Nothing fast about 'em, breakfast bars!

Let me paint a little picture for you. It's 7:45 in the morning. I just got back to sleep after going to the bathroom for the fourth time and finding a comfortable position to fall asleep in.

Then, the sound of pitter-patter coming toward my door. I open one eye, praying the whole time that 's a rat or maybe a rogue squirrel that's trapped in my house. But I'm not that lucky! No, these pitter-patters are coming from someone who weighs roughly 35 lbs and I know what she's going to say and she's going to say it in the most pathetic voice you've ever heard... "Mommy, I'm hungry!"

I know some of you are thinking "tell her to get some dry cereal", right? Well, I've considered that, but I have children who love and need routine (otherwise their heads spin) and this doesn't make my life simple!! Besides, they love milk in their cereal and have you ever watched a six year old pour a gallon jug of milk? Not pretty!

So I thought, why not make them something they can just grab and eat themselves. Something different and fun, something they would love to get themselves-

Homemade breakfast bars!

So here's my attempt to try to appease the kiddies:

First you mix 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of oats, 2/3 of a cup of brown sugar and 1/4 tsp of baking soda in a bowl.

take a 1/2 cup of softened butter and cut it into the flour mixture with a pastry knife or the way I did it with your hands!

mixture should look like this.

Reserve 1/2-1 cup of flour mixture (this will be the top layer of the breakfast bar.

Press the remaining Flour mixture into an ungreased baking pan (this is an 8x8x 2.5)

Spread desired amount of fruit preserves into the crumb mixture.

Sprinkle the reserved 1/2 cup of crumbs on the top.

Spread it out carefully.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until the top becomes nice and brown.

Allow to cool and cut into squares. These squares can be individually wrapped for easy breakfast or even a lunchbox snack.

Just so you know, these were kid tested and approved.

But is it cost effective?(assuming I use mostly generic ingredients)  Lets break it down:

Flour costs roughly $2.00 for a five pound bag. One cup of this flour is about $0.27
42 oz of old fashioned rolled oats costs around $2.50. One cup of oats will cost you $0.40
A 32 oz bag of brown sugar costs about $1.70. 2/3 of a cup of this will cost about $0.14
Baking soda is very inexpensive, a 16 oz box will cost you $0.70. A 1/4 tsp would cost less than a cent, so why even count it!
16 oz of butter costs about $2.99. A 1/2 cup of this butter would run you about $0.75
Last, a 12 oz jar of blackberry preserves costs $1.99. I used about a cup in my recipe and that would cost $0.67

For a grand total of  $2.23 for 16 cereal bars

You can buy 8 Nutri-grain bars for $3.67

I'd say its a deal! It wasn't so hard to make, the kids loved it and it's made of simple ingredients that I can pronounce.

Love it!