My Wednesday Pantry-Use It Up

     

This is what is left from Sunday.

     After  a footloose and free spending month on food in August, I'm really going to try and pinch pennies and rely on humble recipes, basics, and use it up ingredients. It's no secret if you read my blog, I'm a bit of YouTube geek-love all the things you can learn from other people. I wish some of these folks and this platforms were around when I was a younger mom raising kids and trying to keep my family fed and healthy. One of my favorites is Mindy from  See Mindy Mom. She does grocery and meal challenges, use it up videos, new recipes, and seems like just a nice person. She did a use it up snack video that inspired me to make the recipe I'll share below, though I looked in both my church cookbooks, and there is was! 

     While Mindy used up all the loose ends of cereal she had, saved in a sealed container for these bars (pan cookies, treats, whatever your part of the world calls them), I had a box of rice crispy cereal sitting around and used that. I also halved my recipe and used a smaller pan, as we don't need more treats sitting around to just tempt me. I also melted the last of a bag of Trader Joe's chocolate chips, the ones that are vegan, so these were more like a traditional Special K bar. I never make these and do not understand why I haven't over the years. So easy, and a bar has enough sweet punch to curb that craving for a candy bar. My version are accidentally vegan and gluten free, but don't mistake for healthy.  My version:

Cereal PB Bars

•  1/2 cup Karo (corn) syrup
• 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (iused crunchy)
• 3 cups cereal
• 1 cup of chocolate chips with a touch of Crisco to melt

On low heat, dissolve the sugar in the corn syrup. Add the peanut butter once sugar is melted and keep stirring until all is silky. add the rice crispy cereal. Spread in a lightly sprayed or parchment lined 8 by 8, or in my case I used a 6 by 10 (the smaller) rectangular pan. Melt chocolate chips with a tsp or so Crisco to help with smoothness, and frost the bars with the chocolate. It will set frim once all cool down .I cut mine in to 18 good size bars. I've since cut the bars in half (see above) to resist eating too much, but I've been nibbling this week. 

Here's Mindy's full Use it Up Treat Video.