My Girl Scout Lecture and Granola Bar

I am a Girl  Scout troup leader for my daughter's troup and this week we focused on hunger and nutrition. Super mom Maria gave a lecture and led activities relating to hunger , and I gave the girls a lecture on nutrition. I showed the kids how to reach food labels, we discussed trying to "eat the colors of the rainbow" (ie. making sure your whole plate isn't white and has lots of fresh fruit and veggies on it,) and also touching upon the issue of emotional eating and how we shouldn't eat because we are bored, stressed or sad.

 Here, one of the girls, is reading a food label and reading how much sugar a common cereal has in it!

Here is my "color of the rainbow" chart, which my daughter helped me make!

And, here was one of the girl's favorite part! Do you know what this is? It represents approximately 11 pounds of sugar- the amount the average American consumes in a month! "But, I don't eat sugar or desserts," you say. Well, next time you are eating a boxed or bottled item, look at the label. It may surprise you!



So, after the girls had listenned oh, so nicely, we got to the fun part...making granola!

I set up a granola bar with mason jars to for the girls to fill up, colorful bowls, and lots of healthy ingredients- oatmeal, Go Lean Crunch cereal (no nuts,) sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried raisons, dried apricots, dried bananas, dried cherries and the girls favorite topping dark chocolate chips!  

Here are the girls going down the assembly line.

And, adding toppings in their mason jars.

One girl proudly shows her creation.

The girls all had fun and learned a lot about nutrition and how eating healthily can be fun!

No Bake Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars- Girl Scout Cookies Never Had it So Good (or Healthy!)

This week has been an absolutly crazy week with clients, preparations for Easter, my in-laws arrival tomorrow, Grandparents Day at my son's school (where I will be helping out all day!) AND his Science Fair the day after Easter involving dry ice (don't ask!) so when my fellow Girl Scout Brownie Mom's asked me to come up with a cute idea for the kids to make for our next meeting I almost cratered...

The criteria were that they had to be something that would/could be:

1) Easy for the girls to make
2) Made without an oven
3) Made in under 10 minutes
4) Nut-free and healthy (I am taking this to mean sugar-free and wholesome ingredients!)
and
5) A snack the girls would like and actually eat!

Then, I thought, "I've got it!" No problem!" We will make my No Bake Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars!

Step 1: Add equal parts Oatmeal and Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal

Step 2: Add unsweetened applesauce or mashed banana (I used mashed banana) and stir

Step 3: Add honey (I used a whole honey bear.) This is what sticks it together so be liberal about it!!!

Step 4: Add dried cherries (or raisons or cranberries)

Step 5: Add chocolate chips

Then, put them in a fridge to harden for approximately 20-30 minutes. Take out and slice into bars.

If this were not for Brownies and could include nuts a delicious addition to this would be to add almond butter or peanut butter to up the protein ante. But, this being kids and a school function and having nut-allergy kids in the group, this was strictly not allowed!

If I were also making them for myself or my crew, I would also add Sun Warrior Protein Powder in vanilla, perhaps some chia, hemp or pumkin seeds, and maybe even a bit of coconut butter to further up the flavor and the nutritional ante!