While we wait for the arrival of the new lunch box we ordered for my daughter, I thought I’d share a recipe.

Since my daughter’s school has a nut-free policy and avocado is messy when you’re three-and-three-quarters and eating snack on the floor with your friends and are FAR too distracted to find the napkin that your mom packed for you, I have been struggling to find good FATS to pack in her lunch lately.

I determined that COCONUT was the way to go to get her some healthy fats at snack time, but my daughter has never been a big coconut fan.

Last week I tested out Clean Eats in the Zoo‘s version of The Clothes Make the Girl‘s Caramelized Coconut Chips. I loved them. My husband loved them. We ate an entire batch over the course of a Saturday of family errands. My daughter…ate a few. A minor victory, but not enough for me to start sending them in her snack box. I decided to modify the recipe to be a bit more kid-friendly (my daughter being a kid with a sweet tooth).

Ingredients:

2 grown-up sized handfuls of raw, unsweetened coconut flakes

1/2 teaspoon of palm sugar

(Google ‘palm sugar and paleo’ if you care to read the debate as to whether the sugar of a coconut palm is or is not ‘truly paleo’. We use it infrequently as a not-so-bad substitute for refined sugar)

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

How-To:

Scoop your handfuls of coconut flakes into a frying pan (no need to grease the pan).

Turn the stove on to Low-Medium heat (about 4 or 5 on the dial).

Wait patiently.

Once you start noticing the tiny pieces of coconut browning, start moving the flakes around with a wooden spoon.

Once even the larger flakes start browning, toss your palm sugar and cinnamon in and stir it all around for a minute or two. Be careful that the tiny coconut pieces do not start to burn!

Pour your concoction out onto a plate and let cool so that the chips can harden.

Ta-Da! Kid-approved, only a tiny bit sweet COCONUT CHIPS! If my daughter is a fan, I’m going to go ahead and guess that even your picky eater will be a fan.