School days are long days for my boys, especially for my five year old in kindergarten. The bus picks them up at 8:00 am and drops them off at 4:30 pm so waiting for dinner can be rough indeed. It is nice to have a something to tide them over so when I was asked to get creative with some Post Alpha-Bits cereal, my mind immediately went to a snack.
I thought that I would make some trail mix since my boys love the combination of sweet and salty. And given it is the fall season, pumpkin would be a wonder flavor to feature. (It is everywhere, isn’t it?) I noticed that by themselves, Alpha-Bits only have 6 grams of sugar per serving. So if I wanted to add a little sweetness to this cereal with the pumpkin spice flavor, it wouldn’t be over the top. And bonus, this cereal is also a great source of Vitamin D and Iron.
You can easily play around with the ingredients to suite your families tastes. Don’t you just love those types of recipes?
- 2 cups Post Alpha-Bits cereal
- 1 cup pretzels
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil in liquid form (or canola oil)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon water
- ½ cup yogurt raisins
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees,
- In large bowl, mix cereal, pretzels and cranberries. Set aside.
- In small bowl, combine honey, pumpkin pie spice, oil, vanilla and water. Pour over cereal mixture.
- Gently toss until well combined.
- Spread cereal mixture out on parchment paper or silicone baking sheet lined cookie sheet. (Or ungreased cookie sheet.)
- Bake for 15 minutes, stirring once halfway.
- Cool completely (approximately ½ hour) and gently stir in yogurt raisins.
- Store in air tight container
While I have made homemade baked granola and trail mix before, I’ve never tried anything with a pumpkin spice. I immediately fell in love with the aroma as it cooked and the taste. There is nothing better than trying this fresh out of the oven. Heavenly!
To make the day extra special, I put some of the trail mix in a handy to go box and greeted the boys outside. I wasn’t sure what they would make of the different fall flavor but they loved the combination and didn’t want to stop eating their snack.
With the cereal letters, it makes it fun and education to play with their Alpha-Bits. It is an easy way to mix snack with learning, whether it means playing a “find a letter” game for letter recognition or seeing what words my boys can spell.
For more information about Alpha-Bits, including recipe ideas, visit the Post Alpha-Bits page. Also search for the #alphabits hashtag to see more creativity from other bloggers.
Disclosure: I am participating in this blogger campaign with the Mom It Forward Blogger Network and Alpha-Bits. All thoughts remain my own and are not influenced by monetary compensation received.
ellen beck says
November 3, 2013 at 12:45 amI like how you use cereal in this, it makes it nice and crunchy and you can make a bunch fairly inexpensively!
Janet W. says
November 3, 2013 at 4:53 amMy grandsons are big Alpha Bits fans and love to eat that cereal in the mornings! They would love the added ingredients and I think this would quickly become their favorite snack!
Vickie Couturier says
November 3, 2013 at 8:08 amthat really looks good,,hadn’t thought of making mix like that
Jean says
November 3, 2013 at 11:14 amThis sounds great! I like that you used coconut oil. I love to cook with it.
Emilie says
November 3, 2013 at 10:11 pmI’m a huge fan of coconut oil too! It has so many great uses and I love the flavor.
Julie Wood says
November 3, 2013 at 12:11 pmMy family loves Alphabits cereal and Trail mix, and this is such good trail mix, and it is easy to make. I like the recipe and am going to make this.
JR FrugalMom says
November 3, 2013 at 9:15 pmWhat a cool fall-style trail mix, and I just love how you used alpha bits for this.
Richard Hicks says
November 3, 2013 at 10:17 pmWhat a fun recipe. Must be tasty and full of those daily vitamins!
stephanie says
November 5, 2013 at 7:32 ami love it! sounds so good!
Beth Klocinski says
November 6, 2013 at 10:27 amI love pumpkin flavors in the fall.
Merry says
November 6, 2013 at 12:45 pmThis looks really yummy and something I know my boys would love for a snack too!
Brooke says
November 6, 2013 at 5:54 pmLooks Tasty!!
Reina or Linda Tamayo says
November 6, 2013 at 6:50 pmI like the recipe , thank you so much !!
Gianna says
November 6, 2013 at 11:01 pmThat looks delicious!
Lily Kwan says
November 6, 2013 at 11:55 pmThis recipe looks very tasty. Thanks for sharing!
Reina or Linda Tamayo says
November 7, 2013 at 1:16 pmI love it !!!!! sounds so good . Delicioso .
Reina or Linda Tamayo says
November 8, 2013 at 6:23 pmI know my kids would love for a snack too !!!!
Reina or Linda Tamayo says
November 9, 2013 at 6:19 pmThat looks delicious !!!!
Jill Greenlaw says
November 13, 2013 at 10:50 amThis trail mix looks delicious. Thanks for sharing it us. I am going to try it with Alpha Bits cereal.