Fruit, Honey and Coconut Energy Bars

EdsGirlAngie's Note:

Why pay almost $3 or $4 for an overpriced box of trail mix-style bars when you can make your own easily? A 6 ounce bag of puffed brown rice cereal goes for 80 cents at our local supermarket, and 6 ounces is a lot of puffed rice! You can use natural, low-sugar or low-fat peanut butters, use raisins instead of dried cherries or substitute chocolate or carob chips for the coconut (or include everything you can!). In addition to the sunflower seeds, I like to add sesame seeds for extra crunch as well.

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 12

• 1 cup peanut butter (or experiment with almond butter, too)
• ½ cup honey
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄3; cup sunflower seed
• 2⁄3; cup dried cherries or 2⁄3; cup dried cranberries or 2⁄3; cup raisins (or a combination)
• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1⁄3; cup shredded coconut
• 3 cups puffed brown rice cereal
• butter , to grease pan

Other optional ingredients

• chocolate or carob chips (optional)
• sliced almonds (other nuts are a little too oily for this) (optional)

Directions:

1. Grease an 8x8 pan with a little butter.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, honey and vanilla extract until well-combined.
3. Add the sunflower seeds, dried fruit, sesame seeds and coconut and combine thoroughly with the peanut butter mixture.
4. Gradually add the puffed brown rice cereal to this.
5. This is where a child comes in handy-- this step is gooey and messy and best mixed with your hands- and kids love stuff like that.
6. Firmly press the mixture into the prepared 8x8 pan; you'll need to wet your hands slightly, otherwise the mixture just sticks to them.
7. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours, then cut and serve.
8. They're very rich!

Reviews

[J-Lynn]

These are delicious! The honey/PB combination is always a hit with me. I couldn't find brown rice cereal, so I just used regular Quaker puffed rice. I subbed chopped dates for the dried fruit in hopes that my husband would prefer it... but he doesn't care for the dates or the sunflower seeds in it. I chose to leave out the sesame seeds. Well, I'll make it again, but just for me!

[Chef #586434]

delicious. we substituted toasted oatss for the rice and it was pretty good also.

[zannah17]

Why this recipe hasn't been rated yet is beyond me. These bars were SO good & super easy to make. The only change I did make was to add a bit more honey than called for. That is only because of my tastes. The different ways to make these are endless. I made cranberry, chocolate, & raisin bars.... Delicious. Thank you so much for a great recipe! I will be making these every week from now on!