The New Kashi Granola Bars: My Review

Recently I had the opportunity through Green Moms Meet to review a new product with a group of my friends and their kids. This is the first time I've sampled a product in exchange for a review, but I got primarily positive feedback about the concept. I was under no obligation to give anything other than my honest feedback. Though it won't become a regular thing for me, when it's a product I believe in, I'm game.

The product is Kashi's newest snack and "one of the top 10 kid-friendly Kashi products:" the TLC Peanutty Dark Chocolate Layered Granola Bar. They also sent me a free box of Kashi cereal, cereal bars, and a reusable bag. I had enough samples for each mom and kid to try and then take home an extra. Since no one was allergic to peanuts, we were safe to have this as our snack during our weekly playgroup.

I've liked Kashi products for years because they are natural, minimally processed, and free of highly refined sugars, artificial additives, and unnatural preservatives. I try to minimize the amount of prepackaged food we consume, but sometimes I need something easy to throw in the car.

The 7 moms with 8 kids were all familiar with Kashi and had bought Kashi products before. The majority of moms and all the kids liked the taste. Those who did not care for the taste noted the texture of the chocolate. Personally, I liked the chocolate coating and my kids only want granola bars that have some evidence of chocolate. Having the coating on the top makes them more appealing but also more messy. Have your wipes handy.

The key point to whether the moms would buy a box was the price. None of us would pay $3.89 but by paring a coupon with a sale, we would buy them for $2 or less. I often see them on sale at Kroger for $3; so this isn't out of the question.

Thank you to Green Moms Meet and Kashi for the yummy treats and best of luck as you continue developing products we can be proud to give our kids. Enjoy my short video below and check out what other testers had to say here.

What's for Lunch?

It's back to school time--back to early rising, back to homework, and back to packing lunches. Whether your child is in high school, grade school, or MDO, the dilemma of what to pack can be an on-going challenge. But once again, I'm here to share ideas for how you can go green and save green for school lunches.

Since my first grader has no interest in school lunches, I'm packing every day. To cut down on trash, I've bought Laptop Lunch boxes (like the traditional Japanese bento box) for all three kids. They're a little pricey ($25 at reusit.com or search online for "discount codes" before buying), but it's a worthwhile investment. Inside, there are two small and two medium size boxes (dishwasher and microwave safe). There's also a tiny box you could use for ketsup or dipping sauces, and flatware included. Most boxes don't have tops, but solid contents will not fall out, even turned upside down. I can attest that the boxes and flatware are great quality and will hold up to everyday use. They also fit into most standard insulated cases.

For a ton of ideas of what to pack in your laptop lunches, it comes with a handy book. Melissa at Frugalissa Finds has some great pictures and ideas too; here's another of her posts about how to actually get your kids to eat these healthy lunches.. If your school allows them the use a microwave, that opens up loads of possibilities. I send cooked pasta, lunch meat rolled up since they don't like sandwiches (aka: turkey or ham roll-ups), slices of cheese, cut-up fruit, Chex mix, popcorn, goldfish, cheezits, Annie's bunny snacks, raisons, mini carrots, and pretzyls. I stay away from anything already prepackaged, including Capri Suns and juice boxes. I send ice water in a Klean Kanteen instead; look for the sport caps for younger children. You can often pick them up for half price on babysteals.com.

The most important detail is follow your program's guidelines on nuts. If peanuts are out but other nuts are allowed, I recommend fresh almond butter at Ingles for sandwiches. Since Devin has a classmate highly allergic to all nuts, I'll be careful of that.

For more ideas, sign up for Earthfare's Healthy Lunch Challenge. You'll get a coupon for a free insulated bag (value: $2.99) through 8/31 or while supplies last. Now through 8/24, you can get one pound of organic grapes (red or white) for FREE with this coupon. Remember grapes are one of the "dirty dozen" that you want to buy organic or at least grown in the USA. For other sale items at Earthfare and printable coupons, go here. And don't forget to check out Iheartearthfare.com.

If you haven't made it to Kroger's mega sale the past two weeks, get there by Saturday for some great deals on lunch items. For fresh produce, there was a $4 off $20 or $1 off $5 coupon in the Kroger home mailer. I also had two store coupons for $.50 off mini carrots. Note: these do NOT double, but with the sale this week, each pack was only $.50. There's also a $.55 off Earthgrains bread; never underestimate the importance of good quality bread! Finally, there was a $1 off Hefty storage bags, which makes one box free this week. The gallon freezer bags are great for making freezer meals to save you time during the busy school year. If you don't get Kroger home mailer coupons, call customer service; they're great!

As for lunch meats, I prefer Hormel Natural Choice meats. They have NO nitrates, NO artificial ingredients, are minimally processed, have NO MSG added, are raised without added hormones, and are gluten free. You can also find coupons in the paper, online, or in blinkies near the meat. This week they're on sale for $2.50 each, and I used 2 $.55/1 and 2 $1/2 to make each pack about $2. The expiration is still a few months out; so I could stock up.

Thanks to creative couponing, you can get Fiber One bars, Nature Valley bars, Nature Valley clusters, Chex Mix, and Gardetto's Snack Mix for FREE this week. They're not as healthy or green in terms of packaging, but they sure are handy. You might also consider donating them to a food pantry. For details on how to get the best deals this week, go to Southern Savers. Coupon Katie and Gabrielle at Couponing in Critical Times also posted their trips to Kroger for guidance. I saved 53% today (a high percentage for me).

What tips do you have for making school lunches more green?

Eco Snack Mom--The Results

Today was my day to test out my skills as Eco Snack Mom. It was my small way of proving not all snacks must come in individual wrappers. An hour before game-time there were still sunny skies, and the game was on. So I cut up four oranges into slices, grabbed 10 granola bars, and packed 10 juice boxes. I put them in my new thermal bag from Ingles and cloth bag from Earthfare and piled into the car.

I'll admit the only choice that was really "eco" here were the orange slices, unless you consider one of my favorite environmental principals: Use what you already have. My pantry has plenty of granola bars, and I had just the right number of juice boxes on hand. I had contemplated pouring lemonade into individual cups and then collecting them to recycle, but I was afraid the kids would scatter too quickly. I was also testing the waters here; I didn't want to come across too crazy. Juice boxes really are a terrible environmental choice, but I don't buy them often and they are mighty convenient.

As for costs, I did pretty well on this one. I don't know what the juice cost because I had bought that awhile back on sale and had hidden them from my kids for just this occasion. The granola bars I got for $.24 a box (or $.04 each). I bought a huge bag of oranges at Kroger a few weeks ago for just $4. The amount I sliced worked out to about $1.50. My snacks were economical, environmental and relatively healthy--I was ready to don my Eco Snack Mom cape and fly into action.

Unfortunately on the way to the field, the sky opened up, lightning flared, thunder boomed, and we turned around. Bummer! The granola bars and juice boxes will keep, but we'll be snacking on oranges the next few days. When I do get to be Snack Mom again, I'll let you know how the oranges go over.

What snacks have you taken to sporting events that kids love?