Breakfast!?

Since we didn't buy any pre-made/processed foods the last time we went grocery shopping, I have found myself saying "Well... what can the kids eat for breakfast this morning?" At least four days a week, David would have a granola bar (though in our defense, it was always the preservative-free/organic kind.. still loaded with crap, though) for breakfast. He might have cereal one morning (organic, typically), might have oatmeal that I prepare myself, but normally it'd just be a granola bar and juice box. Gwen normally has a yogurt or eggs, which I make a few times a week.

So, without granola bars in the house... what do I feed my keeed?! My kid who will not eat eggs anymore for some unknown reason? We always have fruit and quick oats in the house, but I imagine they'd get sick of that after days and days of it. After some thinking, I remembered that my whole wheat/flax pancake recipe makes tons of pancakes, which freeze/reheat beautifully, so I will be making a batch of those every two weeks and freezing the leftovers. They're so good. Too bad my mema's homemade syrup offsets any healthy aspects of those pancakes, haha! But it's not like I make it often. Once every three months, at most.

So, that brings me to today! I am going to make whole wheat apple muffins, and whole wheat/flax cereal bars. I know the muffins will freeze/thaw just fine, but if the recipe works out, I will make a batch of the cereal bars once a week for the kids. The recipe calls for dates and berries, cooked down and blended smooth, for the filling. Alas, I have no dates (though David LOVES them... I'll have to get some), so I will use my grape and elderberry jams instead and see how that works out.

I will post pictures when they're both done, as well as give the honest truth from David upon trying it. He liked the bread that I made, and he's my toughest critic.

On a bad breakfast note... I made homemade pineapple upside-down cake yesterday. No, I did not make a healthy version. I am not sure one exists. I just knew Phil has been stressed and that is his favorite. It made a good breakfast, for me.... Oops :)



So, anyway. I knew that most breakfast bars are severely unhealthy and lacking in nutrients, despite what the companies will try to sell (whole grain! real fruit! etc.!) to the consumer. So, I took a look at Nutri-Grain bars. The name of them makes them come across as healthy, but the ingredient list is:

Filling (High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Strawberry Puree Concentrate, Glycerin, Sugar, Water, Sodium Alginate, Modified Corn Starch, Citric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Sodium Citrate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Methylcellulose, Caramel Color, Malic Acid, Red No. 40), Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Whole Wheat Flour, Sunflower and/or Soybean Oil with TBHQ for Freshness, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Contains Two Percent or Less of Honey, Dextrose, Calcium Carbonate, Soluble Corn Fiber, Nonfat Dry Milk, Wheat Bran, Salt, Cellulose, Potassium Bicarbonate (Leavening), Natural and Artificial Flavor, Mono- and Diglycerides, Propylene Glycol Esters of Fatty Acids, Soy Lecithin, Wheat Gluten, Niacinamide, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Carrageenan, Zinc Oxide, Reduced Iron, Guar Gum, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Thiamin Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid.

Not only is this list just mind-boggling (All of that in a little five-inch, unsubstantial breakfast bar!?) but notice the bold letters-- Red No. 40. There are theorists who suggest that Red No. 40 increases the chance for a child to have issues with hyperactivity. (http://www.livestrong.com/article/314691-the-red-dye-diet/) I have been looking at it for some time and I've known that, despite inconclusive results, we need to cut unnatural food dyes out of our foods.

The cereal bars I am making are made up of:

Dough:
2 cups flour (all-purpose, whole wheat, or a combination)
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp flaxseed meal
2 tbsp wheat germ
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup milk

...Plus the very small amount of jam that I'll be putting into the middle, though I am hoping to start making my own homemade jams next summer. All words that I can pronounce. No dyes. No additives "for freshness." Very little sugar. I hope they turn out well! They certainly look yummy. 


UPDATE

The fruit bars are pretty darn good! I overfilled them (oops) and the ones that were filled with grape jelly taste better than the unsweetened raspberry ones, but I bet I could remedy that by adding a packet of Splenda to the raspberries when I'm reducing them. David loved the grape ones! Gwen spit them out, but she's going through a "spit anything with texture onto the floor" stage right now. It's really annoying. Anyway. I will be making these again, but actually rolling the dough so it is a good thickness, as the recipe calls for. I shaped them by hand so that I wouldn't have a huge flour mess on the Gwen-height counter! :)