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Spring break is eagerly anticipated by children everywhere. And it’s just as fun as they expect… for the first day.

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After that, they tend to get really bored, really fast. Luckily, Retro Ruth had sent this great kids-friendly recipe just in time for Spring Break 2014!

Chocolate Nougat Cereal Bars
If you’re a harried mother with vacation-bored youngsters perhaps a no-bake cookie session will help satiate their appetites for activities. Bored children as well as busy homemakers will find Sally’s cookies with a candy-like quality easy to make and delightful to taste.
Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup butter or margarine
  • 1/2 pound marshmallows
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup shredded or flaked coconut
  • 1/3 cup chopped nuts
  • 3 1/2 cups cornflakes, whole wheat flakes, bran flakes, or oven-toasted rice cereal
  • 1 package (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate bits, melted
Instructions
  1. Combine butter or margarine, marshmallows and salt in top of double boiler and allow to melt over boiling water. Stir as needed to make a smooth mixture.
  2. Combine coconut, nuts, and cereal in large bowl. Blend marshmallow mixture into cereal, stirring as needed to coat evenly.
  3. Press into 9-inch square pan. Spread melted chocolate evenly over top. Chill 1 hour. Cut into bars. Makes 27 to 36 bars.
3.2.1284

 

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Look familiar? Because it’s basically fancy Rice Krispie treats — if we use “oven toasted rice cereal,” at least, which we are because that’s what we’ve got in the pantry. (Give me a break here. I’m harried.)

marshmallows

The toddler went crazy when I put the marshmallows into the saucepan and started melting them.

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See, he’s currently going through potty-training. When he successfully uses the potty, he gets a marshmallow — two if he didn’t need to be reminded to go.

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This unfortunately means that nobody else in the house is allowed to eat marshmallows in his presence. And when I took an entire bag and turned them to goo, well I was clearly just a terrible mother.

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I always wonder why I feel harried, and then I describe the marshmallow hostage situation and wonder why I don’t feel more harried.

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One of our vacation-bored youngsters wanted to take charge of the tasting this week. I was happy to oblige (he helped out a lot with making these cookies, so he’d earned it). Internet, meet RJ!

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I think he was mostly just glad to see a retro recipe that he knew would taste great.

tasting-bliss

Verdict: Delicious!

RJ didn’t provide any tasting notes besides begging for more, but here are some of my own observations:

Chocolate, coconut, and nuts are a neat upgrade to the standard Rice Krispie Treat recipe. It’s rather deceptive to call these “no bake” since there’s a lot of stovetop melting required, but overall it is very easy to make and a good way to distract “vacation-bored youngsters” — especially if you also make them clean up the sticky dishes afterwards!

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