getting out of a cheerio rut {recipe: oatmeal snack bars}

It is nice when your kid can pick up her own food and self-feed. It opens you up to a whole new world of foods for them.

Or does it? because I feel like her snack every day is Cheerios. And frankly, I am tired of walking around on the wood floors with my shoes on and cringing when I step on something that makes that stepping-on-a-Cheerio sound, going to get the dustpan, and sweeping up the now 5,000 tiny granules of Cheerio that are in a little pile on the floor.

There is something about them though. They don’t have a ton of added sugar or salt, they are fairly inexpensive per serving as far as packaged foods go, and they don’t make your kid’s hands as sticky and nasty as handing them a banana.

So, I have been looking for some different snacks that I can make which have less sugar and salt, are even less expensive, and still are an easy clean-up for kids. Sound too good to be true?

Well it is not. I present you, Apple Oatmeal Bars. Sweetened with applesauce and full of fiber and ingredients that count, these can also be your adult snack. Shilah and I have one for breakfast-on-the-run or an afternoon snack.

Apple Oatmeal Bars

makes about 16 2-inch bars, adapted from Cooking with my Kid

Ingredients

• 1 medium apple, peeled and diced small
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk (lowfat, nonfat, or whole, your choice)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• cooking spray

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees.
2. Place diced apples in a small bowl and toss with cinnamon and sugar. Set aside.
3. In another bowl whisk together flour, brown sugar and baking powder.
4. Add the egg, milk, applesauce, vanilla and canola oil to the dry ingredients and gently stir.
5. Add oats and diced apples and stir to combine.
6. Pour batter into a greased 9 inch square baking pan.
7. Spread batter evenly and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until set.
8. Let cool and cut into squares.

If we haven’t finished them in two days, I throw the bars into tupperware and put them in the fridge to preserve the apples.

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