Cereal Bars

I found the Clean Plates Cookbook^[1] that I told you about last Tuesday, and slightly modified their recipe for Kitchen Sink Almond Butter Snack Bars. They’re using that name because you can use any combination of nuts (I didn’t add nuts), dried fruits, or add different spice blends such as cumin or ginger.

I was eating this right out of the pan before I even put it in the refrigerator. They’re very similar to rice krispie treats, obviously without the marshmallows but you can’t tell. I wrapped all of the finished, cut bars individually in wax paper and put them in the freezer so each person can grab one in the morning and pack it in their lunch.

Speaking of wax paper, when I was little my best friend’s mom always wrapped her sandwiches very expertly in wax paper. One time I asked her to show me how to fold the wax paper and I’ve been doing it ever since. I couldn’t find anything online about which decomposes faster, plastic sandwich baggies or waxed paper, so I had somewhat of a dilemma since neither get recycled. I wrote to Dan Imhoff at Watershed Media for his opinion (he wrote Paper or Plastic which I’ve previously referenced). His advice was to wrap sandwiches in the paper napkin you’ll use at lunch, or put them in a covered plastic dish that will be brought home and reused.

Rice Cereal Treats
2 C organic brown rice cereal
1/2 C dried cranberries
1/2 C raw mini cacao chips
1/2 C unsweetened shredded coconut
3 T sesame seeds
2/3 C organic almond butter
2/3 C organic brown rice syrup
Combine the cereal, cranberries, chocolate chips, coconut, and sesame seeds in a medium bowl; set aside.

Combine the almond butter and rice syrup in a small pot over low heat and stir until blended; you do not need to boil it. Stir the almond butter mixture into the cereal mixture until well combined. Transfer to a waxed-paper lined 8” square dish and spread evenly. Refrigerate until firm, about an hour. Remove the wax paper to transfer the bars to a cutting surface; cut and serve.