Cranberry Breakfast Bars and a New Holiday Tradition
I hope you all don’t mind, but with each recipe I post leading up to Christmas, I will also be sharing stories and family traditions. I won’t be offended if you are the type to just scroll down to the recipe, I have been known to do that as well :)
With that being said, it is time for you to gather up all of your Christmas books! This new tradition is wonderful for both young children and older ones too. I am not sure exactly where this idea came from, but I’m pretty sure I saw someone talk about it on their facebook. So, I can’t exactly give credit due to the person who thought of this, but it is a fantastic idea. With two of my children in the early reading phases, we spend alot of time reading as it is.
So here is what you do. Find 24 Christmas books- either ones you already have gathered over the years, or hit up your local thrift store. I found so many there, and at 3 for $1, you can’t beat the price! Then, together with your children, wrap each book. We used old tissue paper, newspapers, brown paper grocery bags and tied them up with yarn. It was a fun time with my 7, 5, and 3 year old.
Starting on December 1st, your children will select a book to unwrap and read together each day. (Obviously, I posted this a little late, so you can start this whenever you can it together) Your kids won’t know the difference…. If you happen to have your tree up, you can place the wrapped books there… or if you are like me and don’t quite have it together, a nice basket works great!
This just makes for a fun activity that is beneficial to the kids and allows you to spend quality time with them. This is an easy and fun tradition, not to mention FREE! I did make sure to wrap a specific book in special paper that I wanted to read with them on Christmas Eve. You could even go so far as to number each book in the order you would like to have them read.
Happy Reading!
Now, back to the kitchen……
I just love cranberries and the fresh tart flavor they have. These breakfast bars are slightly indulgent. I wasn’t sure whether they were more like a cookie or even like a scone. I finally decided to call them breakfast bars. Call them what you may, but they are a yummy treat.
Cranberry Breakfast Bars
- 1/4 cup oil ( I use either coconut or grapeseed)
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup almond flour, packed
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour, packed
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup chopped fresh cranberries
- orange zest (optional)
- Preheat oven to 325. Grease an 8×8 glass dish.
- Whisk together oil, honey and egg yolk.
- Add dry ingredients, mix well to combine.
- Stir in cranberries.
- Press mixture into glass dish.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Turn oven off and leave bars in for an additional 10 minutes. Remove and let cool.
- Cut and serve.
*yields 8 bars or 16 squares
well now i know what i’ll be baking on christmas morning :)
love the book idea, too!
I love the book idea! I think my peeps (except one) are too old, but I’m thinking about collecting the books for Cana to do with her kids next year. Shhh, don’t tell!
The cranberry bars look delish! (Hey, you should link this up at this year’s Cookie Exchange http://lovefeasttable.com/blog/experience/holiday-cookie-exchange/)
<3 ~Kristin
Those look delightful! My son has a possible egg allergy, but I think if I just added a tsp of oil and maybe a little egg replacer they would work still. Thank you!
I love the book idea too. We have a basket of books that I only bring out during the advent season, but I haven’t ever gotten around to wrapping them. I just bring them out one by one and then they go in the basket by the fireplace.
I LOVE the book idea! I haven’t heard of that one before. My oldest’s school is right in the middle of their reading program, so this is fantastic for that!
Oh, and I can’t wait to try those bars ;)
Made these tonight with my son…. yummy! We did it in a pie plate and cut into wedges.
Using a pie plate is a great idea, thanks for sharing!
I am wondering if I can use this recipe as a base to make a riff of Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars, subtley flavoured with ginger and studded with white chocolate and dried cranberries. I made flour based ones last year before my grain free journey began, and they were a hit. Hmmm…I think I’ll be expeirmenting this weekend.
Those sound fantastic! Be sure to come back and share how they turn out :)
~Michelle
I made these tonight to have a treat over the Christmas weekend. They are great! Thank you Michelle for another awesome recipe!
Thanks Lori!
We always read 1 book each day leading up to Christmas as a kid growing up! I don’t know WHY I haven’t started that tradition with my kids! I think because we do too many other things daily around Christmas (like Jesse Tree devotions). PS – Your kidlets are the same ages as mine! ;)
I absolutely CANNOT wait to try making these! Thanks so much for the recipe! I need to get some Coconut flour. You seem to favor Almond and Coconut flours in your recipes. Any reason why? Almond I keep on hand…but I’ve never tried Coconut flour!
Hi Kristi! That is very cool are children are the same ages :P (never a dull moment!) If you read here in my tab on Ingredients, I share why I chose to use these flours over others. I purchase my flours in bulk online, it ends up being about $5/lb as opposed to double that in local health food stores.
~Michelle
Michelle,
I just found your site. Everything seems FANTASTIC!! I am printing out copies of so many of your recipes. Do you make these up on your own? Did you ever think about a book. That would be a great idea. Thanks for all you do. I am strict SCD so I can’t have the chocolate or some of the other things you use but I try to substitute or omit. Thanks Again