Category Archives: Green it up

Homemade granola bites

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In our (my) quest to reduce the amount of packaging that we use and then throw away I was on a quest to find a homemade granola bar recipe.  Granola bars and fruit snacks were the last two items that my daughter likes in her lunchbox but that are ALWAYS individually wrapped.

Pinterest came to the rescue when I saw a great no-bake energy bites recipe.  I don’t know how packed full of energy my kinda similar but adapted recipe is so I am just calling them granola bites.  They are also much easier to store and pack than a granola bar.

Cast of characters:

Oatmeal (1-minute), chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, honey, peanut butter and nutella.

These are great because they are really customizable.  M and I made two batches today; peanut butter chocolate chip and nutella white chocolate.

First up: peanut butter chocolate chip.

This is a pretty general guideline because your amounts could vary depending on what ingredients you add. Tweak as necessary.

1 1/4 cup 1 minute oats

1/4 c chopped walnuts

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (we were a little heavy handed with these)

Mix together and add:

1/4-1/2 c peanut butter

1/3 c honey

(I like to microwave the peanut butter for 30 seconds or so until melty to make it easier to mix)

Mix everything until the oats are well coated.  If it seems a little to wet, add more oats. Too dry, add a bit more honey.

The next batch was nutella and white chocolate. Same general recipe but using nutella instead of peanut butter.

You could use any type of nut butter or mix-ins that you would like and tweak the recipe to your perfect level of sweetness.

When the mix has been chilled until firm, scoop it out and then roll them into compact bites.

Keep them in the fridge. Don’t know how long they last in there because ours are always gone within a week.

My love letter to my daughter’s lunchbox.

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So. I am an Environmental Management major with a minor in Natural Science. I have really been inspired to try and eliminate as much trash as possible in our household.  As of right now we throw away one bag of trash about every 7-10 days for our family of four.  It’s not bad (at least compared to the average American) but I know we can do better.

This year when I was shopping for lunchboxes for my daughter I wanted to try to have her have as little trash as possible at school.  After searching for ages I finally found THE ONE.

The Goodbyn.

I love this lunchbox so very much.  It has 5 different compartments separated from each other and there is no need to have anything packed in plastic bags.

Here are some of her recent lunches:

Hawaii rolls and meat and cheese... and a dang granola bar, gotta get on making some of those!

This one is not the best example, I have a granola bar and a piece of leftover valentine candy in there.  Homemade granola bars are on my to do list! Fruit leather too, fruit snacks are the other thing killing me! Those plastic film packages aren’t recyclable!

Better… I did wrap the sandwich in a piece of parchment this day.

The square compartment fits a regular sandwich cut into halves perfectly. My daughter just prefers the hard Spanish bread for her sandwich.  It’s also nice that she packs a LOT more fruit and vegetables.

The middle spot holds a drink container but she prefers to just drink water at lunch.

Her favorite part is the stickers that it comes with to customize your lunch box….

The only downside is the fact that the original size (which this one is) is pretty big and does take up a lot of space in her backpack.  Also its up to me to remember to wash  it or at least wipe it out every day!

So while it isn’t necessary for you to go out and buy THIS lunchbox, try NOT using plastic bags for your lunch! There are SO many cute reusable products out there, get to it!