Ever get an email reminder Friday night that it is your turn to bring the halftime snacks for the kids’ football team on Saturday? If you are like me, your brain freezes up completely and you suddenly can think of NOTHING to bring! This is especially hard when you are avoiding gluten, as you can’t buy all of those boxes of pre-packed sandwich crackers, cookies, granola bars and protein bars. I’m excited to tell you about a new gluten-free protein bar that tastes just like your old favorite chewy granola bars, except this one is gluten-free (oat-free too!). If you have a stash of these in your pantry, and some bottled water in your fridge, you can use my simple printables and make this super cute and easy halftime snack for the whole team!
I am not into crafts and food ideas that take up a ton of time, so when I was trying to come up with a creative idea, I wanted it to be something that can be implemented in about 15 minutes too. Downloading, printing, cutting, and taping these onto your protein bars and water bottles should only take about 15 minutes – even less if you get your kids helping with the process!
Let me tell you a bit more about these bars. I’ve been eating the only gluten-free bars that Nature Valley has had for several years now – the Roasted Nut Crunch ones, and really like them. So I was excited when they contacted me to let me know that they wanted me to help partner with them to spread the word about their new product lines that they have made gluten-free. You can read about their process for reformulating and making necessary production changes in this Nature Valley Gluten-free press release. In a phone call to the manufacturer, they assured me that these products are made in a separate facility from products with gluten, so as to ensure no cross-contamination, and testing is done on ingredients and finished product to ensure it complies with the FDA guidelines for gluten-free labeling. You can see all of the current Nature Valley gluten-free varieties here.
Active, sweaty kids could use some cold water and a high-protein snack at half-time, so I paired cold bottled water with the new Nature Valley Protein Chewy Bars for this halftime team snack. Available in 4 different flavors, each Nature Valley Protein bar is 10 grams of protein. Salted Caramel Nut was the favorite of both my youngest son and I, as we loved the sweet and salty taste combination. Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate was my husband’s favorite as he enjoyed how “peanut buttery” it was and the salty but not too sweet taste. The Peanut, Almond and Dark Chocolate bars were good too and a bit sweeter than the peanut butter ones. I’ll be buying all three of these again to stock in our snack supply, but I know I’ll have to buy more of the Salted Caramel Nut as they’re going to go fast around here! After mostly eating Nut Bars the past few years, it is nice to have a chewy snack bar to enjoy! Since they are high in protein, they’ll work well for me when I need a bite to eat while running errands too!
Once you try the Nature Valley Protein Bars or any of the gluten-free options, make sure you head over and enter the Nature Valley Perfect Pair Sweepstakes on Instagram and Facebook. Two winners will receive a $500 gift card, just follow the directions and check out the terms and conditions on the Nature Valley Facebook contest page. Just share a photo of your perfect pair of gluten-free snack bars with your favorite person, place, or thing with the hashtag #NVPerfectPairSweepstakes to enter on Instagram!
To make these football themed water bottles and snacks, just follow the links below to download the pdf files for each. The paper that makes the bars look like footballs has two per page, so just print as many as you need for your team. The labels for the water bottles are 4 per page so you can print less of these to supply you with a team’s worth. You can use regular printer paper or a lightweight cardstock. I appreciated the lightweight cardstock for using on the water bottles, otherwise the brand label showed through. On the bar wrappers, you could definitely just use regular copy/printer paper since the brown color hides any words under the label.
Download football Touchdown/Defense water bottle wraps here. To assemble, just use a paper cutter or scissors to cut around the dotted brown lines. Wrap paper around water bottle label and tape to secure.
Download football protein bar wraps here. To assemble, just use a paper cutter or scissors to cut exactly at the edge of the brown. Wrap paper around snack bar and tape to secure.
I hope this idea helps you create a fun snack to share at your football game next time! Let me know if you try these new protein bars too!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Nature Valley. The opinions and text are all mine.