April 2023 - Little Red Wagon Granola

Spring is officially upon us, and with it, a new season and all the changes this season brings. We hope you have had a chance to enjoy all that April offers, whether it’s an April Fool’s joke, Easter festivities, or Spring Break. I am personally enjoying the extra sunshine and all that is blooming. Although April weather can be a bit all over the place, cold and rainy one day to warm and sunny the next, it reminds us that summer and warm days are around the corner.

As the weather shifts, our meal routines start to shift from the heartier winter meals to lighter fare. Granola smoothie bowls are a great way to start off the day with a light but filling and nutritious breakfast.

Our Cosmopolitan carrot granola smoothie bowl is a great way to get more servings of fruits and vegetables into your routine and blends carrots with your favorite tropical fruits. Greek yogurt provides a good source of calcium, protein, and probiotics. Our handmade granola rounds out both the flavor profile and nutrition with heart-healthy fiber and protein.

Granola Smoothie Ingredients:

1 cup of frozen tropical fruit blend (or your favorite frozen tropical fruits, pineapple, mangos, etc.)
4 baby carrots
1/2 cup of Greek yogurt
2 Tbsp of coconut milk
4 Tbsp of orange juice
1/4 cup of Little Red Wagon Cosmopolitan Granola (or your favorite flavor)
Additional toppings of your choice: shredded coconut, chia seeds, fresh fruit

Granola Smoothie Directions:

In a blender, add your frozen fruits, carrots, yogurt, coconut milk, and orange juice.
Blend until there are no large chunks of fruit or carrot. You may see small bits of the carrot or fruit, but that should be fine.
Using a rubber spatula, pour/scrape the smoothie into a bowl.
Sprinkle granola on top and top with any additional toppings of choice.
Enjoy!

The Little Red Wagon Granola team is proud to announce that after much hard work with The Safe Quality Food (SQF) Program, we have earned our SQF certification! We’ve been working towards this certification for quite a while, and it’s so gratifying to achieve it. Our goal is to provide food products that meet extremely high standards, and the Safe Quality Food certification ensures actions behind those values. But what does this program do, and how did we get certified? We’ll cover all that and how it impacts granola lovers like you!

What Does the SQF Program Do?

SQF was a division created in 1994 by the Food Marketing Institute to address increasing concerns surrounding food safety, especially after foodborne illnesses like E.coli affected fast food customers.

Before the SQF Institute was established, quality control was up to local food supply chains. Consequently, there needed to be a globally standardized approach to assess food safety, quality, or traceability.

That’s where SQF stepped in. Their mission was, and is, to establish unilaterally standard practices ensuring food producers, manufacturers, processors, retailers, packagers, and transporters follow SQF regulations. Part of this mission is to educate food production brands on proper SQF protocol to ensure consumers’ safety and earn certification.

How LRWG Earned Its Safe Quality Food Certification

Little Red Wagon Granola is more than just a business for us. It’s our legacy and our passion. We hand-make each batch using natural ingredients. Those are lovely sentiments and aspects of our brand, but earning our SQF certification was the natural next step.

To prepare for the SQF site audit, one of our team members got a separate certification to help Little Red Wagon identify gaps and our current processes. At the same time, the rest of us studied the SQF code, analysis, and standards. Luckily, they provide classes and resources online to educate the team. All of this helped us understand where we needed to improve and re-organize. Then came the exciting (and nerve-wracking) day we’d been working towards.

And…drumroll, please…we passed! We have our Safe Quality Food certification, and soon our packaging will bear this hard-earned emblem. Plus, we’ll be re-certified every year, so you know that we’ll never reduce our standards.

Enjoy Your Favorite Granola With Confidence

All this industry jargon means for you is that it’s not just lip service when we say our granola is handmade by us, using sustainably sourced, natural ingredients. It also means that you and your family can feel safe enjoying your favorite Little Red Wagon Granola flavors because each has passed quality and safety standards. Shop on our website to stock up, or find us in your local market!