Pin Made Creations: Tasty Cereal Bars: Easy to Make!

Have you ever purchased a box of cereal and see a recipe on the side that may sound good, but you never get around to making it before the box is thrown away?  That's me too.  However, this week I actually made a recipe that was on the side of my youngest son's favorite cereal, Chocolate Cheerios.  It's like making Rice Krispie treats, but with probably one extra step.  And a couple more ingredients.

When my oldest son Matt likes something, then I am doing pretty good.  Getting a hug for making these tasty cereal bars was a bonus!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cereal Bars
(courtesy of General Mills)

Prep time:  15 minutes
Total time:  30 minutes
Makes 24 bars

5 cups Chocolate Cheerios cereal
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup salted peanuts
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Spray 13x9 inch pan with cooking spray.  In large bowl, combine cereal, raisins, and peanuts; set aside.  In 2-quart saucepan, place corn syrup and sugars.  Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly; remove from heat.  Stir in peanut butter.  Pour peanut butter mixture over cereal mixture; mix until thoroughly coated.  Spread evenly in pan.  In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips on High 1 minute, stirring every 15 seconds, until melted and smooth.  Drizzle over bars.  Refrigerate 15 minutes or until chocolate is set.  (To drizzle chocolate: place melted chocolate chips in resealable plastic bag.  Cut off small piece of corner; drizzle chocolate over bars.)

NOTE:  At first, I was not going to add the raisins; I thought it an odd addition. Since I hadn't made these before, I went according to the recipe, and the raisins do add another subtle flavor to the bars.  The kids didn't even notice the raisins were there.  I would suggest using the bag tip for drizzling the chocolate; I decided to just drizzle with a spoon, but ended up with big blops of chocolate and had to use a knife to spread the chocolate evenly over the bars. Finally, I cut the rest of the bars in thin rectangles instead of squares, thinking that when unwrapping, it would be easier to eat.

Be sure to try these and add them to your kid's lunches or give them for their school snack.  This recipe is the equivalent of buying four boxes of the other General Mills cereal snacks, which could run about $12. All the ingredients of this recipe were in my cupboard, with the exception of buying a new box of cereal and the bag of chocolate chips, so for me it was a cost of $5.