National Cereal Day 2016

Today is "National Cereal Day" a wonderfully versatile fun food holiday. Why versatile? Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, desserts, you can use cereal for any type of meal. Savory or sweet, breads or meats, you can use cereal in a variety of dishes. But in all honesty my favorite way is still to make cereal bars. Cereal bars can be quick and easy or time consuming and complicated. It depends on what you add to the cereal to make the bars and how strong your arms are. Given an injury several years ago, I often need a bit of help with these sorts of kitchen ventures so, in honor of today's holiday, my hubby helped me make these Golden Graham Marshmallow Candy Bars. Enjoy!

Golden Graham Marshmallow Candy Bars
by TammyJo Eckhart, PhD

Ingredients:

8 oz Golden Graham cereal
10 oz mini marshmallows
1 lb candy coating
4 T light butter

Directions:

1) Spray bottom of 13 X 9 in glass pan to help the bars not stick once they have cooled.

2) In large sauce pan, melt the candy coating and the butter over the lowest seating on our stove. Breaking the candy up into smaller pieces will help it melt faster. Candy coating is sometimes called "bark" and generally it can be found in the baking aisle. The ones I buy use cocoa or chocolate. You can also find them in "white" and sometimes other flavors but I used the chocolatey one for this.

3) Once the bark is almost fully melted add in the marshmallows and keep stirring. This is where having help is very useful; one can stir while the other adds in the cereal.

4) Stir in cereal a bit at a time. I measured out one servings worth and then my hubby made sure it was fully covered by the marshmallow candy mixture before I added more.

Hint: The stirrer needs to work fast because the candy mixture will start hardening.

5) Once all the cereal is coated, dump the mixture into the pan. Use a rubber or silicone spatula to help flatten out the cereal evenly.

6) Let the cereal sit at room temperature for an hour then cut into pieces and enjoy! You can store this with a lid at room temperature as well but if your house is too hot or humid the bars can also go into the refrigerator but that will make them more difficult to chew.

How are you celebrating National Cereal Day? Leave me a comment and let me know!

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