Back To School Breakfast Bars

1. Do everything fun we haven’t had time for yet this summer.
2. Enjoy the guilt-free chances to stay up late because we can sleep as late as we want the next morning.
3. Complete the millions of back to school preparations without letting them put a damper on the last days of summer.

On top of the above mentioned list, I have begun to feel the pressure of providing my kids with “Back to School Food.”

How does that differ than regular food?  It needs to be already prepared, so it fits into the Grab-It-And-Go category that is essential for kids and food during the school year.

So over the next few weeks, I will be sharing with you my favorite school recipes that work for our family.  Both quick breakfasts and our favorites for the lunch box as well.

Hopefully, we will all benefit by having a bit less craziness and a lot more time to pretend it is still summer 🙂

These bars are hands-down my kids favorite recipe.  I first posted a more “treat-like” version of this recipe a few years back that I packed full of mini M&M’s, chocolate chips or mini marshmallows.  Again, my kids adore them.

Awhile back, I decided to play with the recipe a bit to make them more appropriate for breakfast and this was my grand slam result.  Tons of dried fruit, ground flax seed, less sweetener and butter.  Still amazingly chewy and addicting!!!

Please don’t tell me your kids won’t eat dried cranberries, apricots and dates.  YOU JUST NEED TO CHOP THEM SMALL ENOUGH….they will never know.  Even my boy who “hates raisins” devours these because when he asks if there are any raisins in them, I can honestly tell him “no” 🙂

Back To School Breakfast Bars

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• Yield: 12 bars 1x

Ingredients

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• 1 1/2 C quick oats – or pulse whole oats in a food processor
• 1/2 C Rice Krispies
• 1/4 C ground flax seed
• 1/2 C dried apricots – diced small
• 1/2 C dried cranberries – diced small
• 1/2 C dates – diced small
• 1/3 C coconut
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 2 Tb honey
• 6 Tb butter, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt

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Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In the bowl of your mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together all the ingredients until the butter is evenly distributed.  Pour into an ungreased 9 x 13 pan and press down firmly all over until the bars are level and well packed into the pan.
3. Bake for 16-18 minutes.  As soon as it is removed from the oven, use a bench scraper or metal spatula to press down into the bars to score them into the desired size.  Once they have cooled completely, then use a knife to cut on the scored lines.

Notes

**You can also double this recipe and bake it in a 1/2 sheet pan for 18 minutes

• Author: Carole Jones

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 bar
• Calories: 250
• Sugar: 18g
• Sodium: 110mg
• Fat: 9g
• Saturated Fat: 5g
• Unsaturated Fat: 3g
• Trans Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 34g
• Fiber: 3g
• Protein: 4g
• Cholesterol: 15mg