minutes and another 15 minutes of setting, and you have a healthy snack in your hand. To harden then up, you can freeze them for an hour and enjoy them too. Any way, it didn’t take much time for it to disappear from the fridge. I gifted some to Deepa when I met up with her over the weekend for breakfast, on her short visit to Dubai. It was lovely meeting her. We had breakfast and chatted general things and the one-and-a-half hours spent together felt like minutes. Off to the recipe…
Easy Chewy Granola Bars | Granola Bars with Goji Berries & Chia
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 15 gm butter
- 2 tbsp peanut butter
- 1/4 cup goji berries
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
Instructions
- Heat a pan, and toast the oats for five minutes or till a toasty smell is felt. Switch off and empty into a mixing bowl.
- In a saucepan, combine honey, brown sugar, butter and peanut butter and heat on low flame till it becomes a homogenous thick mixture.
- Switch off and immediately pour onto the oats. Add the berries and chia seeds into it. Toss the mixture well to coat with the sauce all over.
- Line a 4 inch pan and press down the oats into it. Press it well so that the crumbs are tight.
- Keep in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to harden. Cut into 8-10 slices and enjoy.
These energy bites were gone in seconds once I reached home. I too make these for my after workout snacks. Yours was chewy and crunchy. It was lovely meeting you dear. Short and sweet meet ❤️ thanks once again for taking out time to meet me at the last minute
Thank you so much Deepa… it was lovely meeting you too! 🙂
This is great granola bars, I like that you made with super food like chia and goji berries. Not only healthy but also delicious.
Thank you so much Swathi…
Homemade granola bars are the best! These look wholesome.
Thanks a lot Angie…
Haha when kids are around….u said it 100 percent right!! Anywyz the granola looks gr8 and an easy one too!! Wanna try some day❤
Thank you so much Shazia… 🙂