Honey Nut Cereal Bars

I've said before that I am pretty bad about eating breakfast on work mornings, but when I stop to have it, it's my favorite meal.  I am still trying to find the perfect thing for me to pre-make; savory breakfasts are my favorite but I've yet to find a great make-ahead savory breakfast.  In the meantime, I scrounged up this recipe and I think it is rather awesome.

First, I love Honey Nut Cheerios, and for some reason we have literally like 4 boxes of it in our cabinet at all times (no idea why).  That was a plus when I saw this on Pinterest: it's basically a granola bar made from  Honey Nut Cheerios, along with almonds.  The recipe called for unsalted almonds, but all I had was salted.  This was an excellent decision, because it gave me that sweet-and-salty thing I totally adore.  I also chose not to chop the almonds, because they just look prettier.

The Cheerios and almonds are held together by a sauce made of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and honey; I realize this probably makes it not the healthiest breakfast of all time, but it was such a sweet, tangy, spicy sauce that it made it okay that I was eating sugar and butter for breakfast.

In addition, they're simple.  There are only 3 steps, and one of them is preparing the pan!  Excellent.  I busted them out late one school night!

These little gems were all devoured within 3 days, and that says something in this house.  We were eating them as breakfast, snack, and dessert.  This will definitely be a make-again recipe!

Recipe:

honey nut cereal bars
from Everyday Food on Shine Food
yield 16 bars

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
pinch cinnamon
3 cups Cheerios
3/4 cup roasted almonds, roughly chopped (salted or unsalted)

Instructions:

1) Line an 8-inch square baking pan with 2 pieces of parchment paper.

2) Combine butter, sugar, honey, salt and cinnamon in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Continue to boil for 1-2 minutes, then immediately remove from heat.

3) Stir in cereal and almonds.  Pour into lined pan, pressing down with a rubber spatula.  Let cool completely (about 30 minutes) and cut into 16 squares.