Today I thought it might be fun to make a healthy-ish treat with my two wee lairds. Bear and Lion were getting a bit restless and starting to pick at each other so I figured I better come up with an activity fast. What better activity than cooking!?! You get to measure, scoop, stir, get a little messy, and do a bit of taste testing along the way. The best part – at the end you have something delicious and edible. Happily the boys were on board with the idea.

I have a couple cook books I’ve been particularly inspired by lately and today I took a bit of inspiration from one written by Giada De Laurentiis. In her book Eat Better, Feel Better she has a recipe for brown rice cereal treats. They look delicious! Unfortunately, we didn’t have the ingredients to make them today. Instead of picking something different we did what we do best here in the Wee Lairds Kitchen – we let inspiration take us and then made a whole bunch of substitutions!

While these are treat bars, I feel like they’re pretty healthy overall. In order to keep treats like these healthy (or simply help me feel better about the number of treats I let my wee lairds have) I like to minimize highly processed ingredients and added sugar. Today the only highly processed ingredient is the chocolate chips. The puffed buckwheat, maple syrup and peanut butter used are 100% all natural with ingredient lists that reflect that. I mention this because I do feel like it impacts the overall “healthfulness” of the treat – but I also understand we are incredibly fortunate to have access and means to these. Please do not let a specific ingredient I list – or a personal food restriction – get in the way of getting in the kitchen! Almond butter or generic peanut butter, puffed rice instead of puffed buckwheat, dried fruit like dates or raisins instead of chocolate chips – they’re all great substitutions! Raid your pantry and get inspired!

• 1.5 cups puffed Buckwheat
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup semi sweet mini chocolate chips
• Pinch salt
• Coconut oil (for pan and spatula)

Combine maple syrup, vanilla extract, pinch of salt and peanut butter in a small sauce pan. Stir over low heat until well combined.

Rub a thin layer of coconut oil over the end of your spatula or spoon to prevent it from sticking to the treats as you stir them.

Pour the puffed wheat into a large bowl and then pour the nut butter syrup over the top and stir to fully combine. Once fully combined add chocolate chips (or nuts, dried fruit, shredded coconut, etc). Stir briefly to combine and then press into a lined or greased pan. Allow to cool and set up before turning out and cutting into pieces.

We hope you enjoyed this recipe. If you give it a try, let us know! We’d love to hear from you in the comments. From all of us here in the Wee Lairds Kitchen we wish you good health and happy cooking!