What to Do with Stale Cereal (Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios Bars)

I hate letting food go to waste. I do my best to make sure we use food before it goes bad, but sometimes we still have some wilted lettuce or sour chicken broth. When we ended up with 3 cups of Cheerios that were too stale to eat, I really didn't want to throw them out.

With just four other ingredients, I was able to use the Cheerios to make some cereal bars. You couldn't tell the Cheerios were stale, especially after a day or so. I was pleasantly surprised at how much better these are than the cereal bars you can buy at the store. I bought some Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch bars once since they were cheap, and five months later we still have one left. Nathan devoured these homemade ones.


Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios Bars 
(Adapted from The Homesteading Housewife)

3 cups Cheerios

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy)
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Combine the honey and sugar together over medium heat and bring to a boil. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat.

Add the peanut butter and stir until it's well blended. (As you can tell by the flame in this photo, I forgot the "remove from heat" part of the previous step.)

Stir in the cocoa powder until it's mixed in.

Pour the chocolaty peanut butter goodness on top of your Cheerios and mix until the Cheerios are coated.

And pour the Cheerios mixture into a buttered 9x9 pan (I used an 8x8 pan since I don't have a 9x9).

Once they've cooled, cut the pan into squares. If you let them cool in the refrigerator too long, you will probably need a saw. Nathan managed to cut them after a lot of work with a big knife.

What ways have you found to use up food that is a little past its prime?

Shared at Frugal Friday on Life as Mom.