Granola Bars in the lunchbox

    Fall officially begins this week, which means the end of this project is near. A few friends have already asked "are you still doing that?" and the answer is YES, oh YES! It stopped feeling like a project weeks ago, however with the return of work, school and all the kids programs it began to feel challenging again. There have been more slip ups this week, more than I'd care to mention- many due to my weekend away last weekend which threw off the groceries and routines at a critical time. Either way, I made it to the Eat Local Shop this week, stocked up on many essentials and am feeling renewed.


  J.'s lunch is not as dismal as I thought it would be, milk, jam sandwich (blueberry),  carrots and cucumber coins, homemade oatmeal cookies (local flour, local sugar, local oats), cheese and crackers, and other leftovers. I bought pepperettes this week at ELS but he won't try them, I'll put them in the lunch box and see what happens. I tried to explain what a pepperette is and J looked confused, then I said; "it's like a Hot Rod, like some kids have in their lunch" then he knew what I meant. But he still won't try it.


  This morning I made granola bars, I searched dozens of recipes online and then went my own way. I have a can of condensed milk leftover from last years christmas baking so I went with that over the corn syrup recipes;


EASY GRANOLA BARS


First, grease a 9x13 pan or use parchment- your choice, preheat oven to 350


Mix the following ingredients or be creative:


3 cups oats
1/2 cup bran buds
1 can condensed milk (I'll bet Shannon Allen knows how to do this with local milk)
2 tbsp butter
chocolate chips (dark)
dried cranberries


Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. After 5 minutes cut in to squares and cool completely before enjoying


Alternative additions that I saw but didn't try because they are not school friendly or not in the cupboard :
 coconut, almonds, wheat germ, peanuts, protein powder, flax seeds, marshmallows, raisins, sunflower seeds- really you name it.


I've misplaced my cameras- both of them- September chaos- I'll add photo's when it surfaces.


Shannon D.

Camera found- this inspires me to make them again!