7.28.2016

Easy No-Bake Cereal Bars

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #RealDelicious #CerealAnytime #CollectiveBias

 
How's that saying go? "If you wait long enough to make dinner, everyone will just eat cereal"? Or something like that. Cereal is one of those things I could never get enough of as a kid. It seemed like I always had a bowl of cereal in one hand... Oh, and there was this one time when I was around 10 years old. I remember that I decided to see just how much of a box of cereal I could actually eat by myself. Ten year olds man, they're crazy. Haha. Though I've still never satisfied my curiosity I've had all of my life of how much a pizza I could eat by myself. But hey, it's never too late, right?! Bahahaha!
 
But let's not get sidetracked, we're on the subject of CEREAL, remember?  ;)
 
We were at Walmart last week and needed to stock up on more cereal. I hot-rodded the shopping cart to the cereal aisle (well I went at regular speed but you get the point haha) and I grabbed the Honey Bunches of Oats Honey Roasted cereal for myself, the Cinnamon Toasters (bagged cereal) for hubby, and let Bella choose whichever cereal she wanted. She of course chose the Fruity Pebbles cereal. She's loved them ever since we visited a little local donut shop a few weeks back and got her a donut with Fruity Pebbles on top. Seriously, Post Consumer Brands has something for everyone, even that picky family member, every cereal lover can find something they like because they offer such a variety of cereals! And since almost everyone is spending alllll the money on the back to school supplies (I mean, how are we even talking about that already? Didn't the summer JUST start?) for their kiddos, Post Brand cereals are such a value buy! So many options with cereal: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, midnight snack. Not only as cereal itself but also in fun recipes!

 
Bella is now at that age where she is sincerely obsessed with cereal, the only difference is that she loves it dry! Cereal snacking is her thing. And those Fruity Pebbles and Cinnamon Toasters are all the rage in our home these days.
 
Me on the other hand, I like the granola-ish-y healthy-ish kind of cereal personally. This Honey Bunches of Oats Honey Roasted cereal has kind of hit the spot, it tastes great, has an amazing crunch (without being too hard to eat) and it's perfect. But then there's also the chocolate kind of perfect. And chocolate you guys, chocolate. That's one word that gets me every. single. time.
 
And I thought to myself, I could seriously make some awesome cereal bars with this amazing cereal, because I'm crafty/creative like that, ya know? And any time I can sneak chocolate into my food it's totally cool with me. And I also love snacking, so there's  always that too. Lol.
 
Another reason the idea of cereal bars popped into my head is because not only do I love to snack, but I typically stay pretty busy and active. As a mama to a sweet and active toddler, being a lifestyle blogger, trying to get my photography business up and running, spending time with my husband and then there's also the regular business of running a household (ya know, cooking , cleaning, etc., that kind of thing)... life can get extremely crazy and busy. So sometimes cereal is for dinner. And then sometimes I make cereal bars and have a healthy breakfast or mid-day snack to re-fuel during my busy day.
 
I also grabbed a few extra ingredients when we were at Walmart to create these amazing cereal granola bars. Oh! And did I mention that they are no-bake? Great! Even better!
 
But in all seriousness, these are so great tasting, and so, so easy to make! They really only take a few minutes to throw together! My hubby loves them too, he keeps taking them all to work for breakfast and snacks so I guess I'm going to have to make another batch ASAP. But I'm not complaining at all. They're actually pretty fun to make too! I loved sectioning everything out in the mixing bowl. I mean, that part really is optional, but since I'm a blogger and photographer I like to make pretty things and photograph pretty things, and all the ingredients just looked so pretty together!
 
Okay, so here are the ingredients and directions below!
 
 
Easy No-Bake Cereal Bars
 
1 stick unsalted butter*
 
1/2 cup organic fair-trade cane sugar
 
1/4 cup honey
 
1 cup quick oats
 
 
3 tablespoons chia seeds
 
1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries
 
1/2 cup dried blueberries
 
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
 
Throw your butter, cane sugar and honey into a saucepan, mix and heat until you reach a rolling boil. While your butter/sugar/honey mixture is heating up combine all of your other ingredients into a bowl and be ready to mix with the hot liquid mixture as soon as it comes to a boil. Mix until all the cereal is coated and then scoop into a flat dish covered in wax paper (I used a 9x9 spring form pan which worked great). Flatten the mixture onto the wax paper with a rubber spatula. You can top with a little melted chocolate like I did if you want. I also threw some extra strawberries and chia seeds on the top as well. Put your pan into the fridge for a few hours to cool before cutting. Cut into desired bar sizes and store in fridge. Enjoy whenever you get a little rumbly in your tummy! *margarine won't work for this, but you could substitute extra virgin unrefined coconut oil in place of the butter I'm sure. :)


 
 
The Honey Bunches of Oats Honey Roasted cereal in this recipe gives these bars such a nice crunch, but again a nice crunch without being hard to chew and eat. They are some of the yummiest cereal bars I've ever eaten and I definitely see myself making these quite often! Have you tried any of these delicious cereals? Which one is your favorite! Make sure to come back here and let me know if you try this recipe!

1 comment:

  1. Yum! This looks like my kind of recipe-easy to make with a dose of chocolate. Thanks for sharing! #client

    ReplyDelete