College Road Trip - Food

College Road Trip

Food Tip

What do I always bring in the car for a long trip?  Bite sized Shredded Wheat Cereal

Yup.  Those pretty much tasteless squares of cereal.  No fat, so sodium, no sugar almost no taste.  So what's the point?

These little nuggets are pure fiber.  When you are hungry and are in the middle somewhere without a place to stop and find food

pop a couple of these squares 

Chew and swallow and then take a couple large sips of water - and your hunger is GONE!

The fiber absorbs the water, swells up to quench your hunger and you don't have to have that bag of chips from the gas station any more!  Brilliant!

Plus - it's good to eat a pure fiber like this once in awhile.  The cereal acts like a scrub brush and cleans out all the gunk lying around your intestines.

When we were in the car, enjoying all this fiber goodness I was reading a recipe on the back of the box - nothing else to do with all that loud munching noise in your head and not a good time for sparkling conversations

The recipe is for Grab n' Go Peanut Butter Bars and I thought "why not" maybe the kids will like them and it can help use up the rest of the box.  Impossible to eat a whole box on any car trip and once I get home - am I really going to keep munching on them?!  The recipe also said "no bake" which is a winner in August.

I made a couple of changes - they suggested raisins, my kids like raisins but not mixed in stuff - not even in raisin cookies! So I swapped them out for chocolate chips and sunflower seeds and sprinkled in some ground flax seed.  Omega essential oils from the flax seed and the sunflower seeds and good quality dark chocolate is being praised for it's antioxidants.  Yeah, we like that!  

In a large container I mix dry roasted sunflower seeds with a jar of unsalted sunflower seeds for a "anytime" snack and this cuts down on the amount of sodium.

You melt together in a microwave brown sugar, honey and peanut butter.  Stir well before  adding the chocolate chips, cereal, flax seeds, and sunflower seeds.  

The chocolate chips melted which was good because other wise the finished treat would be too chunky.  You are supposed to put the mixture in a 8 x 8 square pan, but mine broke so I used a 9 inch pie plate.

Grab n' Go Peanut Butter Bars (or how to use up a cereal before it goes stale)

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cups spoon sized shredded wheat cereal

3/4 cup raisins *
* I swapped out the raisins for chocolate chips, added a handful of sunflower seeds and a tablespoon of ground flax seed

Mix the sugar, honey, and peanut butter in a large microwavable bowl.  Microwave on high for 1 1/2 - 2 mins and stir until well blended.

Stir in the cereal and other additions.  Press into a 8 inch square pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Chill.

Cut into bars - 16 servings.

Well, that was easy!  It was  a bit too sweet for me, I'd cut back on the sugars next time.  I would probably use a crunchy peanut butter next time for a better bite.  My youngest said it tasted just like a peanut butter crunch candy bar!

I guess it makes a good treat once in a while like having spent the day on the beach or playing in the pool all day.  *** 3 stars because the kids liked it, too sweet for me.  I guess it can go into the new cookbook for those killer activity days.  We do love those summer killer activity days!

Pam