Kitchen Sink Cereal Bars

You've never seen a cereal bar treat like this one before! We're taking the basic concept of a favorite childhood treat, but amping up the volume by swapping out cereals and adding all kinds of salty sweet ingredients. If you're a salty sweet treat lover like me, you're going to need a chaperone nearby whenever you're within 2 feet of these. And if you're not, prepare to be converted!

Let's start with the base mix of our bars. We're going to use not one, not two, not three, but FOUR different mix-ins to form the base of our cereal bars. So, we'll start with some rice cereal squares, like Chex. Then, we'll add in some plain kettle potato chips, some mini pretzels, and some broken Oreo cookies. Now as we're preparing these items to get mixed together, we want to crush our chips, pretzels, and cookies into pieces that are similar in size to our rice cereal. That way, each element will blend together in perfect harmony leaving no chance of uneven or lopsided bars.

Once we have our cereal mix on stand by, we can start working on the glue of our bars...the melted marshmallows. We're going to melt some butter over medium heat in a large pot or dutch oven, then we'll add in the marshmallows until they are completely melted. I like to stir the marshmallows constantly while they're in the pot to make sure no spots touch the heat for too long and start to crystalize. We also want to make sure we take the pot off the heat the moment every last bit of marshmallow is melted. Leaving the marshmallow mix on the heat for too long can lead to tough bars, and nobody wants that!

Once the marshmallows are melted down, we'll remove the pot from the heat and stir in the cereal mix until everything is coated. But, we're not done yet! Before we transfer the mix to a pan to set and cool, we're going to stir in some M&Ms as our final special ingredient. Waiting until the last moment to stir in the candy helps to keep them from melting too much, so make sure you don't add them in at the same time as the cereal.

From there, we'll transfer the mix to a foil lined pan that's been spritzed with cooking spray. We'll gently pat down the mix to fill out the pan. And, we'll give these babes a couple hours to set up before we cut them up and stuff our faces.

To really drive home what's in these bars, I like to crush a few extra chips, pretzels, and cookies then use them as a garnish on top of the bars. While the bars are still warm and fresh in the pan is the perfect time to add these extra toppings.

When it's time to enjoy these treats, beware. They tend to disappear VERY quickly. I'm not really sure how it happens. But one minute there's a full pan of treats in front of you, and the next minute you're covered in marshmallow residue with no recollection of how the goodies disappeared.

These bars are the absolute perfect balance of salty and sweet. And, you get a taste of both sensations in each and every bite. The cereal helps to give these bars some body; but the balance of the candy, cookies, chips, and pretzels is what creates this magical experience that you'll need to keep experiencing again and again and again.

And just to make sure nobody feels guilty about eating a whole pan of cereal bars in one sitting, look at it this way. Since we're putting everything but the kitchen sink in these bars, these are the perfect pantry clean out treat! ;-)

Ok, everyone. I can't think of a better way to kick off the weekend than with these delicious bars. So, this is where I'll leave you for today.

Have a great weekend, I'll be sure to load us up with some extra veggies next week, and let's eat!