Homemade Vegan Granola Bars

Anyone who knows me knows that I love, love, love snacks. I barely even eat my meals, I usually just snack away, all day long. Well, with the exception to breakfast. I loooooove breakfast, in fact, I can just eat breakfast for all my meals..and that includes a cuppa coffee too. So lately, I’ve been trying to cut down from eating outside, mainly because I don’t trust the sanitation factor that goes on in most Egyptian popular restaurants. I also have been paranoid about by snacks and what effects it has on our body especially to kids. Since I am addicted to snacking with anything that has flours like bread, cookies, donuts, you name it, there isn’t anything that I will not like. I’ve been trying very hard to trick my snacking habits into something that is healthy, fulfilling and good for me. I guess, what I am trying to get at is that I’ve created an awesome recipe for granola bars that any gluten lovers like myself will sure to love. I can’t say it’s gluten free but it’s definitely vegan. I’m sure, you can substitute the flour that goes into these granola bars with almond and coconut flour. I would have opted for that option but I haven’t found any place that sells those types of flours in Egypt. That’s the good thing about this recipe, you can totally personalize with anything that you have around or whatever is local around you. Before I get to the steps and the recipe it self, I must apologize if this posts will come out immature. This is the first time I write a post like this and I don’t even know how to do it. I don’t have any pictures to demonstrate the steps but I will share a picture of what these granola bars look like taken by my phone 🤕.

What you will need for the granola:

Baking Pan

Cookie 🍪 sheets

One bowl 🍲

Spoon 🥄

Ingredients:

You don’t really have to measure but I’ll give you a sense of how much I put of each ingredient.

Oats

Flour

Black honey 🍯 or bee 🐝 honey 🍯

Oil, it can be olive oil, vegggie or coconut 🥥

Those are the main ingredients but if you like you can put anything else at your possession, such as, nuts 🥜, chocolate 🍫 chips, raisins, vanilla, cinnamon powder, cocoa and coconut 🥥 flakes. I also add, chia seeds to make into a energy booster snack. 😉

Sorry for all those emojis, I’m writing this post from my phone and I am currently obsessed.

Steps:

In one bowl mix all the main ingredients together.

For every cup flour put half cup of any flour you have. The end product should look gluey and sticky.

Add 1/4 of black honey (I am totally bull sh*tting these measurements). Like I said the end product should be gluey and sticky as if you are making chocolate chip cookies.

Add 1/4 oil of your choice. Again bull sh*t as long as it’s looking gluey.

Now, that you’ve mixed it all, you can add any flavoring that you want. I added what I had around the house and that was chia seeds and raisins. I also added this spice that Egyptian use a lot in their baking and as tea which in Arabic it’s called “yansoon”. Comment below if you know the name of “yansoon” in English.

Place in a baking pan with the cooking sheet and spread the formula out as flat as possible. Since the mixture does not rise with the heat you will have to spread it out in a thin layer.

The oven can be at any temperature and the mixture should be ready once you smell it and it has browned.

It’s very important that you cut the formula as soon as it’s out of the oven since it will harden after 5-10 min at room temperature.

Now it’s ready to indulge, enjoy!

I hope you have found this post is useful and that you have tried it for your self. Let me know if you’ve tried this recipe and/or if you have other healthy snack alternatives.

Bon appetite!

A New Year 2018

Dear Me,

You know you are not one to commemorate anything and the New Years is not an exemption. However, this year was a very challenging one and lot of self-reflection and growth happened. I am finding myself deeper in my thoughts and reflecting very hard on my personal growth and barriers I had to overcome.

I am not one to make new years resolution and I am not here to write a list of what I would like to accomplish in 2018. It’s time to make goals and set time lines. To leave behind the negativity and move forward. To stop making excuses and just do the things I most fear. Mostly, I want to live in the moment, to cherish everything around, to leave a little bit of goodness every day.

This letter is not to set up expectations and looking to fulfill them in a time span. It is not to accomplish all my dreams, goals, obstacles and fears in a the year to come. Rather, it is a time to pause and reflect on how far I reached within a year. To look at my blessings and downfalls.

Most importantly, when you look back remember there is no such thing as “failure”. When you wake up every day and try again and didn’t succeed, you didn’t fail. When you try new things and it did not go as planned, you didn’t fail. When life takes its own course instead of yours, you didn’t fail. What’s more important is what you learned from all that God had planned for you.

Now, read this post and reflect all the personal growth and blessings that have occurred within a year and don’t worry about what people think you should be doing or where you should be.

Don’t be delusional, don’t fall into trend, there is no such thing as happiness. There is however, a sense of peace knowing that you will embrace whatever comes or does not come your way. Not only embrace, face it, conquer it and gain the most expensive gift in life, “patience”.

Look at your daughters and see how much they have grown, hug them and tell them you “love them”. Pray for all the blessings that God has bestowed. If you cried a lot, it is time to smile. If you smiled a lot, it is time to help others who have cried. If you have gained, it is time to give. If you have lost, it is time to accept. If you loved than love even harder. Know that all your prayers are not answer in this life. Ameen.