My kids both have a great little tasty package waiting for them in their lunch boxes today. It is the culmination of searching, testing, shopping, hinting, and baking.
So what are those, you may ask? They are mini nut-free granola balls, similar to the very unhealthy sugary processed packaged ones my kids constantly begged me to buy last year, except that these ones are:
- Made using a version of @missfish from a Peek Inside the Fishbowl‘s famous nut-free Healthy lunchbox granola bar recipe. I had the opportunity to test the recipe by proxy when @capitalmom baked these for a Kids in the Capital (@kidsincapital) play date. I made them myself last week and they turned out quite well. When I decided to make them again this weekend, I thought I would improvise and use a portion of the batter to make mini granola balls (about a centimeter or so in diameter, on parchment paper on a cookie sheet) and then put the rest in a square (instead of rectangle) pan. Instead of 1/2 a cup of raisins and 1/4 cup of cranberries, I used 1/2 cup of no-sugar-added cranberries and 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips.
- Packed up in a Greentainer to cut down on waste. I purchased these at @spearso‘s store The Extraordinary Babyshoppe after Refashionista (@refashionista) told me on twitter that they had received a huge order of great stainless steel stuff at the store when I was asking for advice on where to buy eco-friendly lunch containers, lunch bags, and backpacks.
- Labelled with stickers from Mabel’s Labels (@mabelhood). This includes stickers with my kids’ names (on the lid – not shown) and a custom “Homemade and Nut Free” sticker from the Label Out Loud series that showed up in my mailbox after I put a few bugs in @mumby, one of the Mabel owners’ ear, on twitter and at BlogHer ’10.
My kids may not be using social media yet (thankfully), but as they bite into those yummy little circles tomorrow, they will certainly be appreciating it!
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome!
I’m really glad you like the containers!
I LOVE the idea of making them into granola balls. I am totally going to try this. I think the “homemade and nut free” labels are an amazing idea too. I must get me some, stat!
WOW! those granola balls sound amazing! I may have to give that a whirl!!!
Awesome i will definitly bake those this week!! I needed snack ideas that were nut free. And i can’t add the chocolate chips like you did because my DD’s school has a no chocolate policy, too. Raisins will be perfect!
Tha’ts funny, I often think too how my children don’t use the internet but how much they get from it in the stuff that I make them
The kids and I make those granola bars often, must try the balls, thanks for sharing.
Oh, and if you’re lacking anything else for school lunch packing — have you checked out http://www.lifewithoutplastics.com — fabulous selection of reusable containers… though thankfully I don’t need to pack lunches for a while still
Annie:
Thank you for recommending Life Without Plastics. I think I bought a bit too much this year (*blush*), but if I need to replace anything that goes missing, I may check that out.
Awesome! I need to make some more of those and will try making them into balls. I love the labels. Great idea.
Today was our first day of school here and I was really regretting not having ordering some labels as I wrote my son’s name about 20+ times! And I’m pretty sure we’ll be rewriting some of those. That would’ve been one convenience worth the extra money!
Adorable labels – a better idea than my threatening sticky notes
. My kids don’t use the computer at all, but are well aware of the power of the internet. If I don’t know something, DD pipes up immediately with “You should look it up on the internet, mom”. And when she sees something she likes, she coyly suggests that “we could sell that on the internet”! (Smart cookie has figured out that if I have it in the store, a sample or two can usually be sweet-talked out of the storeroom for, uh, testing purposes).
Those look fantastic! I’d love to try making them, but is there something I could substitute in place of the egg? My daughter is allergic to both nuts and eggs.
SemiCrunchyMom:
I’ve never had much success baking without egg, but I know a lot of vegans who do. Someone sent me a link once of vegan egg substitutes, but I don’t have it handy right now. If you Google it, you will probably find it. But you would still have to experiment a bit to see what works.
Yum, those look like great snacks! We may have to try them out… just made zucchini/banana muffins today, but will be looking for a new fun snack soon. The 4yo loves to bake.
I am so excited to try those! Thanks for linking to the recipe. I just made some yummy PB balls last night, but they’re likely not as portable since they’re best served chilled.
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