Cereal Bars

These bars are made with Cheerios cereal, but you don't need a spoon (or milk) to eat them!!  I made a variation of my "breakfast cookie" recipe - a new ingredient (honey) was added and instead of semisweet chocolate chips, I used milk chocolate chips.  My original breakfast cookie recipe used crushed cereal - I just decided to put the Cheerios in whole. I also changed the measurements of some of the other ingredients.  I wanted to make them into bars instead of cookies yesterday afternoon, because I was trying to get some last minute things done before Dominic got home from school while these bars were baking.  Everybody has their favorite kind of breakfast cereal, but I thought since Cheerios are pretty popular across many age ranges, hopefully a large portion of my readers will have at least one box in their pantry!! A bit of trivia - what year did Cheerios originally come out?? Answer - 1941!! General Mills called them "Cheerioats." They changed the name to Cheerios in 1945 :)  I'm calling these "cereal bars" because they're not just for breakfast.  I had one of these shortly before Dominic came home yesterday afternoon from school and gave another one that was still warm to his bus driver.  He is my new "taste" tester! I like him because he says everything I bake is good (well, isn't it?)!?!?!?! You could even put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top when it's still warm and serve it as dessert.

Ingredients:

2 cups white flour
1 cup margarine, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups Cheerios
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 13 x 9 x 2- inch pan with non-stick cooking spray. In large bowl, put flour, margarine, white sugar, brown sugar, honey, peanut butter, baking soda, salt, vanilla extract and eggs.  Mix well by hand with large spoon or with electric mixer until smooth and creamy.  Stir in chocolate chips, Cheerios and oatmeal by hand with large spoon until well combined.  Spread in pan evenly and bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly brown and a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack 15 minutes.