Way too much of my time is spent running around on weekday mornings trying to pull together sack lunches, rush breakfasts and last-minute snacks for the kids. Half the time I end up grabbing something not-s0-yummy off the pantry shelf for them, just to get out the door in time for the school bus. I am ending that trend as of today! We made a batch of Granola Treat Pops, so packed with deliciousness (and protein), my family will be ready to rock the day with a smile. Great for breakfast, snack or “side dish” in a sack lunch, I just hope I made enough of these treats to keep ’em full all week!

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You should probably know, we loved the main ingredient, Nature Valley^TM Protein Granola, so much that we had trouble not eating it all before we could get it in the mix. So, you might want to buy more than one package, just sayin’. And, then, after we made the treat pops, we were in trouble again–they were so tasty, I had to sneak several into a baggie to keep the kids from snacking on them all day. Really. My daughter even “dunked” hers in yogurt, so that’s a whole new deliciousness developed by a toddler. Ha!

Ingredients for Granola Treat Pops

3 tblspn Butter

4 1/2 cups Marshmallows

4 1/2 cups Nature Valley^TM Protein Granola

Cake Pop sticks (appx. 12)

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How to Make Granola Treat Pops

Place the butter in a large pot over medium heat.
When butter has melted, add marshmallows and stir continuously, making sure each of the marshmallows gets coated butter.
When marshmallows are completely melted, remove from heat and stir-in Nature Valley^TM Protein Granola until all the granola is coated in marshmallow. We went with Oats n’ Honey (and a tiny bit of Oats n’ Dark Chocolate mixed-in), but you can use any flavor–there are several delicious ones to choose from.
Place mixture on cookie sheet and allow it to cool to the point it can be safely handled.
Pack a handful of the mixture into a ball and insert a stick. Depending on how sticky the mixture is, you might want to moisten your hands before doing this step.
Allow to cool completely–or just devour while warm like we did. Yummy either way.
Enjoy!

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Make Your Granola Treat Pops Even Yummier

The minute we made these, my kids were ready to start gnashing–and experimenting. Like I mentioned, my toddler was dunking hers in yogurt. My son rolled his in pecans (but mashed it up in the process). We could have tried out one of the flavored granolas from Nature Valley like Oats n’ Dark Chocolate, Cranberry Almond or Peanut Butter, but, because we went with Oats n’ Honey, my kids decided we should make a list of the awesome yummies they wanted to try adding to the granola treat pops:

Pecans

Almonds

Craisins

Yogurt-Covered Raisins

Chocolate Chips

Toffee Chips (uh, this may be mommy’s favorite)

Pretzel Chunks (daddy swears this is yummy–I’m not convinced enough to even try it!)

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To learn more about Nature Valley^TM Protein Granola options and just how versatile they can be, visit them online, on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.