cereal bars and a winner

** The winner of the EAT gievaway is (drum roll...) Remaliah!!!! I have decided that a second prize is to be awarded of Whittakers chocolate to Stephanie who is in Austria and has never tasted NZ chocolate. Stephanie your taste buds are in for a treat!

Remaliah and Stephanie please send me your addresses to samantha(at)khaya(dot)co(dot)nz. Thanks!**

I love reading Alana's blog "Eating from the ground up". She's real about food and keeps things simple. I think if I met her I would really like her, she's honest and gutsy. She wrote a book called The Homemade Pantry. It is pure awesomeness!

This week I made the snack bars from her book. I am aware of how many store bought snacks the kids eat, mainly due to Grace's dairy intolerance and my lack of time. So I decided to go with Alana's cereal bars and see how they went.

The main thing I like about them is that they are sweet but not sugary sweet. The recipe calls for rice syrup as well as a bit of sugar. Rice syrup is pricey but I think I will get 3 batches of the bars from a jar.

Car snack 1: The Cereal Bar bar (adapted from The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila)

1/2 cup of coconut oil (the recipe calls for canola oil *shudder*)
1 1/2 cups of rolled oats (I used milky oats)
1 1/2 cups of puffed rice cereal
1 1/2 cups of loosely packed dried fruit (I used cranberries a.k.a red raisins in our house)
1 1/2 cups of toasted slides almonds (I forgot to toast mine and it worked out fine)
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups of chocolate chips (I used dairy free Sweet William chocolate chips)
3/4 cup of baking marshmallows (my addition)
1/2 cup of brown rice syrup
1/4 cup of packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract (I used a teaspoon by mistake- still turned out fine)

Lightly grease a baking dish. (I used baking paper and a slice pan). In a medium pan combine all the dry ingredients.

In a medium saucepan combine the rice syrup brown sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir frequently over med/ high heat until 1 minute past boiling. Poor the syrup over the dry ingredients and coat thoroughly.

Spread the mixture in the prepared pan and press down. Refrigerate for an hour and cut into squares.

I wish I could report that the two small fusspots loved them but I can't. I am hoping that the bars will grow on them. Luka eats them reluctantly and Grace will have a few nibbles. They are utterly delicious so MJ and  I will eat them if the kids won't!