Healthy Recipe Tuesday

I almost forgot what day it was.

3 post in one day, Wow! Ok so Annabel Karmel has lots of kids cookbooks. Riley's first pediatrician recommended them to me because he was allergic to carrots when he was a baby. I wasn't able to give him baby food with meat because they all were made with carrots. Maybe that's why he won't eat meat now. Anyways he wanted me to try making my own baby food and she has several cookbooks that have tons of baby food recipes. They are all very yummy. This one is my favorite because there is a salad dressing recipe that tastes like the same dressing you get at the japanese steakhouse restaurants. It is the dressing for dinner recipe in the book. Any of her books are worth checking out. She is very creative. She doesn't do any vegetable hiding but her recipes are geared toward getting children involved in the kitchen and getting them to eat healthy.

Today's recipe is a bar recipe. We make a lot of bars in our house because my husband and my son are snack crazy. It seems like they are always rummaging through the kitchen snacking. So this is a healthy snack bar that they can devour when they are hungry.

Peanut Butter bars

3 c of crispy rice cereal

1/2 c dried fruit ( we like cranberries and cherries but you could use raisins or chopped apricots)

1/2 c pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds

1/4 c wheat germ

1/2 c chopped walnuts or other nuts of your choice

1/2 c honey

1/2- 2/3 c peanut butter( you may need a little extra)

1 tsp vanilla ext.

Heat up the honey, peanut butter, and vanilla in a large saute pan over med low heat. Stir together until mixed well. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Add the dry mix to the peanut butter mixture and stir to coat. Pour the mixture into the pan and press down with a spatula until it is even all around.Cover with wax paper and refrigerate for an hour or two and then cut into bars. Keep in a air tight container in the fridge.

I made these 2 days ago and they are almost gone. One thing to remember though, don't give peanut butter to children under 2. There are so many children with peanut allergies so just be careful. Also a word about dried fruit. Try to buy organic if you can. Dried fruit like raisins, are fumigated with Bromeate to prevent mold. Some of them also have preservatives like Sodium Benzoate or Sulfur Dioxide. That is why non organic Apricots are bright orange. I don't know about you but I wouldn't want anything I eat to be fumigated. Read your labels on things like flour and bread items too. Flour is another item that is fumigated .

Good luck with the recipe and let me know how quickly they get eaten.