Cheap and Wise: Meal Stretcher Monday

My husband never used to eat during the day at work. He would be so hungry and tired by the end of the day that he would over eat and be crabby. Thankfully, he started at least bringing a light breakfast with him - usually water or juice and a Clif Bar.

I'm glad that he's taking something. I'm glad that it's something with some good ingredients and filling fiber. I'm not overwhelmingly glad that those little buggers are kind of expensive.

So I have been cruising the internet for recipes to make something similar at home. I have discovered that there is a basic formula for most granola bars:

2-2.5 cups of grains/carbs/cereal
1/2 cup nut or seed butter
1/3-1/2 cup sticky syrupy stuff (brown rice syrup, maple syrup, honey, etc)
1/2-1 cup "treats" (nuts, fruit, chocolate chips, marshmallows, etc)
1-2 tsp other flavorings (vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cocoa powder, etc)
2-4 tbsp "healthy powder" (protein powder, flax powder, milk powder, etc)

I called the ones I made today "Kindergarten Bars" in the hopes of interesting my older son, who is about to enter kindergarten. He has Asperger's and is deeply suspicious of foods that are not smooth, or are not white/yellow, or are not Goldfish crackers. My hope is that he would want to help me make them, and might even eat a few. Hope.

Kindergarten Bars
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup raisins
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp flax powder

Mix the dry ingredients.

Add the peanut butter, honey, and vanilla, then SMOOSH IT ALL TOGETHER!

Some recipes call for the nut butter and syrup to be melted together in the microwave or on the stove. I wanted these bars to be kid friendly to make, so I decided we would just mush these all together with our hands instead of cooking anything.

It. Was. Fun.

Shame the kids didn't want to do it with me. Meh. I had a blast.

It's really sticky, so there was no way to take pictures.

At the end it was a bit stiff to work into the pan, so I microwaved the whole bowl for 30 seconds, then used a rubber spatula to mash it down into the pan. After cooling, I meant to cut them into 12 bars, but I had a math problem and cut 16.