Homemade Yogurt, Homemade Granola Bars

It was a fun day, doing all this easy, interesting cooking at our house!  We followed a friend's easy Granola Bar recipe and the kids were able to do it all themselves, with help reading, pouring, and handling the oven.  We took our time trying to do the math thing- cooking is so great for introducing and using fractions!

The best part for the kids was that this recipe allowed us to melt chocolate over the top, which meant that they got to lick chocolate spoons. The granola bars are delicious and I'm thrilled that there's less additives and sugars in them than the ones we usually buy. And we usually buy organic, healthy bars! But I looked at the ingredient list and particularly the order of the list. How many different ways can you say sugar?

These bars contain sugar and honey, plus the chocolate I put on top. So these are treat bars for sure. But it was fun, they are healthier, and there is no packaging involved unless I make it (which I did- indiv. wrapped in foil this time but I'll have a better system next time.).

Then we made our own yogurt, which is fascinating! I printed a very simple recipe that included pictures of each step so the kids could help with the steps. The only thing I had to buy ahead of time was a good thermometer. Though the kids were less hands-on with this one, they eagerly watched the whole thing bc it was so interesting- steam, boiling, frothing, mommy using the wrong sized pots and thus jimmying everything around with long spoons and a screwdriver.  I put them in charge of filling the sink with cold water and ice cubes, which they did forever.

The funniest part was that the growing bacteria needs a warm environment for 7 hours so we had to set up our heating pad on a cutting board on the counter. They loved that yogurt gets incubated like a baby chick!  Bacteria cultures are alive too, you know! I wonder if that will give them pause when I ask them to eat it for breakfast?

The yogurt thing is bc we eat so much of it that making our own big batches saves us money.  There are no extra sugars or additives unless we add them. And it's pretty cool to do something this fun. If it tastes ok, we'll do it again!

Hmmm... what to do next?