9 Changes for 2009- #1 Commercial Breakfast Bars

This entry is part of a series on changes I made in 2008 that I want to stick with in 2009…

1. Commercial Breakfast Bars
   Replaced with homemade granola bars and whole grain muffins
   
   

   Commercial breakfast bars were one thing on our grocery tab that we had a hard time keeping cheap. Sure, we'd shop sales and coupons, but I am SUPER picky about breakfast (i.e. I don't like to eat breakfast, so I need something easy and yummy to convince me so I don't skip it an then become a hungry, moody lunatic by lunch) so if we were out of bars and no deals were to be had, we'd buy them at full price anyway. I'm super thrifty, so paying full price irritated me, being a slave to store visits when we ran out irritated me, and all of that packaging—individually wrapping and a box—irritated me. Plus, in terms of nutrition, I felt like the bars just didn't have much bank for their buck. So, I needed to come up with something comparable in terms of convenience and portability.
   
   I decided to try my hand at making my own bars and muffins. I made a recipe in bulk every few weeks and put whatever I wouldn't eat that week in the freezer for later weeks. So, I added two hours of work every three-ish weeks for cooking and clean up, but I ended up with a more delicious, nutritious alternative that yields much less packaging waste. I also started making yogurt & fruit smoothies in the blender to up the nutrition. Here is one muffin recipe that packs a big nutritional punch: Oat Bran Muffins. Here's a picture of some hearty granola bars I made, but can't find the recipe for again.
   (Update...basic recipe is here, yummy variations are here.)