Homemade, Better Than From The Box Snacks

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

One of the main themes of Earth Day, a global holiday honoring our planet, is to conserve ecological resources for future generations. It’s a good chance to think about the various ways you can lead a less wasteful life. There are bigger lifestyle commitments like purchasing your food from local sources or growing some of it in your backyard and composting, but what else can we do to keep the planet clean and green?

Bringing reusable shopping bags for every grocery trip is one. As a big source of pollution worldwide, non-biodegradable plastic shopping bags have been banned or taxed in some countries and areas of the United States. With this Earth day as a reminder, I’ll plan to pack reusable bags for every grocery trip.

Another way to cut down on waste is by making more food homemade. Everyday food consumption in this country generates an enormous amount of trash, especially when it comes to convenience foods. Frozen foods packaging, pizza boxes, takeout containers and fast food wrapping—it all adds up. Even if the packaging is a recyclable material, a huge amount of resources has already gone into making the cardboard and plastic containers, bottles, boxes and bags. By shopping and eating a bit more carefully, we all can help reduce food waste.

Prior to life with two young kids, we had weeks go by where we hardly needed to empty the kitchen trash can. But children can come with all sorts of new waste, starting with diapers and baby food jars and moving on to drink boxes, milk jugs, snack bags, plastic yogurt cups, and over-packaged convenience foods. Most weeks we fill up the recycling container to the brim, and that doesn’t even count foods consumed at school and activities.

When you make your own meals and snacks you cut down on your landfill contribution. Making your own avoids packaging like boxes, paper sleeves and individualized snack pack bags. Homemade foods are also cheaper and avoid unnecessary additives, high fructose corn syrup, and extra sodium.

You can recreate all kinds of childhood favorites in your kitchen, like applesauce, fish shaped crackers, dehydrated fruit and veggie chips, cookies, cereal bars and cheese flavored popcorn. Don’t forget fresh fruit snacks. Nature makes it easy with “prepackaged” fruit like bananas, oranges, and grapes.

Once you get in the habit, it becomes just as easy to fill the lunchbox with these wholesome foods. Sectioned reusable lunchbox containers make it even easier to choose fresh foods and snacks from all the food groups with little to no waste.

Recently we tried making our own childhood classic, graham crackers. Grahams are a staple in our house, either plain or sandwiched with fillings like peanut butter, melted chocolate, or lightly sweetened cream cheese.

Both of my kids loved these fresh-from-the-oven honey graham crackers so much that they were approved with a chorus of “mmms.” They are a little chewy when warm, but once they cool, become crisp. The beauty in making the dough yourself is you can cut all kinds of shapes from jungle animals to stars to the traditional rectangles that you break into pieces. One trick to getting a nice straight edge is to roll the dough on parchment with the edge folded over on top of the dough.

Go green and skip the store with some homemade, better than from the box treats. You’ll have snacks for everyone, hold the packaging!

Serves/Makes: 32

• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 egg