The first morning of My Clean Cuisine started as it usually does – around 6 am. The problem was that this was a Saturday proceeded by a Friday with one delicious glass of Spanish wine too many. I would normally set my 4-year-old early riser up on the couch, turn on a Disney DVD and stick a Special K Cereal Bar in her hand to buy myself 30 minutes longer in bed. I had to learn how to make healthy cereal bars – quick. Thirty minutes of sleep depended on it.
This is the first cereal bar recipe I tried and my family LOVE them!!!
Maple Cranberry Cereal Bars
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Jessica
Serves: 15 bars
Ingredients
- Small pat of Butter for greasing the pan
- 2 cups (175 g)oatmeal
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup (55g) dried cranberries, chopped (this is easiest done in a food processor)
- ½ cup (118ml) plain, unsweetened almond milk
- ½ cup (roughly 25-30g) of whole grain cereal or puffed quinoa or puffed rice cereal
- 1 cup (255g) organic almond butter**
- ½ cup (118ml) maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ tsp fine himalayan or sea salt
- 1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
- ** I used the brown almond butter (skin on)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). Put a couple dabs of butter around a medium pyrex dish and then line with parchment paper (the butter will help the paper stick to the pan). Grease the paper lightly with the butter or a brush of oil.
- Toast the oatmeal and pecans until fragrant and just golden. Turn toasted oats and nuts into a large bowl and add cranberries and whole grain cereal (ground a bit if necessary, for example if you are using spelt flakes).
- Heat almond milk in a medium saucepan until it comes just to a boil. Remove from heat and add almond butter, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt. Return to heat and stir over a medium-low heat until well combined. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla extract and pour it over the oat mixture. Stir to combine.
- Pour it all into prepared pan. Smooth it with a spatula. Place another piece of parchment over the top and smooth the top. Refrigerate at least one hour before cutting into bars.
The best bit – they can be frozen and defrosted as you need! They keep well in the fridge for 1 week and frozen up to 3 months. I doubled the recipe, wrapped them in packs of three and defrost them as I need.
Au Revoir Special K!!!!
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