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5 Lunchbox-Friendly Back-to-School Bar Cookies

Banana Brownies

You can pack just about anything in a lunchbox today, especially since there are so many insulated lunchboxes with kid-friendly designs that will keep things cold on a hot day. When it comes to school lunches, however, I can’t help but think of bar cookies as being the perfect, packable snack. They’re usually sturdy enough to stand up to being stuffed into a lucnh bag in a backpack, they don’t take up much space, and there are an almost limitless number of flavors that you can put into them to appeal to any kid. Most recipes also keep very well, so you can bake one batch over the weekend and have them around all week – if they last. Here are my top 5 favorite, packable back-to-school bar cookies that are perfect for lunchboxes.

  • Banana Brownies with Cacao Nibs pack in all the chocolatey goodness of a regular brownie, but with the addition of banana. Banana not only gives these brownies a great flavor, but makes them incredibly moist. The cacao nibs add a nice crunchy element, but you could also use other nuts or even chocolate chips.
  • Chocolate Chip Blondies are a staple that you can’t beat. Buttery, chewy and downright addictive, these bar cookies are always a crowd pleaser. I put dried cherries and pistachios in mine, which gives them a great color, but you can always mix things up with other fruits and nuts.
  • Lemon Apricot Walnut Bars are a simple, layered bar cookie that is perfect for fans of fruity desserts because they are reminiscent of a fruit cobbler – in a much more portable form. The bars have a generous layer of apricot preserves (use good quality preserves) sandwiched between layers of lemony shortbread.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

  • Snickerdoodle Blondies are a bar cookie version of a classic lunchbox cookie, the Snickerdoodle. The vanilla bars taste like sugar cookies and are topped with a coating of cinnamon sugar that really captures the flavor of a snickerdoodle. They’re so easy to make that this one is sure to make it into regular rotation.
  • Black and White Brownie Bars have something for everyone, with a rich dark chocolate layer on top of a sweet, but equally rich, white chocolate brownie layer. They look beautiful and are definitely a change of pace from ordinary brownies – but don’t take any more time or effort to make.

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1 Comment
  • Priya Sreeram
    August 31, 2012

    hi there, nice post as always. I tried your Mexican Chocolate Brownies with a small twist of my own and we loveddddddd it; thanks for sharing 🙂

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