Tears ran down her face. She couldn’t believe it. How can the Gods be so cruel? She had prayed to them all her life and how come they don’t come to her in time of a need?

Her son. Her only child. Her own blood and flesh!

Has she not lived a good life? Has she ever hurt someone? How can this happen? As if to rub salt over the wound, her mind played the crushing scene again and again. She could now see it even with her eyes open : the mutilated body of her son.

Tears choked her again. She was crying uncontrollably. She knew she might be hospitalized soon. “Good! Let the doctors sedate me…at least I won’t have any nightmares…”

“How can he be OK with this?”, she thought about her husband.”He must never have cared. I also don’t care about him, but my son..my son..”. She sobbed hard.

Darkness crept in slowly and before she realized it was midnight. She had no energy left now. Not even to shed a single tear. Her mind was blank. She was too tired to think about what happened. Her husband slowly made her lie on the bed. He kissed her forehead and held her hand. As she slowly drifted into sleep, she could hear her son’s voice in the background.

“I never thought she will be so shocked to see my tattoos. I really didn’t, dad.”

“Food served with Fiction” was my last week’s theme for Blogging Marathon. I couldn’t publish my post then, so the story is now part of this week’s BM, ‘Food for Sports Enthusiasts’. The story above (Does it qualify as a story? I don’t know!) is just a piece of writing and not real.

Granola is a perfect breakfast/snacks for someone training to be an athlete. It’s good for souls like me too, whose only exercise is to bring the spoon from the bowl to mouth. Rich in nuts and dry fruits with oats to give energy, this is a great breakfast. Shape them into bars and you can carry them around to snack anytime.

The best part of granola is that you can customize it to suit your taste and pantry requirements. It is highly versatile. The honey here can be replaced with sugar. The butter can be replaced with oil. Juice instead of water. You can use dates, sesame seeds, flax seeds, almonds, cashews, dried apricot, dried cranberries…anything. You can add chocolate chips too, once the granola is baked and cooled. Now, how is that?!

Ingredients:

• Oats (I used Quaker)          :        3 – 4 cups
• Dry fruits and nuts**         :        1-2 cups
• Honey                                       :        1/3 cup
• Water                                        :         1/3 cup
• Sugar                                         :         2 tbsp
• Butter/Oil                               :         1 tbsp
• Salt, a pinch
• Vanilla extract                       :         1 tsp
• Chocolate chips                     :         1/2 cup

**I used a mix of 3/4 cup raisins, 1/4 cup peanuts, 1/2 cup almonds, 1/2 cup mixed seeds and nuts

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 150C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Mix oats and the dry fruit and nuts in a big bowl. Slice the almonds if you don’t like them big.
3. Add honey, water, butter/oil, sugar, salt and vanilla in a small pan. Heat and then bring it to a simmer till the sugar dissolves.
4. Add this to the oats mix and combine the two. Spread in the baking tray in a single layer.
5. Bake for about 30 – 40 minutes, STIRRING every 10 minutes to avoid burning.
6. Once golden brown, remove from the oven and let it cool. Add the chocolate chips, if using. Store in an airtight container. Serve with milk.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page to see other participants, their chosen themes and their entries.

Linking this post to:

Valli’s Kid’s Delight, hosted this month at The Pumpkin Farm.