Jammy Cereal Bars

My kids love cereal bars and asked if I could look up how to make them at home. I happily obliged and found this recipe which looked really simple and used ingredients we already had in the house. There's a fair bit of sugar and butter in them, so I won't be touting them as health food, but on the other hand they are made from ingredients that are all natural which isn't necessarily the case for store-bought individually-packaged jammy cereal bars.

The recipe seemed simple enough - mix the crust ingredients, put half in the pan, spread the jam, top with the other half of the crust mix. What made it a little trickier than expected is that the crust turned out very crumbly even after I pressed it down, so spreading the jam on top didn't work very well. Imagine trying to spread jam on a sand castle. Same idea. So instead I dropped it by small spoonfuls close together and carefully tried to make it as even as possible, but it was still a little messy. Next time I'll try using jam that's less thick, or maybe heat up the jam a little to make it a saucier before attempting to spread it.

The bars were a big hit. We all loved them. Not sure that I'd classify them as a breakfast food since they are pretty sugary, but the kids are looking froward to having them in their lunches for dessert this week, and especially stoked to be able to say that they were made at home!

Out of curiosity I plugged my ingredient list into an online nutrition calculator and then compared with a store-bought cereal bar. The results indicated that if I cut my sheet into 30 bars we'd have the same number of calories, with mine having a higher fat content and less sodium. And with mine having no artificial ingredients or extra packaging. The cost worked out to be a fair bit cheaper than a box of cereal bars, even including the fact that I used a pricier good quality jam.

Jammy Cereal Bars
recipe was altered slightly from this one

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups quick cook oats
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup strawberry jam

1. Mix sugar, oats, flour, cinnamon, and soda.  
2. Cut in the butter to form a crumbly mixture.  
3. Spread a little over ½ the crumb mixture into 9×13 buttered pan and press down. (I used parchment paper and didn't grease the pan)
4. Carefully spread with jam, leaving a one inch edge with no jam or it will ooze out the sides.
5. Add the remaining crumb mixture on top and press lightly into jam. 
6. Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes.   
7. Cut into bars, let cool at least a little before eating so you don't burn yourself on hot jam.

Granola

With two large bags of oats that I bought on sale the other week sitting in my pantry, we sat down to brainstorm on what else we could make aside from oatmeal porridge and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

And then my kids came up with the idea of granola! It's something I've never made before, (in fact I don't think I've even bought granola in recent years), but given their fond memories of the granola they were served at their old school we decided to give it a go. A quick Google search led me to The Best Granola Recipe, so needless to say our expectations were high. Plus I already had most of the ingredients in the house and enough time to pull it all together. My 4 year old volunteered to be the mixer and I just measured everything out for her.

It was so simple to make and turned out to be indeed the best (and only!) granola we've ever made!

Granola

Makes about 2 pounds (1kg)

Adapted from David Lebovitz who adapted from Feast, by Nigella Lawson

• 5 cups (450g) quick cook oats
• 3 cups (375g) almonds, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup (125g) sunflower seeds
• 3/4 cup (100g) untoasted sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup (120g) packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 cup (180g) unsweetened applesauce (or another unsweetened fruit puree)
• 1/3 cup (100g) maple syrup (the original recipe calls for rice syrup)
• 1/4 cup (80g) honey
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

 Preheat the oven to 300F (150C).

1. In a very large bowl, mix together the oats, almonds, sunflower and sesame seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.

2. In a small saucepan, warm the fruit puree with the maple syrup, honey, and oil.

3. Mix the fruit mixture into the dry ingredients until thoroughly dispersed, then divide and spread the mixture evenly on two baking sheets. (If you have ones with sides, often called jelly-roll pans, use them.)

4. Bake the granola for about 45 minutes, stirring every ten minutes, until the granola is deep golden brown.

5. Remove from oven, then cool completely.

Store the granola in a large, airtight container. It will keep for up to one month.