Tuesdays are crazy in our house. We leave the house at 11:45 and don’t get home until about 5:30 p.m. While there are some good protein bars and jerky sticks we can pack to eat on-the-go, nothing beats real, whole food. Yet it’s not always easy to transport or eat healthy food to eat while […]
Easter is one of my favorite times of year. It’s the first real celebration since Christmas and it’s the start of warm weather and playing outside. It’s like a new beginning. I especially love Easter because of what it represents. We are a Christian family, so this is a special time of year for us. […]
While I know my kids love each other, there are times it’s hard to remember that. Valentine’s Day is a great time to remind them of that love. The best way to love someone more is to serve them. These adorable service mailboxes help them do just that.
We make these ornaments every year. They are super easy to make and something the entire family can get involved in. Plus, they satisfy my need to make Christmas cookies without having said cookies in the house.
Thank goodness for Thanksgiving. This gives us a chance to step back from all the getting and focus on what we’re grateful for. Here are 10 ideas of gratitude activities to do with your kids
The second my kids walk in the door from school, grocery shopping, playing or even going out to get the mail, they want a snack. To make our lives easier, we made a list of “approved” snacks and put it on the fridge. Here is our list of 30 healthy snacks for kids.
Sadly, it seems like Thanksgiving is getting outshined by early Christmas celebrations and food. And while I fully support both Christmas shopping and food, I want my kids to know why we celebrate Thanksgiving. Every year we put up a “Thankful” tree. Beginning November 1, each of the kids has to write one thing they’re […]
While I love Halloween, I don’t love sugar crash my kids get after every Halloween party. I’ve decided this year, I’m going to do my part to eliminate that. Here are 13 healthy snacks to take to a Halloween party that still have a festive twist.
Even though I really do feed my kids regular meals (Really! I swear!) My kids constantly proclaim to be starving. When i try to explain to them what it actually means to be “starving,” they look at me like I’m crazy and then once again profess that if they don’t get food soon they’ll surely die. This means, we need a lot of easy snacks in our house. The problem is, fast and easy often means processed, junk-filled food I don’t particularly want my kids eating. So while the solution is homemade snacks, as busy moms, we don’t always have a lot of time.
These homemade granola bars are extremely easy to make, very healthy and make me feel like Mother of the Year when I hand one to my kids. That warm feeling last all the way until they start fighting in the middle of the condiment isle of the grocery store and break a bottle of salsa. Small victories really do count.
Let’s compare the ingredients in our homemade granola bars to the very popular Quaker Chewy Granola Bars. The Quaker peanut-butter chocolate chip bars contain artificial coloring, corn syrup, sorbital, artificial flavoring, and several other ingredients I can’t pronounce. In total, these bars contain 7 grams of sugar each and have over 30 ingredients. My granola bars have no added sugar (aside from the small amount in the dark chocolate bits) and contain 9 ingredients, all of which you’ve likely heard of.
Start by combining the oats, coconut, ground flax, almonds, dark chocolate and cinnamon in a bowl. If you can’t do almonds, just up the flax or coconut. No big deal. You can also replace them for another nut or seed you like better.
Once you mix this together, stir in the coconut milk, peanut butter and vanilla. I finally gave up with the spoon and went in with my hands. It may be a git gooey, but it saves a lot of time. This just goes in a 9×13 pan and into the fridge to set.
Even after I cut these into bars, I keep them in the fridge. They stay fresh and and stay set that way. But I will take one out, wrap it in plastic and put it in my purse for a trip to the grocery store. They will stay set for an hour or two without refrigeration.
Try them out. I guarantee you’ll have that Mother-of-the-year feeling.
I never understood how parents could let their kids quit activities. I assumed that once my children got involved in an activity, they would finish it, no matter what. So when my son came to me and asked if he could quit karate it was a hard thing for me. After a lot of thought, […]
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