Cereal Bars

Cleaning out my pantry last week, I came across a nearly full box of cereal that had been left open and forgotten in the back, so the puffs were kind of stale. Still edible but not as crispy as they should have been. I was on the fence whether or not to toss them and tried to think of how I could use them in their stale state. I could make bread crumbs out of them for coating chicken or fish, I thought. But how much breadcrumbs do I really need? A whole box of cereal will surely make a ton of crumbs that I most likely won't use since I don't fry food often enough to use them all. Much to the dismay of my oldest son who loves fried foods. So it pained me to even think of throwing them away, since it's wasted food.
However, I then moved to my baking cupboard and found an opened bag of extra large JUMBO marshmallows that my boys had begged me to get for them. The marshmallows are nearly the size of baseballs they are so huge. Needless to say, they ate two each and lost interest. So there they sat discarded and alone for who knows how long. They were so sticky that there was no way of pulling them apart from each other. I was just going to throw them away as well, until I thought about Rice Crispy treats or rather, Kix Crispy treats. Light bulb-on! It's not a new idea but it solved my dilemma of "to toss" or "not to toss".
I pilfered my kids remaining Easter candy, grabbed some Reese Pieces, some peanuts and decided to make these Cereal Bars. I know you are probably thinking but all these ingredients are stale and old, why bother? Well, my answer, why not? Once you melt the marshmallows with butter they are perfectly fine, adding the cereal and the other ingredients turns it into candy basically leaving the cereal bars perfectly yummy!  Enjoy!

Cereal Bars
Makes 2 dozen

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 bag of JUMBO marshmallows
1 1/2 quarts of cereal (a little less than a full box of Kix)
1/2 cup peanuts
3/4 cup Reese's Pieces
1/2 cup of frosted flakes

Here is a look at this super sticky mess of marshmallows, I literally had to peel away the plastic and drop it in the pot as one solid lump. Not pretty, but it will be. 

 Melt 1/2 cup butter in large pot and then add bag of marshmallows.

 Heat on med heat and stir periodically until marshmallows begin to melt.

 Continue heating until smooth. Much prettier now. :)

I also grabbed the remaining bit of Frosted flakes (not pictured) and added them to the mix too.

Add cereal and peanuts and stir until well coated.  Then gently add Reese's Pieces and stir until just mixed. Too much mixing will break and melt the candy, so just add them in slowly without a lot of rough mixing.

Spread out on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and use a spatula sprayed with cooking spray to smooth out cereal.

Pop into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes until cooled and then cut into squares and eat. Store these in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. :)