Two Recipes to Celebrate National Cereal Day 2015

In honor of the approaching "National Cereal Day" on Saturday, we're going to look at two Cheerios brand chocolate varieties that your Chocolate Priestess received for free using coupons from Kroger and from Savingstar.  I tried them as breakfast cereals and also in candy making.  Ready to learn the results?  Let's go!

I based my Minty Chocolate Cheerio Rounds on this recipe for Fun Cereal Cookies.  I used chips and minty mini marshmallows in place of regular mini marshmallows, peanut butter, and butterscotch chips as well as Dark Chocolate Crunch Cheerios.  Note: the cereal itself tasted very good and didn't get sticky or go stale even after a week.  I'd buy this variety again.

Recipe for Chocolate Marshmallow Cheerio Rounds
5 cups (180g) Chocolate Cheerios cereal
4 T Imperial Margarine
31oz container of Marshmallow Fluff (Kroger brand)
8oz Sugar Free Chocolate Chips (Hershey brand)

1) Lightly oil mini-muffin pans -- you'll need at least 48 cups to fill depending on how large you make each round.

2) Cut margarine into six pieces and melt in a large pan on medium-low heat on the stovetop.

3) Measure out your cereal. Note: the photo shows one serving of Chocolate Cheerios, yup that small amount is one serving so be careful when you are eating a bowl of it because you may be getting more servings than you expect. Cheerios are heavy things and they quickly equal a serving in comparison to a cereal like puffed rice or cornflakes.

4) Add in the marshmallow fluff and stir a couple of times.

5) Stir in the chocolate chips and stir until it and the fluff are completely smooth again.  It should a very milk chocolate color.

6) Add in the cereal a bit at a time, stirring to thoroughly mix it then turn off the heat.

7) Using a regular sized eating spoon, drop the cereal mixture into the mini muffin cups until they are all filled.  You may need to keep stirring the cereal mixture from time to time.

Let sit for at least an hour before turning out onto a waxed sheet or into a container for storage.  Can be stored in refrigerator or if covered at room temperature depending on how sticky you like them.

These were a bit sticky so next time I think I'd try one tablespoon less of the margarine.

Recipe for Minty Chocolate Cheerios Bars
5 cups (180g) Dark Chocolate Cheerios
3 T margarine (Imperial)
1 8oz bag mint chocolate marshmallows (Kraft brand)
1 10oz bag Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips

1) Cut margarine into six pieces and melt in a large pan on medium-low heat on the stovetop.

2) Measure out your cereal. Again the photo shows just one serving of this cereal. Notice that only some of the Cheerio pieces are dark in the Dark Chocolate Crunch version.

3) Add in the marshmallows and stir until smooth.

4) Stir in the baking chips and stir until it and the marshmallows are completely smooth again.  It should a  color.

5) Add in the cereal a bit at a time, stirring to thoroughly mix it then turn off the heat. This will start to firm up quickly because of the mint.

6) Spoon into a large edged pan and spread out evenly as fast as you can. It will start to cool and stiffen up as soon as you pour it from the pan so I got an extra set of hands to help me out with the pouring/scooping so that I could spread out the mixture.

7) Let set to cool for an hour then cut into bars -- if you end up with 24 bars each will be about 134 calories IF you used the same brands and amounts that I did.

What do you all think of these cereal ideas as treats?