Thursday, February 9, 2012

Preschool-Approved Valentine's Day Treat

As class mom, I've been stressing about what to send in for JD's class on Valentine's Day.  It has to be fun, healthy, and easy- which, of course, is not easy.  I found this granola bar recipe at Joyful Abode and tweaked it to include more fruit and no nuts or seeds.  Then, instead of cutting them into bars, I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make them a little more festive.


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It took me .5 seconds to realize that I was not going to be pushing the cookie cutter through it with my bare hands.  A wooden spoon worked out great!

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My plan was to save the scraps to sprinkle over yogurt.  JD had other plans.

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1 batch made 19 medium-ish hearts.

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I'm going to send them in wrapped in cupcake wrappers, but you could also seal them in plastic wrap with a heart sticker or put them all in a container separated by wax paper.  

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Sweet & Healthy
You could make them even more festive with heart shaped sprinkles on top (I went to 2 stores but couldn't find them) or more of a "treat" with chocolate chips.  My mind started to wander with the pretty possibilities of wrapping them, but I didn't want to be cursing myself and my over ambitious ideas the night before Valentine's Day, so I am keeping it simple!

11 comments:

  1. I love this! It seems like Valentine's Day is so filled with sugar, it's refreshing to see a healthy treat. And it is so cute!

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    1. Thanks! I was especially glad I did this after seeing all the candy he came home with. And I was proud that he was still most excited about the granola bars :)

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  2. wow, those are adorable!! you are super mom!

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  3. that's a lot of thought and effort you put into that. nice work. :]

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  4. These are so adorable! I want to make some for my daughter's Kindergarten class. She reacts poorly to food dyes and the big "red" holidays are tough. These look perfect. I even love tucking them into the cupcake liners. Could you please tell me what dried fruits you used and how much? I will also be skipping nuts and seeds to accomodate other food allergies in the class, so I think more fruit will be necessary. Thanks so much!

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    1. Thanks! I took out the nuts & seeds, and I used double the amount of dried fruit-about 16 oz. of blueberries, cranberries, and yellow and red raisins- basically any dried fruit I could find in the grocery store that wasn't filled with too much sugar.

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    2. Thanks, Kimberly! I've got a batch cooling now. I decided to keep the sunflower seeds and added pepitas. I could only find some raisins, a huge bag of dried cranberries, and a tiny bag of dried blueberries, so that's the fruit I ended up with.

      I pressed the mixture out in a jellyroll pan. I'm afraid, though, that I won't get as many hearts as I need with the size cookie cutter I have, so I might be making a second batch this evening!

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    3. One batch was just enough and they came out wonderfully. They were so cute, but I ended up not using the cupcake wrappers. I pressed them pretty thin, so the hearts kind of curled in the cups, instead to making the cup form to the hearts. My kids and husband devoured the crumbs the evening I made them. But, when I brought them to the Kindergarten party, not one kid would take one! Lol! I guess something that "looked healthy" couldn't compete with all the cupcakes, cookies, and candies. Some adults ate them, though, and loved them. And my daughter was happy. She ate 2 at the party and got to take the rest home for snack for the next few days.

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    1. THanks, Leanne! I took out the nuts & seeds, and I used double the amount of dried fruit-about 16 oz. of blueberries, cranberries, and yellow and red raisins. You could probably use broken up banana chips too.

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