Tahini-Date Granola Bars, with Dried Apricots. A strong start.

Maureen Abood / March 10, 2016 / Last Updated April 28, 2023 /

Tahini-date granola bars are chewy, nutty, and have that delicious tangy dried fruit flavor with dried apricots. The tahini combines great with peanut butter, but you can do all tahini, leave out the almonds and go nut-free. Have fun and add other dried fruits, nuts, and seeds–just be sure to keep the same proportions so the bars hold together, We can’t live without these!

Perhaps it was the way the light was streaming in through the window. Or that my mind’s usual distractions took a moment of reprieve to notice what was what. Whatever it was, I saw it clear as day one morning last fall.

I was, undeniably: Out. Of. Shape.

I argued with myself over the situation. No WAY this was happening! I eat a LEBANESE diet! It’s so healthy! I skip some meals! I’m on the go! I run! I lift weights!

Ingredients for tahini granola, Maureen Abood

Tahini honey for granola bars, Maureen Abood

Or do I? When I reviewed the prior 10 months of book and Market-launch lock-down, I realized my exercise routine had become far from routine. It was once a week, maybe twice. Maybe.

Plus, there was the mint chip. Every walk we made into town in Harbor Springs last summer seemed to include my mint chip cone. My Lebanese mint-lovin’ self couldn’t quit it.

So when I headed back downstate for the fall, I forced myself to follow Dan’s workout routine. The guy is a machine; he’s not satisfied unless he gets his exercise fix not once, but twice a day (weights in the morning, a run in the evening, thank you very much). He wouldn’t let me out of it, either.

Toasted Almonds for granola, Maureen Abood

Chopped ingredients for bars, Maureen Abood

We started in with Justin the Trainer. Justin is one Solid Dude. We’re talking military tough. He put us through the paces, always first thing in the morning, and Dan barely broke a sweat. I, on the other hand, was queasy in the corner.

The whole thing brought back bad memories of my childhood efforts at athletics. There was the failed swim test when I couldn’t go the full length of the Olympic-sized pool (hey! I was really small!). There was the Presidential Physical Fitness mile run that I had to walk, last one over the finish line (scarring). Thank goodness I have a sister, an athletic star, who has always believed in me no matter what, and told me so when it came to a golf or tennis swing, which she called “a natural” . . . if I’d just spend some time on it . . ..

You need to eat something before we work out, Justin told me when I got the head spins. In other words: you need to toughen up, girl. He tried to hold me to it, asking what I ate before our session every time I started to turn green. He suggested fruit, nuts, that sort of thing. Sometimes I ate a bite or two of banana. Most of the time I ate nothing.

Then, we started pushing ahead. In between the pain, I felt the gain. I found if I ate a little something before and a little something after, I could do a lot more than I ever thought possible. I started playing with breakfast bars, like the ones Trisha brought over that we could not stop eating. Nutty, chewy, fruity—they’re the kind of delicious that makes you excited when you wake up and know you get to eat another one.

Extra Fancy Apricots, MaureenAboodMarket.com

The other day Justin told me to grab the 35 lb. barbell. You’re graduating, he said. When my eyes got huge in both fear and excitement, he reminded me of where I was when we started. He asked what I’d eaten that morning, and I told him about the granola bars.

You got this, he said. And he was right.

More Granola and Bar Recipes

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Have Homemade Granola Bars, Will Travel To Lebanon

Homemade Poer Bars Recipe: Apricot Almond