Cereal Fruit Granola "Cupcakes"

I love having go to healthy recipes on hand for times when you have company coming over or just for a quick easy grab and go snack. This is a great recipe for a granola "cupcakes" that is easy, inexpensive and really good. It's especially good if you have little ones. I often take this in for snack day at my daughters school. While it's great for children it is also good for anyone who enjoys a sweet treat and much more cost effective than buying granola bars. These are called cupcakes because they are made in paper cupcake holders:

Cereal Fruit Granola "Cupcakes"

7 tbsp unsalted butter

3/8 cup honey

1 & 3/4 cups oatmeal

1 & 3/4 cups unsweetened crispy rice

1 tbsp sesame seeds

3 & 1/2 ounces of cranberries or raisins chopped ( you can even substitute mini chocolate chips)

1/3 cup shelled pecans chopped (Optional, I leave these off since my little one has a nut allergy)

Melt the butter and honey together over low heat.

Mix the oatmeal, crispy rice, sesame seeds, cranberries (or other fruit) and chopped nuts together in a bowl, add the melted butter and honey mixture and stir to combine.

If making with chocolate chips, be sure to let the butter cool before mixing so that it doesn't melt the chips.

Place cupcake papers in a muffin pan.

With a butter spoon, spoon the mixture into cupcake papers and press down well.

Chill in the refrigerator for 6 or more hours before serving.

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A little bit about me and this blog

This blog is about easy living. I'm from Lexington, Kentucky and there was a street in a neighborhood that I longed to live on. You guessed it, the name of the street was Shady Lane. It is a beautiful tree lined street, with beautiful medium size homes. It is a symbol to me of good old fashion living. I imagined there to be block parties, the kind you would see on soap operas, kids running around, family barbecues, little girls in girly dresses swinging on swings, lemonade stands and plastic pools for the kids to play in the summer.

Well, that is what my blog is going to be about. I no longer live in Kentucky though there are things I miss terribly about it. My family, the horses, the beautiful rolling hills, to name a few. I live in central Florida now in a small town that most resembles my life in Kentucky since moving away 13 years ago. There are beautiful oak trees and a feeling of living a wholesome, simple life. This blog will be about the things I love, simple living and family. I hope to share some great easy recipes, crafting ideas, interior decorating on a budget, party planning, entertaining, deals I find in my daily trips to my favorite places to shop and anything else that I come up with to help you live a simple, fulfilled, life.

Thanks for reading my blog. I'm a bit nervous about entering the blog stage but I hope to meet new people, share a bit of myself and even learn some things about myself along the way.

Leslie