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A simple, no-bake, three ingredient recipe for healthy “cheerios” bars that are perfect for school snack served with a glass of milk. Plus a free printable of love notes for your kids. This post is sponsored by got milk? but the recipe, printable, and content is 100% mine. 

milk and cereal bars

This new year of longer school days (for my big girl, my little is still with me most of the time, thank goodness) has brought a lot of fun, but also new challenges. It seems like we are always on-the-go. Now that the kids are away from home more and have become more active with sports, packing them nutritious snacks has become more important to me than ever.  We can’t just pop home to make smoothies after preschool lunch like we used to. Last week was my day to bring snack for our 1st grade class. The snack had to be gluten-free and nut-free, so I brought organic “O” bars made with gluten free O’s and sunflower seed butter. The kids loved these one even asked me to give her mom the recipe. I prefer the taste of these with peanut butter, but if you’re sending them to a nut-free school, seed butter is a great option. These cereal bars are perfect with a glass of cold Milk, which will add a boost of protein and vitamins to nourish growing kiddos. The bars are even delicious crumbled into the milk and eaten with a spoon. You can send milk to school in an insulated thermos or in milk boxes. 

free school lunch notes printable

To make your snack-packing a little more fun, I made some love notes! My kids watched me working on these in Photoshop and were excited to have them in their own snacks and lunches. Click here to print your copy.

cheerio bars ingredients
The “cheerio” bars are incredibly easy to make and require just a few ingredients: O cereal, peanut or seed butter, honey, and some seeds or nuts, if you wish. I tossed in some pumpkin spice pumpkin seeds for some fall flavor.
honey nut cheerio bars recipe

Whisk the honey and nut/seed butter together in a saucepan until it’s a nice smooth coating, and pour them over those O’s. 

o bars

Press them into baking dish and pop into the fridge or freezer until very firm. o bars and milk 
Cut into bars… o bars and milk snack
Add some sprinkles if you like, and serve with milk. Milk and cereal has never been this fun before! 
 
These bars do need to be kept refrigerated, as they will fall apart once they are warm.  
 
Yield: about 20 squares

Cheerio Bars Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes
Additional Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes

Easy recipe for nut-free and gluten-free honey cheerio cereal bars. A delicious snack for kids or adults.

cheerio bars made with sunflower seed butter for a school snack.

Ingredients

  • 5 cups O cereal (gluten free if desired)
  • 1 cup peanut or seed butter (use seed butter for nut-free bars)
  • 1 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

Instructions

  1. Line a 9 x 13 inch dish with parchment paper or foil coated with cooking spray. Place cereal into a large bowl.
  2. In a small saucepan over low heat, whisk the peanut or seed butter and honey until smooth and melty, about 2 minutes.
  3. Pour the honey seed butter over the cereal and mix with a spatula to combine. Stir in pumpkin seeds.
  4. Press mixture firmly into the prepared baking dish. You can keep your hands clean by lying a piece of cooking spray coated parchment over the bars while you press down.
  5. Place bars in the refrigerator or freezer until very firm. Cut into bars. Keep bars refrigerated.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 20 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 133Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 70mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 2gSugar: 15gProtein: 3g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Nutritionix. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your favorite calculator.

© Marina Delio
Cuisine: American / Category: snacks