Snack Bars

My kids love cereal bars as snacks. I like giving my kids bars for snacks because they are a quick and easy snack. Because of Stella's nut allergy we are limited to the Enjoy Life brand bars for her. And for Mairin, we'd been relying on the WFM 365 brand fruit and cereal bars (btw, I re-checked the ingredients list recently and found that these bars contain whey). The Enjoy Life bars are great, except that they retail for just under $5 per box of 5 (yes, nearly $1 per bar). After trying the Enjoy Life bars one day, Mairin decided she liked those better than the 365 brand bars. So, we were going through nearly 2 boxes of bars per week!! All of the bar recipes that I could find included nuts of some sort as one of their integral ingredients. So, imagine my delight when I was searching the Internet last week and ran across Dreena Burton's recipe for Easy Pleasin' Oat Bars from Vive le Vegan. No nuts were involved in the recipe at all!!

The only ingredient I was missing was Brown Rice Syrup, which I purchased today. These bars are so quick to whip up, and they are delicious too. I used a 10x10 pan and got 10 rectangular bars. I haven't done the math yet, but I guarantee you this batch of 10 bars cost less than $1 to make.

You can expect to see some variations of these bars appearing here quite frequently. Dreena lists quite a few add in ideas on her blog post. I think chocolate chip will be next up, followed by raisin, and I'm thinking an apple cinnamon version would be good as well.

If you are looking for a great snack option for your kids, or yourself, I suggest you try out these Easy Pleasin' Oat Bars ASAP!!