Granola Bars - Deliciously Healthy

In order to keep up with my new year resolutions and do away with the excess of granola packets, I tried making healthy granola bars last weekend. Although granola makes a great breakfast in terms of time it needs to be prepared. But after consuming it number of times, it has become almost tasteless to me. So, I decided on giving tasteless granola a twist by combining them with dates. Those who like the taste of dates will love this recipe.

Granola bars are chewy, crunchy and crispy with not too much of sweetness. They make a great afternoon snack for the untimely hunger pangs. And when you are devouring a good book on the cozy couch, you can have them to save yourself from getting up and breaking the continuity. Being an avid reader myself, I hate getting up to make anything specially when I am on the verge of reading a good book.

I was a bit finicky when I was making them being my first time. But the bars came out to be good. The flavor of the dates gave them just the proper sweetness and the lemon juice the perfect tanginess. And both granola and dates combination made the granola bars rich in fibre, natural sugar and nutrition.The main thing to keep in mind is the time of baking. Otherwise you can refrigerate them too, if you don't want to bake them.


Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup pitted dates
1/2 cup dried and roughly chopped raisins, walnuts, cranberries and almonds
(or 1 cup granola)

Method

* In a pan boil the dates with a little amount of water.
* Remove from heat and let it cool.
* Then blend it into a blender to form a thick paste.
* Melt butter in a pan.
* Add lime juice and honey followed by oats, dried fruits and chopped nuts(basically the granola)
* Saute for few minutes and add the date paste. Mix well.
* In a greased baking tray, place the mixture and smoothen out the top using an oiled knife.
* Bake for just about 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C.
* Cool it into a refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes.
* Once the mixture sets, cut it into small bars ans store them in an air tight container.

Off To A Great Start - Happy 101 Award

Gera of Sweet Foods brightened my January with a Happy 101 Award. Thanks a lot !! I think that was a great start for a new year.

Accepting the award I have added the Happy 101 picture. Further as part of the Award Acceptance, I must do the following too.

List 10 things that make me happy -

1)  Reading novels
2)  Delicious Desserts
3)  Watching movies
4)  Weekend offs
5)  Showing off my culinary skills
6)  Shopping (from clothes to veggies)
7)  Blogging
8)   .................
9)   .................
10) .................

Rest of the rules -

Tagging 10 bloggers who brighten my day.
Giving a link to their blogs
Notify the award receivers (will do sometime today)
Award recipients need to link back to the sender's(my) blog.

In no-particular order, 10 bloggers who can brighten up my day:

1. Lubna of Yummy Food  
2. Parita of Parita's Kitchen  
3. Muskan Sadhna of A2Z Vegetarian Cuisine
4. Freddy of Palachinka       
5. Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons 
6. Deepa of Food Lyrics
7. Anncoo of Anncoo's Hobby
8. Nupur of Randomness
9. ................
10................

Apple Cinnamon Cake - Sinfully Fresh

From chocolate cakes to truffles, Irish to plain vanilla, strawberry, cakes and pastries are a delight for everyone. But at times these cakes become too much of a sin. Still they are hard to resist. And since I am new to baking, every now and then craving for a warm piece of cake arises. Most of the times, I have to run to the nearmost bakery and only after having a piece of cake or pastry that the craving subsides. Its just that I am lucky, the bakery is just fabulous.

Although, this weekend shedding my laziness finally I made a cake. The recipe is somewhat similar to apple oatmeal muffins but with a few changes, adapted from a cookery show. Cookery shows come second in my list of things addicted to. First being the cookbooks, which I have already mentioned. Every time I get to watch a show, I scribble the recipe in my diary, just to use it at some point of time. Finally its turn came.

Lately, the weather has been freezing cold. But after the whole lot of effort of making the apple cake, when I took the first bite of the warm cake, I felt devine and much more fresh. The cold had made me really lazy to the extent of guilty of neglecting my blog. From a past few days, I was really feeling bad. So, I am back with a lovely delcious cake. Take my advice and have it fresh from oven. A warm cake is an indulgence worth taking. And with a dolop of chilled icecream or fresh scoop of cream cheese icing, the fun becomes much more joyful. s

Ingredients

For Cake

2-3 apples (peeled & chopped)
1 cup flour
1 cup butter
1 cup superfine sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp cinnamon powder

For Icing

1cup cream cheese
pinch of roasted cardamom powder
1/2 cup whipped cream

Method

* Whisk sugar and butter together for few minutes.
* Then fold in the flour followed by eggs, honey and cinnamon powder.
* Finally add apples and mix properly.
* Pour the prepared batter into a buttered baking pan.
* Bake for about half an hour at 170C
* Meanwhile prepare the icing by whipping all the ingredients together
* When the cake is baked, let it cool.
* At the time of serving spread the icing over the cake and serve.