when life gets busy... make granola

Hey all!  It's been a busy few weeks over here, but I am thankful.  Lots of favor soap orders going on, and when I'm tied up in the kitchen, that means it's time for easy meals and healthy snacks... so I thought I'd share one of my favorites with you, because it's easy to make, yummy to eat, and more or less healthy for you too.

You can pretty much change this recipe pretty easily to fit your personal taste, add nuts if you like, chocolate chips, dried fruits, etc...  But here's the basic recipe... 

Cereal Granola Bars

ingredients :

2 1/2 cups of your favorite cereal {or a mix of a few}

2 cups old fashioned oatmeal {not the instant kind}

1/2 cup of raisins, crasins, chocolate chips, nuts, etc... your choice

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

directions :

1. in large mixing bowl, add cereal, oats, and your choice of fruit, nuts, chocolate chips etc...

2. in medium sauce pan on low heat, melt brown sugar, honey, peanut butter, and vanilla, stir until nice and creamy.

3. pour the peanut butter mixture over the cereal mixture a little at a time, until all ingredients are well blended.

4. pour mixture into a cake pan, and press with a wooden spoon, or your hand, or cover with wax paper and press {just like you would to make rice crispy treats}

5. let it set up for an hour or two, cut into squares and enjoy!

For this particular batch I used Cocoa Puffs and Trix because that's what we had for cereal in the house, and I used crasins, white chocolate chips and dark chocolate chips, but you can mix this up however you like... Usually I use part Raisin Bran as my cereal mix, to add a bit more fiber to the blend, but it really is up to you, you can make this however you like, and it always turns out perfectly! 

How's that for a tasty snack?!

Hope life is treating you well... catch you soon!

♥ Janell