Start Your Morning Off Right- Coconut Breakfast Bars

When I started planning for our REAL Food Challenge the first thing I thought about was our bowls of cereal. Some mornings are just too wild to have a big breakfast and cereal is the easiest thing to serve along with a fruit smoothie. No matter how busy we are we will never skip breakfast! So now I'm making a little more effort at night to prep either some steel cut oats, make some muffins or mix together some pancake batter.

Breakfast is THE most important meal of the day for everyone, and especially children. Their brains need the nutrients to help them absorb and learn throughout the day. Research has shown that a nutritious breakfast positively impacts brain function and energy levels in children giving them the perfect start to their day.

There are many benefits to eating breakfast and many reasons why parents should make eating breakfast a top priority for their children! You can walk into a school and see firsthand what happens to the kids who don't have a balanced breakfast. They are more apt to be distracted, restless, irritable by mid morning. Some even feel that those students who do not eat breakfast are more likely to be aggressive and get in trouble throughout the day.

Eating breakfast in the morning also leads children to eat healthier the rest of the day. Just like adults, if kids eat a nutritious breakfast then they will be less likely to snack on empty calories later in the morning. Fill up on complex carbohydrates, fiber, protein and make sure to keep the sugar content LOW.
For more great breakfast tips check out the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

Coconut Breakfast Bars
(Makes 12 squares)

1 1/4 cup steel cut oats
2 cups unsweetened light coconut milk
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup sliced raw almonds
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oats, coconut milk and honey together and let sit for 10 minutes then stir in remainder ingredients. Grease 8x8 baking dish and pat ingredients in evenly and bake for an hour or until golden brown on top. Let cool completely before cutting. Perfect cold or warmed!
Keep in airtight container for up to 3 days.

Challenge Update:
We are about to end our 2nd day and so far so good. Number one challenge for the hubs-- post workout meal. He's been used to drinking a Whey Protein Shake. For me- had to travel today and didn't pack everything I needed and ended up eating a baked potato and added sour cream on top but then noticed the preservatives listed on the container. Scraped most off and ate it with a dry salad.
So far the girls are doing great too! I've packed them slices of the Whole Wheat Bread with shredded carrots, raisins and peanut butter to spread on top. They have also had slices of cheese, apples and celery with yogurt, honey and cinnamon. One big change we made was to switch to 2% milk since technically it's less processed than skim...not so sure I can do this one. I'm not a fan of the thick texture.