Review summary: CLIF Kid Organic Full Moon Brownie ZBaRs are a healthy Halloween treat option that kids will actually enjoy.

Product: CLIF Kid Organic ZBaRs from Clif Bar & Company. This season, they’ve unleashed a new Halloween flavor - Full Moon Brownie ZBaRs.

Use: Created for kids. Good for a snack or when paired with fruit and milk can be a decent fast breakfast. This ZBaR flavor makes the perfect Halloween treat bag item too.

Cost: At my local grocery store zBaRs can cost $3.00-$4.00+ per box (6 per box). A better deal is to buy these in bulk, such as from Amazon or at the Clif Bar website, which works out to 78 cents per bar.

Ingredients: Organic Rolled Oats, Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Tapioca Syrup, Organic Cane Syrup, Organic Soy White Chocolate (Organic Dried Cane Syrup, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Soy Flour, Organic Soy Lecithin, Organic Vanilla Extract), Organic Oat Flour, Organic Fig Paste, Organic Soy Butter (Organic Soybeans, Organic Soybean Oil, Salt), Organic Cocoa, Organic White Coating (Organic Dried Cane Syrup, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Soy Lecithin, Organic Vanilla Extract), Natural Flavors, Organic Oat Fiber, Organic Milled Flaxseed, Organic Sunflower Oil, Salt, Baking Soda.

I already did a major review of zBars in general. Read that review to learn more about this healthy snack: CLIF Kid Organic ZBaR. You can also read my review of the company – Clif Bar & Company.

Green & healthy benefits:

The new Full Moon Brownie flavor is a delicious chocolate brownie with white chocolate chips – making this a treat that kids will actually eat and enjoy on Halloween. Each wrapper is Halloween-cute with autumn colors and spooky little trick-or-treaters. Plus, the white chocolate chips are drizzled on, creating a fun Halloween look. 

• Delicious chocolate brownie with white chocolate chips … a yummy and nutritious twist on a favorite treat.
• USDA certified organic.
• Each bar is low fat, made with whole oats, and contains 12 essential vitamins and minerals kids need every day.
• No high fructose corn syrup, no hydrogenated oils and no artificial flavors or artificial colors.
• Non-GMO sourced ingredients.
• Full disclosure – the company lists ingredients at their website, on the boxes and on individual bar packaging.
• Clif Bar & Company has many eco-friendly perks as a company and very few cons. Learn more about Clif Bar & Company in general.

What we thought: 

Cedar is no stranger to zBaRs – he eats them often. However, he was impressed with these bars due to the spooky packaging. He was equally enchanted with the creative white drizzle, and said he thought it was a fun new look for zBaRs. Flavor wise, he ate these up -quickly. I was a little surprised he liked them, because he’s not the biggest chocolate fan. In fact, in my first zBaR review, he flat out said, “The chocolate brownie zBaRs are too sweet.”

His reasoning behind the chocolate change of heart was…. the packaging. He said, “These are for Halloween right?” Then chomped it down and said, “Yum.” I asked if this would be a good treat to give out on Halloween over candy, and Cedar concluded that sure, he’d take them if they were being handed out on Halloween night.

I did think these were still a little sweet, but not TOO sweet and I think the sweetness will make them friendly for the typical kid on Halloween.

Were there any negatives?

• So far, during my grocery store sweeps, it’s been impossible to find this flavor at the grocery store. I’m guessing they’ll roll them out a little closer to Halloween (although, hey, stores, you’re cutting it close).
• These have more packaging than homemade bars. But on the flip-side, we recycle the packaging, homemade bars won’t have quite as many nutrients and it’s not a good idea to pass out unwrapped goodies on Halloween.

Overall score:

5 little trees out of 5. Normally, I’d have given these a 4.5, because I don’t advocate buying packaged goods over homemade. That said, at this time of year, when you’re looking for a super Halloween treat that’s not quite so sticky, surgery and sweet, these are perfect, so the Halloween flavor got a bump up score-wise. Cedar was perfectly fine about considering these bars over Halloween candy, so I’m guessing other kids will be as well.

• Buy Full Moon Brownie ZBaRs
• Visit the Clif Bar & Company website.
• Join Clif Bar & Company on Facebook.
• Read their blog.

See my green product rating system and green product rating criteria or read more green product reviews.

Autumn is my favorite season. Here in Oregon, it’s rainy and cool, but not too cold. The trees look amazing, the air smells crisp and everything is cozy. Here are some nice, eco-minded ways to kick off the 2011 fall season…

Clean up the land: National Public Lands Day (NPLD) is this Saturday, September 24, 2011, and there’s plenty you can do to help. NPLD is an annual national effort to improve and enhance public land. This year, more than 180,000 volunteers are expected at more than 2,000 sites across the country to celebrate public spaces by planting trees, removing trash, building trails and bridges and restoring water resources. NPLD is an excellent opportunity to help the environment as you explore amazing outdoor spaces with your friends and family. Find an event near you.

Learn to make bread: With the days getting longer, cooler and dark, nothing is better than a bowl of soup and a slice of delicious homemade organic bread. Homemade bread is SO much easier than you may think too, plus your house will smell wonderful.

Snag an organic pumpkin: Plan a trip to your local organic pumpkin patch – fun for the kids and totally necessary for spooky Halloween jack o’ lanterns.

Ban excessive stuff: Get ready to ban Black Friday and celebrate Buy Nothing Day instead. I’ll post more later on this, but here’s last year’s primer. Better yet, start planning ahead for a homemade Christmas or other winter holiday event with some amazing homemade gifts.

Get outside for a fall nature walk: It’s getting chilly but everything looks so much better in Autumn. this is absolutely the best time of year to see nature. Bonus, a fall nature walk gives you a great excuse to warm up with some Fair Trade, homemade organic hot chocolate and maybe a sweet fall treat afterward.

Plant a tree: Anytime is a good time for tree planting, but Autumn is a really good time. Plus, this isn’t just fun, it’s a way to help the planet breathe a little clearer. Get some tree planting ideas.

Fun fall crafts just for the kiddos:

• DIY Recycled Luminaries
• Create some AMAZING Autumn Conker Crafts – seriously, you will faint. These are so cute.
• Make a recycled autumn tree collage.
• Place a recycled bag leaf bouquet on the table.

Normally, eco-friendly Halloween costumes are hyper expensive. But, what if you could get one or more green Halloween costumes for FREE!? Yup, free. If you’d jump at that chance, then you’re in luck, because not only does National Costume Swap Day spare you from purchasing new and expensive costumes, but it’s a great way to celebrate an eco-friendly Halloween.

National Costume Swap Day officially falls on Saturday, October 8, but swap events will be happening all October. The entire event is jointly sponsored by Green Halloween, Swap.com and Kiwi Magazine.

During a costume swap, green families come together to swap out, or trade previous year’s Halloween costumes, in exchange for new-to-you costumes from another green family. A costume swap need only be a few families getting together or it can be as large as a citywide event. Big or small though, a costume swap saves resources. It takes a ton of materials, packaging and shipping emissions to create new costumes.  A swap is more fun, less expensive (usually free) and totally green!

It’s very easy and 100% free to set up and host a Halloween Costume Swap in your community. Bonus - registering a Costume Swap is an excellent way to encourage media sources, both local and national, to support greener Halloween events. Head to Costume Swap Day to find local swaps you can attend or even register your own event. New swaps can register every single day right up to Halloween. To learn more you can also participate in the National Costume Swap Day Twitter party on Tuesday, September 27, 9 p.m. EST #CostumeSwap or join up with Costume Swap Day on Facebook.

Will you be doing a costume exchange this year?

]]> http://www.growingagreenfamily.com/green-national-costume-swap-day/feed/ 4 http://www.growingagreenfamily.com/green-halloween-non-edible-treats-for-50%c2%a2-or-less/ http://www.growingagreenfamily.com/green-halloween-non-edible-treats-for-50%c2%a2-or-less/#comments Mon, 04 Oct 2010 04:09:52 +0000 Jennifer Chait http://www.growingagreenfamily.com/?p=6071

The other day we looked at edible green Halloween treats. If you don’t want to hand out candy there are some affordable options you can choose from.

A word about baggies. If you go with non-edible Halloween treats, it’s way cheaper to buy in bulk and divvy items up. Some items don’t require baggies, but others will. If you need treat baggies I personally wouldn’t go out of my way to find biodegradable baggies. Not only do biodegradable baggies cost more but there’s a good chance they won’t biodegrade anyhow.

I’d go with something cheap like Halloween Cellophane Baggies (11¢ per bag) or you could look for recycled plastic baggies at your local grocery store. Mainly, I wouldn’t stress about baggies. If you stay clear of plastic bags, plastic wrap, paper towels and other disposables all year round, your footprint is going to be lower than normal anyhow. If you need Halloween treat bags try not to freak.

SAFETY NOTE: Not all non-edibles are appropriate for all ages of kiddos. Use smarts when handing out treats. Also, if you hand out a questionable treat, such as soap or play dough, I’d highly suggest you label the treat baggie so kids don’t attempt to eat the item.

Now about the goodies. It’s tough to find non-edible green Halloween treats for 50¢ or less, but it’s not impossible. Here are some options…

20¢ each – Usually I’m not on board with pencils for Halloween (boring!) BUT I found the most adorable Dr Seuss Lorax Project Pencils the other day. These are recycled and way cuter than most pencils.

25¢ each – Make-A-Jack-O’-Lantern Stickers

50¢ (or less) each – Earth Laughs in Flowers Mini Wildflower Seed Packets or sunflowers.

22¢ each – OUCH! skull & bones bandages

40¢ each – handmade glycerin Pumpkin Patch Halloween Soap.

About 20¢ each – Silly Bandz -  silicone rubber band bracelets that come in various shapes including basic, zoo animal, pet animal, dinosaur, sea creature, holiday, alphabet, princess, western and more. These bracelets pop on your wrist then, when taken off, pop back to their original shape.

Crayons are always good, although you will need treat bags, or they may break or get messy. Good Halloween crayons…

• 39¢ each – Crayon Rocks
• 45¢ each – Crazy Crayons Eco Stars (100% Recycled Crayons)
• 50¢ each -Recycled Crayon Rings

Under 50¢ each – Mary’s Natural Softdough Tub – Orange – create little balls of dough and place them in a treat bag. If you want to go less expensive, take an hour and make homemade organic play dough or homemade goop instead.

25¢ each – OWLoween Stickers

42¢ each – Halloween Cookie Cutters

31¢ each – GREEN PUMPKIN Halloween Pencil-top Erasers

9¢-18¢ each – Eco-minded Temporary Tattoos

Under 50¢ each – Buy a pack of Iron-on Cool Transfer Paper. Head to Family Fun and print out their Halloween T-shirt Iron-ons onto your transfer paper. Cut iron-ons into single sizes and hand out. It’d be nice to include some directions too – which you can easily type up on the computer. Find directions here (pdf). Really, for more fun, your child could draw a Halloween design, scan that into your computer, and print that out.

Today, (Sept 22) is officially the first day of fall. That rocks since autumn is my favorite season. Here are some ways to super charge your green-living skills this autumn.

1. Celebrate our nation’s public lands on National Public Lands Day. This event, which falls on September 25th, is an excellent opportunity to help the environment as you explore some amazing outdoor space with your friends and family. NPLD is the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance public land and last year 150,000 volunteers joined in. Around the country, these 150,000 people celebrated by planting trees, removing trash, building trails and bridges and restoring water resources. Find an event near you.

2. Make something adorable, eco-friendly and/or recycled for Halloween! Check out these sweet creations:

• Acorn Pumpkins – cutest thing ever!
• Recycle your old milk jugs into adorable and useful Spirit Jug ghosts that shine bright for incoming trick-or-treaters.
• Felt Pumpkin People – I think these would make excellent Halloween party favors. Felt is eco-friendly (if you get the right type), soft and ultra cute.

3. Warm up your space and save energy. Your home should be properly weatherized for autumn and winter in order to save money, keep your family comfortable and save our resources. However, not everyone can afford to make the best weatherization changes. Luckily the the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) offers a Weatherization Assistance Program for low-income families.

Over the last 3 decades this program has provided weatherization services to more than 5.5 million low-income families. How the program works is, “Weatherization service providers install energy efficiency measures in the homes of qualifying homeowners free of charge. These are not expensive upgrades—the average expenditure limit is $2,826 per home—but they are effective, and energy savings pay for the upgrades within a few years.”

The criteria varies from state to state. You can see if your income is eligible by visiting the DOE. Keep in mind that there’s also a waiting list for services so the sooner you contact your state agency and apply the better.

4. Get ready to ban Black Friday. I’ll post more later on this, but here’s last year’s primer.

5. Head outside for a fall nature walk. It’s getting chilly but this is absolutely the best time of year to see nature. Everything looks amazing. Plus a fall nature walk gives you a great excuse to warm up with some Fair Trade, organic hot chocolate afterward.

What are you doing to celebrate fall?

Bad picture taking skills aside – I’m not one for pictures – these candy corn cookies were a total hit at a Halloween party we threw. They were also pretty darn easy, although I’d make them smaller than I did, if I were you (I’ll explain below).

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups organic white flour + a little extra flour to make dough stiffer – 1/2 to 1 cup
• 1 organic egg
• 1 1/2 cup Fair Trade Organic Sugar
• 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract Fair Trade + Certified Organic
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon organic Fair Trade Cocoa Powder
• 1 cup organic butter – MAKE SURE that the butter is 100% soft. Leave it out for a while so there’s zero solid left to it
• Non-toxic yellow food coloring – see Natural Decorating Food Colors
• Non-toxic orange food coloring (you can mix red and yellow if you can’t find orange)
• Sparkling Sugar – optional – BUT they make the candy corn cookies look nice and sparkly. I didn’t do this with the first batch pictured above, and I think my second, sugary batch looked better.

Make your sugar cookie dough:

1. Stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. In a larger second bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in egg and vanilla.
4. Gradually stir in your dry ingredients.
5. Make three balls of dough.

Make your candy corn shapes and bake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. IF your dough feels very silky and too soft work some of the extra flour into each ball of dough. Dough consistency tends to vary depending on where you live.
3. Tint one ball of dough yellow and one orange. Just drop a few drops of food coloring into your ball of dough and mix by hand.
4. Tint one ball of dough brown with your cocoa powder.
5. Divide each ball of dough into four pieces.
6. Roll each piece into a long (about 6 inch) rope.
7. Lay out three ropes (one of each color) directly side-by-side, on a clean, lint free baking cloth or on a reusable parchment sheet. Place a second cloth or parchment or silicone baking mat over the dough and use a rolling pin to roll out a flat 1/4 inch sheet of dough. You can use wax paper for this part, but it’s not reusable so I’d use something else. We actually have some silicone flat cutting boards we used.
8. Remove the top cloth or sheet off the dough and cut into triangles. Now, I cut mine HUGE. These are cuter small.
9. Place on baking sheet, about 1/2 inch apart and if you like sprinkle them with sugar sparkles. Bake for 8-14 minutes (depending on your oven). Watch them close.
10. After allowing them to cool a bit, place on a cooling rack to finish cooling.

We got about 20 really big cookies. You’ll get more if you cut smaller triangles.

PS your orange may be a bit lighter than in the picture above. The time we made these, and remembered to take picture, we used some gross orange, not natural food coloring. Now we don’t use that stuff anymore.

Autumn is the best season hands down – in my opinion – to get outside. The weather is cold, but not too cold. The trees are gorgeous and there’s a nice smoky scent in the air. Plus we have plenty of fun fall holidays to celebrate. All in all, autumn is a great time to have fun and practice green living skills; before the major winter holiday season arrives.

Check out the links below to learn more about how to have an eco-friendly autumn. Also watch this space – as the season continues, I’ll add more helpful tips related to green fall living right here.

GREEN HALLOWEEN TREATS

• Green Halloween Edible Treats for 50¢ or Less
• Eco-Friendly Non-Edible Halloween Treats for 50¢ or less

HAVE A GREEN HALLOWEEN!

• National Costume Swap Day
• Enter the 2010 ChicoBag & Green Halloween Bag Design Contest
• Do You Need an Organic Halloween Pumpkin?
• NEW 2010 Fair Trade Trick or Treat Kit
• Recycled Autumn Holiday Cards, Invitations & More
• Halloween Costume Add-Ons: Less Toxic Halloween Skin and Hair Products
• Eco-friendly Halloween costumes for kids
• Adorable Halloween Goodies

PLAN AN ECO-FRIENDLY THANKSGIVING

• Natural Thanksgiving Decor
• Throw a Green Thanksgiving Event
• Eco-Friendly Thanksgiving Place Cards
• Save money on organic food for the holidays

COZY DISHES & TREATS FOR AUTUMN

• Homemade Organic Honey Oat Bread
• DIY Healthy Organic & Fair Trade Hot Chocolate
• Homemade organic candy corn sugar cookies
• Organic caramel apples

GENERAL GREEN AUTUMN RESOURCES

• Celebrate Green – a must have holiday book.
• Plan an autumn tree planting celebration.

[hot chocolate image via Flickr user insidious_plots]

According to stats from Green Halloween®, about 25 million USA children celebrate Halloween each year – that’s a ton of costume waste if each kids’ costume is worn once and only once. This year, Green Halloween, in partnership with Kiwi Magazine, have a simple solution -  National Costume Swap Day.

Green Halloween notes that if we could just swap out about half the costumes used each year, we’d help reduce annual landfill waste by 6,250 tons (the weight of 2500 midsize cars).

The plan:

Swapping is swapping. A successful Halloween costume swap may mean you swap with a neighbor or organize an entire neighborhood or even city-wide costume swapping event. The idea is reuse – how much reuse is up to you. 

To make it easy, Green Halloween offers the following tips for would-be swappers:

• Register a swap
• Find a swap
• Spread the word
• Swap How-to

Visit National Costume Swap Day to learn more.

The 3rd annual ChicoBag & Green Halloween® Bag Design Contest has just kicked off so it’s time for your kids to grab their pens, crayons, colored pencils or paint and then start designing.

2009 Contest Winner's Design - Printed on the 2010 Trick-or-Treat Bag!

What’s up?

The 3rd Annual 2010 Halloween Bag Design Contest is meant to inspire eco-kids (ages 1-13)to create a cool bag design that best captures the “Spirit of a Green Halloween” using the ChicoBag design template.

The contest just kicked off September 1, 2010 and all entries must be received by November 5, 2010.

The winners will get some pretty slick prizes:

• 1st Place: $250 cash to the artist, ChicoBag brand reusable bag filled with eco-friendly goodies from prize partners, elements of design printed on limited edition ChicoBag brand reusable bags and $250 cash or $500 in ChicoBag product to go to school or organization.
• 2nd Place: $100 cash to the artist and a ChicoBag brand reusable bag filled with eco-friendly goodies from prize partners.
• 3rd Place: ChicoBag brand reusable bag filled with eco-friendly goodies from prize partners.

The ChicoBag Halloween design contest is co-sponsored by Green Halloween, a grassroots movement that supports all families and communities nationwide who would like a healthier, happier and yes, greener Halloween.  October 31, 2010.

You can purchase last year’s winning bag at ChicoBag and 10% of the sale of each bag will be contributed to Treeswing, the organization making Green Halloween (and other great initiatives) possible.

Enter the contest at ChicoBag.

You don’t just have to hand out candy treats on Halloween. You can also pop cool non-edible goodies into treat bags. However, with just a little over a week left until Halloween, you’ll have to jump on the ball asap. Here are some ideas…

1. Crayon Rocks
2. Little pretty rocks, acorns, or other small nature items kids might enjoy
3. Xeko cards
4. Paper Milk postcards
5. Small packs of flower seeds (as low as $0.15 per kid) – or if you garden save your seeds all year and make up little packs yourself with recycled paper envelopes.
6. Recolored Halloween Crayons
7. Homemade organic play dough or homemade goop – for containers save up organic yogurt containers all year or if you’re short on time use recycled foil to wrap your dough in and put your goop in small treat baggies.
8. Temporary tattoos
9. Biodegradable confetti
10. Little cards of plantable paper
11. EcoBeads
12. Wooden tops
13. Mini Halloween Cookie Cutter Set about $0.44. per kid.

Green Halloween has many more fun treat ideas too if you’re looking to go the non-edible route.