Four Grain Very Berry Pistachio Nut Granola Bars

Four Grain Berry Pistachio Nut Granola Bar (02) by MeetaK 

This past week I spent getting used to a new routine. As Tom departed onto a new adventure of a new job in a new city, I stayed behind to guard the fort and the child. It’s exhausting when there is no one to share the chores, worries and daily life with. All of a sudden I alone have the huge responsibility of looking after the most precious being – Soeren.

Such a responsibility lays heavy on my shoulders. At the back of my mind I am always aware that I have to pay not extra but double the attention. I have to be doubly understanding, doubly loving and doubly protecting – no wonder I was feeling so deflated!

It’s easier when two are sharing the work and tantrums. I am sure those of you who have kids will understand.

We’re a pretty well tuned team the three of us and often things work more or less like clockwork. In the mornings I will take Soeren and get him ready for school, while Tom gets breakfast ready. Then we’d swap - while Tom checks if all of Soeren’s school stuff is packed I will get myself ready. After breakfast Tom takes Soeren to school and I would usually pick him up from school after work, followed by afternoon activities, homework and dinner prep - till Tom came home after which he would take over until bedtime. That allowed me a little break and breather.

This past week however, I was in charge and had to throw the show alone. I have to say this on Soeren*s behalf though – he is a sensible and sensitive boy and picks up on the tiniest of signals. He’s been a huge help and it makes me want to love and protect him even more.

We’ve had some fun this week together with him starring as The Big Bad Wolf at his school’s music festival. He found his role fairly amusing and told me “Only a Wolff can seriously play a wolf!”, then was disappointed with his singing and thought he could have done better. When I told him I thought he was brilliant all he said was,

“You have to you are a Wolff too!”

 Four Grain Berry Pistachio Nut Granola Bar (01) by MeetaK

Yeah we Wolffs are a pack that stick together so when the Alpha leaves we have to reorganize ourselves and find new bearings.

To help us along, I make a few scrumptious treats – for the Alpha to remind him of how good he has it back home and for the pup to help him deal with the new situation.

I love granola bars and make them in several different varieties. This, however, is exquisite. Dried cherries, cranberries and physalis dot the bars with their fruity tartness and an earthy drizzle of wildflower honey complements it with its sweetness. Pistachios not only add a vivid green but provide a delicious crunch. Stellar however is the fact I’ve used four types of wholegrain flakes for the bars – simply because I could not decide on just one.

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I am rather baffled and kind of chuffed to announce that What’s For Lunch, Honey? is one of the finalists at the weblog awards for the 2010 Bloggies. Wait the best part is yet to come – I have been nominated in the category Best European Blog!

I thank everyone who nominated me for the honor! A huge thanks goes to everyone who are diligently pushing the news on Twitter and getting me a lot of votes. For those of you who have not yet done so, I now request you to get your fingers moving and vote for me! A lovely thanks goes out Ilva for giving me the great news this morning!

Four Grain Very Berry Pistachio Nut Granola Bars

Printable version of recipe here

Ingredients

200g organic mixed wholegrain flakes, I used a mixture of rye, barley, oats and spelt
100g + extra butter
100g sunflower seeds
50g sesame seeds
60g pistachios, coarsely chopped
120g dried berries of choice, I used cherries , cranberries and physalis
100g muscovado sugar
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 

Method

  1. Heat oven to 160 degrees C. Butter and line a base of a baking tin (18 x 25cm).

  2. In a bowl mix the wholegrain flakes, seeds and pistachios in a spread out onto a baking sheet. Toast in the oven for about 8-10 minutes.

  3. In the meantime, melt butter in a large saucepan on a low heat. Add honey and sugar, stirring until most of the sugar has dissolved. 

  4. Add the wholegrain flakes, seed and nut mix including the cinnamon and dried berries. Stir well to coat the mixture.

  5. Tip the entire mixture into the buttered baking  tin and press down lightly. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool completely then cut into bars.


The Food Guide Tips:

- Cranberries

- Cherries

- Pistachios

- Cinnamon



Verdict

Four Grain Berry Pistachio Nut Granola Bar (03) by MeetaK

These make great treats for lunchboxes, picnics or just for when you are relaxing on the sofa with a good book. They are chewy and crispy at the same time, not too sweet, slightly tart with a hint of cinnamon-y goodness. The perfect granola bar to fill almost all your cravings in one go.

Monthly Mingle – Bread & Chocolate

My talented and dear friend of the beautifully written blog, Life’s a Feast is my guest hostess this month. She offered to jump in when the planned hostess dumped me! Love you Jamie.

We quickly decided on a theme – chocolate and bread. A soul satisfying and totally comforting pair.

Get on over to Jamie’s blog and check out all the details and how you can join us for the first party of the new decade.

Deadline: 18 February

The Monthly Mingle Calendar 2010 is now up and it should help you keep track of all the mingles this year!

More Granola goodness from WFLH:

Nutty Amaranth Granola with Fresh Berries Whole Wheat Granola Goji Muffins Wholegrain Porridge with Goji Berries and Cashew Nuts

 


All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2010 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First

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47 comments:

  1. I can't wait to make these! Congratulations to you! Well deserved!

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  2. Wonderful news about your nomination, hope you walk it! I have already let Jamie know I am taking part in Monthly Mingle and look forward to playing hostess myself some time in the future.

    Must be strange being on your own with Soeren, it's been quite rare that I've had Ted on my own for more than 24 hours and it makes you realise how much your other half has been contributing.

    I love the bars and they'd be good for hubs lunchbox but he tends to whine about things with "bits" in them so I'll need to show him your beautiful photos first to see if I can talk him into eating them.

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  3. Congratulations Meeta honey, you so deserve to win! Yay! The bars look gorgeous as always xxx

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  4. I saw pistachio and I knew I wanted to make these. They are one of my favorite nuts, but I don't have very many recipes that use them. These sound absolutely wonderful. I bet they taste like a treat, yet they are full of so many healthy things!

    I loved your thoughts on parenting. I feel the same way often when I'm home all day long with my 2 kids. Thanks for the reminder on being doubly loving, supportive, etc. Often I lose sight of that.

    Lastly, CONGRATULATIONS!!!

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  5. Congratulations on the nomination! :)

    These bars look great, I've been looking round for good recipes and you post this! Will be making them soon - love how there are both cranberries and pistachios in them.

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  6. granolas and granola bars are just two of the things I love snacking on..

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  7. I used to eat lots of those when I was at the university for my hunger pangs. I want to make these for my MIL. How long does it keep if kept in airtight box?

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  8. Congragulations.
    I love bars and this looks so so yumm. I tried to make once they were delicous, but i wanted to hav ein bar shape but when isliced them they crumbled up.
    Sure bookmaring this one.

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  9. Congratulations! You totally deserve that award!
    I'd been looking for a granola bar recipe that uses butter..most of them use oil.
    I've never heard of physalis..what exactly is it?

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  10. Those look heavenly! I adore granola bars!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  11. Congrats Meeta! That's awesome!!! :)))

    And Good luck with finding a new routine given the changes ... Aal iz well!! :)) (did you see 3 idiots?)

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  12. Meeta, CONGRATS!!!!! So so well deserved!!

    This granola bars are sensational, look forward to making a batch, or many, of my own! yum!

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  13. You bet I voted for you!! HOORAY! You are a treasure and I hope you win. :-) I hope you have a lovely time with your "cub" and that your man comes home soon. :-)

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  14. These look healthy and delicious Meeta...congratulations on the nomination! Heading over to vote now.

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  15. They are lovely Meeta! Can't wait to make them!

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  16. And of course.... congrats for being nominated! voting for you!

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  17. Oh I will need to try this! The granola bars I make are delicious but they just don't stay together so I will try your recipe since they look so delicious!

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  18. Well done Meeta, you are so deserving of this award......I will hold thumbs...You did however do so well with these granola bars and I think you can easily handle double the responsibility!!!..

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  19. yeay Meeta! You know I voted for you as soon as you said it on twitter. These look delicious You know I love pistachios, we're like this *crossing fingers* so I'll be trying these out soon.

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  20. Tell me about being the lone protector; I've been on my own with two kids in tow not days, but months (first six,then another four) at a stretch, thousand and thousands of miles apart. And I had no weekends to look forward to. Yes, it is hard, very hard, but you will find your way through it.

    Love those bars, can have them anytime. And yes, yaay for the nomination

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  21. congrats on your nominations. well deserved.

    congrats to the wolf and his play debut. sounds like lots of fun.

    as usual, anything you make looks delicious.

    best wishes to tom with new job.

    paz ;-)

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  22. hi meeta, i've felt the same way every time i've had to be own my own with my daughter. its nice that soeren is so kind and sensitive to your thoughts!

    congratulations on the nomination! i hope you win! and lovely recipe :)

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  23. Such a well-deserved nomination Meeta - so proud of you, sistah! :)

    It must be really hard being a "single parent", even just for a limited time. Hang in there and enjoy the novelty as much as you can.

    You get dried physalis?? I've never even seen it!

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  24. Again BIG congrats wishes coming your way from the Alps! We'll round up the voters here in Switzerland for sure! :)

    I love granola! With the Ottolenghi cookbook fresh in my hands now, I obviously put a sticky tab on the granola bar page. But who needs it, I've got your recipe here, wunderbar! :)

    And I love reading about your trio, sounds like you all have it worked out perfectly, hats off to you Wolffs! That Soeren sounds like a true prince. Can't wait to meet him one day... And your king too! ;)

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  25. Congrats honey! Well deserved. It's nice to see hard work pay off. Now these bars are so delicious. I'm going to have to try my hand at granola's- I've never attempted to and I'm now wondering why?!?!

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  26. I am so going to try this one, haven't had any luck so far with granola bars so cross fingers!
    Congratulations on the nomination Meeta, well deserved!

    (Relate to yr single-carer role, hubs is away regularly and sometimes I feel I'm on constant alert with my three boys. It's rewarding and exhausting at the same time)

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  27. Congratulations on your Bloggie nomination! I'm so proud to have voted for you.

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  28. I've just made my first granola bars following your amazing recipe... they're delicious!
    Thank you and congratulations!

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  29. I can well imagine how it feels to be without the other half! and it is just the physical chore... It feels so strange at the end of day to be alone.

    as for the bar, I could pick up and be one road right now.

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  30. Voted for you yesterday. Congratulations on the nomination!

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  31. I made my own granola the other day and am definitely going to try these.

    Congratulations on your nomination! Totally deserved!

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  32. Hi Meeta, I didn't know how to contact you so I left a comment here. I like to invite you to http://www.tasteandshare.com, a food & wine social network, where you can share photos, videos and a link to your own blog.

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  33. Congratulations! These are nice bars! These are perfect for movie marathons. Something to munch while watching.

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  34. I´m very happy having discovered your blog!

    Thank you!

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  35. CongraTULAIONS Mama Wolf ! You surely have my vote ... those granola bars look lie just the thing i could munch on right now !

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  36. Congratulations Meeta!!

    I know EXACTLY what u mean about the hubby working away from home.... my case is similar, my hubby has a traveling job too and I have been home alone with my baby (when he was just 3 months old), it is hard, isn't it? more than a year down the line, I still hate it! Take care of u!

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  37. Those bars looks so good meeta....

    Congrats to u....U really deserve it....I am a person who never missed ur post ever since i Discovered ur blog:)Love teh pics and the recipes are outstanding.

    Being with a kid is hard, i know..But u will get used to it and it will become just a routine..

    I would love to make these....Would surely do...

    Thx for the recipes..

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  38. These sound wonderful! Can't wait to make a batch! My daughter would love them!

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  39. You pretty much described us! We aren't quite the Wolff pack but JP always says that we are like a pack of dogs with the Alpha dog and a dog pack hierarchy. When he leaves town everyone moves up one and Marty, the youngest, tries with all his might to get to the top fast before accepting his place. LOL! But that's cause JP was a veterinarian and that's the way he thinks.

    JP worked out of town during weeks for a very long time when the boys were young and it was not easy, so I feel for you, but we eventually found our rhythm and actually spent a lot of time reading together. You and Soeren will do fine.

    And these granola bars are so pretty to look at but they seem to be so delicious as well! Love the dried fruit you stuff them with.

    And I voted for you right away!

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  40. Congratulations Meeta on a well deserved nomination!! How cool is that!!

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  41. Congrats Meeta on the nomination! I've already voted for you. Hope you win, you definitely deserve it! ;) Love your granola bars. I always wanted to make my own granola bars but I never did. I'm amazed how easy it is.

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  42. Congratulations! This is my first visit to your blog but I shall certainly return. I love the look of the granola bars - anything with the caramelly-depth of muscovado sugar is a winner in my book! :)

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  43. Congrats and you deserve it totally!
    I love the bars and especially your photography!

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  44. I just love recipes like this; healthy and delicious homemade treat. Love it.

    And congratulations for those nominations Meetah. You deserve those and more!

    xo

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  45. Hi Meeta,Iam a regular reader of your site and i simply love your pics and writing style,these bars looks awesome,i have a question though,can i try them with just oats and if yes what type of oats.Please help :)

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Thank you for visiting What's For Lunch, Honey? and taking time to browse through my recipes, listen to my ramblings and enjoy my photographs. I appreciate all your comments, feedback and input. I will answer your questions to my best knowledge and respond to your comments as soon as possible.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy your stay here and that I was able to make this an experience for your senses.

Hugs
Meeta