I am attempting to make more of our snacks instead of buying them. I realized I was overspending at the grocery store because of snack bars, fruit snacks and things like that. The boys snack a lot too so anything I bought didn’t last long.
The first thing I am attempting to kick are the expensive Zbars from Clif bars. The boys love them and I felt better about them eating those than other sugar loaded bars. But at $4-5 a box and two boys…yeah, that’s $20-30 a month I don’t want to spend.
I made a chewy granola bar about 2 weeks ago and they were a hit but I wasn’t too crazy about them because they had a lot of honey and brown sugar. This week I found a new recipe with just honey. William and I made them together yesterday and with fingers crossed, I took a bag of them to the park for snacks. Well, they were a hit (and not just with the boys!). I was worried they wouldn’t be sweet enough but they are wonderful.
They aren’t as chewy as store bought bars, obviously or even the ones I made previously. I think I need to use a smaller pan next time and make them a bit thicker so they don’t fall apart as easily. I will also only use 2 tsp of cinnamon next time instead of 3. I felt like it was pretty strong but the boys didn’t seem to notice. I also added a 1/3 c. of mini chocolate chips.
Recipe | Chewy Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
I may tweak this recipe a bit in other ways next time too. Like adding puff riced cereal or something like that, to change it up a bit. There will probably always be chocolate chips in them though.
Elizabeth Hafner 