Cheerio Bars

Pretty much my standard breakfast is cereal and milk. For a little bit in college I went with Apple Jacks. And for about a year I became a fan of Kix. And I've toyed with Post Raisin Bran (for the fiber). But for the most part, I am a Cheerios girl. I'm not even talking about all those fancy Cheerioses that are out on the market now. I'm talking about good old fashioned regular cheerios. And no, I don't put fruit or sugar on my cereal. I don't mix anything in. I pretty consistently just eat my regular cheerios with some skim milk and call it breakfast and I'm perfectly happy. (I do sometimes shout CHEEERRIIIOOOOOOOOEEEOOOOOOSSSS! but that only happens when I'm alone and it freaks out the furry sous chef.)

This information about me loving Cheerios becomes important to know because my grandmother recently passed down her cookbook of clippings and little handwritten recipes to me. She's 91 and lives in a retirement community and doesn't really cook that much anymore. In the middle of the binder, was a love note from my grandpa which was short and very sweet. There also was a handwritten recipe with no title. This recipe contained Cheerios, marshmallows, and peanut butter. I think that may be considered the trifecta of yummy.

I'm always looking for a reasonably healthy snack that will keep me filled up as I run around rural Ohio keeping my life together. These most definitely fit the bill. Yes, there are marshmallows and butter in them so they cannot be considered "health food". But really, Cheerios are good for you. People feed them to babies so they can't be horrible. The Brain said he didn't care either way about them, but then chipped away at the pan and ate almost half of them in the first night. I think he likes them too.

I'm also submitting this to Laura over at The Spiced Life. She's having a blog event about recipes handed down from our grandmothers.

Cheerio Bars

from Grandma Shazamer

3 Tbsp butter

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (I used Jiff)

one 10.5 ounce bag of mini marshmallows

6 cups Cheerios

Melt the butter and peanut butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the marshmallows until everything is a gooey and consistent mass. Remove from heat. Stir in the Cheerios and make sure the peanut butter marshmallow mass evenly coats the cereal. Press into a greased 13"x9" pan. Chill to set.