Peanut Butter Rice-cereal Bars

Recently when I've wanted something sweet to eat that is still fairly good for me, I've made peanut butter rice-cereal bars. They are sort of like Rice Krispie bars, except a lot better for you. And, personally I think they taste a lot better than the originals. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I like the flavor of peanut butter and honey a lot more than the sickeningly sweet taste of marshmallows and butter.

Here's an important note of caution: I tried to make the bars a couple of times without heating the honey, and they would not hold together at all. Somehow heating the honey until it boils causes the honey to seep into the crevices of the rice cereal so that it all sticks together very nicely.

Peanut Butter Rice Cereal Bars
makes an 8"x8" pan of bars

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup honey (or 1/4 cup and 2 Tbsp. honey, depending on how sweet you like it.)
• 1/2 cup Natural Jif creamy peanut butter, or another natural peanut butter.
• 1 tsp. vanilla. Use Trader Joe's alcohol-free vanilla extract or another vanilla extract that does not have corn syrup and is preferably alcohol-free, since the alcohol could be derived from corn.
• 3 cups rice cereal. The brand I have used that does not contain any wheat or corn is Erewhon Organic Crispy Brown Rice, gluten free. If you can't find that one, the other two brands I have seen that could work are Enviro Kidz Organic Koala Crisp cereal and Nature's Path Whole Grain Brown Crispy Rice cereal.
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips. The two kinds I have found that do not contain milkfat are Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips and Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Instructions:

Pour the honey into a medium-size 2-quart sauce pot and heat it over medium heat until the honey comes to a gentle boil. Add the vanilla and peanut butter and stir until the peanut butter is completely melted. Take the pot off of the heat and stir in the rice cereal.

Pour the mixture into an 8"x8" Pyrex dish. Fold in the chocolate chips. If you don't want the chocolate chips to melt a bit, wait a couple of minutes before stirring them in. The following recipe also suggests the alternative of melting the chocolate chips and then pouring the melted chocolate over the top of the rice bars.

Firmly press the rice mixture into the pan using the back of a spoon, so that the rice cereal mixture is compressed into the pan and the surface is flat. Let the bars cool for a couple of hours and then cut and serve. If you are in a hurry to eat the bars, you can put them in the refrigerator so that they will cool more quickly.