Crunch Berry Cereal Bars

Found this recipe out of a need to get rid of some cereal sitting untouched in my pantry.  It worked out great.  My kids loved it.  (I think I mainly liked it for the chocolate.)  The recipe is adapted from Spark Recipes.

Ingredients:
10.5 oz marshmallows
2 tbs butter
6 cups Captain Crunch Berry Cereal
1/2-1 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl, melt the marshmallows and butter together in the microwave for about a minute.  Stir well. Add the cereal and gently toss together.

Spray a 9x13 pan with a nonstick cooking spray.  Press evenly the cereal in the pan.

Melt the chocolate chips for about a minute to a minute and a half in a small bowl.  Drizzle over the marshmallow cereal.  Place in fridge until hardened.  Cut into bars.

For the school lunches, I wrap the bars in wax paper.

Puppy Chow Snack

Peanut butter, chocolate, & crunch...yummm.  This is a favorite of mine, from when I was growing up.

Ingredients:
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 large spoonful of peanut butter (about 1/2 cup)
1 stick butter/margarine
1 box (14 oz) corn chex cereal
2 cups powdered sugar

In a medium bowl, heat the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter/margarine for 1 minute in the microwave.  Stir & heat for another 30 seconds.  Stir again until totally combined and no longer watery, but smooth.

In a large bowl, pour the whole box of cereal and top with the hot chocolate sauce.  Mix well, and then sprinkle with the powdered sugar.

Toss the chocolate covered cereal with the powdered sugar, until coated completely. Store in an airtight container.

Kid Tested & Approved

Favorite School Lunch Snacks

Now that school is back in session, I've made a list of items to put in the lunches for my four boys. Sometimes, I just cannot think of anything to put in their lunches!  It's just good to have it in a list to have some ideas.   I like to make the bulk of the lunches the day before to prevent the stress of getting ready for school in the morning.  About once or twice a week, I will do batch snack prep of bagging all the snacks for the week that I can ahead of time.  

• bagels, crackers (Cheez-its, saltines, graham crackers, ranch crackers), chocolate/plain popcorn, trail mix, chewy granola bars, chips, hard/soft pretzels
• jello, gummy bears/fruit snacks, frozen yogurt, pudding
• small bananas, orange/apple slices, applesauce, diced peaches/pears, carrot/celery sticks, mandarin oranges
• cinnamon apple muffins, banana bread, brownies/brownie bites, cookies/cookie bars

I love Ziploc bags, but just couldn't pay for it several years ago.  So, I've been using the fold-top sandwich bags ever since, the kind that my mom used to give us when we were little.  It is more cost effective for me to buy them vs the others.  Something else I'll do is pre-portion the jello, pudding, applesauce, peaches, pears, etc into snack size containers.

As time has progressed, I am making more & more of my own groceries versus buying them already made. It does take more time, but it is saving money, and better for me & my family.  Like, I've started making my own applesauce to cut down on costs in my food envelope, especially when I can get the apples for $.69/lb or less on sale at an ethnic grocery store. 

•