Customizable cereal bars you can make with just 6 ingredients!
Have fun changing up the flavor by using different types of cereal to match whatever you’re craving.
I used Whole Foods 365 brand Morning O’s this time, and apple cinnamon O’s might have to be next! Inspired by the popular General Mills milk ‘n cereal bars, this homemade version has a much shorter and cleaner ingredient list. The recipe is adapted from my 5 Ingredient Healthy Rice Crispy Treats.
No-bake, healthy, and perfect for breakfast or snacktime 
Customizable Cereal Bars
makes 5-6 bars
- 1 cup Cheerios-type cereal
- packed 1/2 cup oat flour (Or put rolled oats in a food processor until they turn into a fine powder. Measure after blending.)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp roasted cashew butter OR allergy-friendly alternative (or nut butter of choice)
- 5 tbsp agave (Honey will work, but is not for strict vegans.)
- 1/3 cup Cheerios-type cereal
- optional 1/4 yogurt of choice (such as Wholesoy) or coconut butter
Combine the 1 cup cereal, oat flour, and salt in a mixing bowl. In a separate (large) bowl, combine the nut butter (warmed to a stirable consistency if necessary) and sweetener. Pour dry into wet (not the other way around), and stir until even. Line a baking dish or tupperware container with a large piece of wax or parchment paper. The batter will fill a 7×5, or about 2/3 of an 8×8. Pour the batter into the dish. Using a second sheet of parchment, squish down as hard as you possibly can! Use a heavy object to really press it down. Press the remaining 1/3 cup cheerios on top, then stick in the fridge or freezer to harden before cutting into bars. Frost just before serving, or you can opt to leave them plain. Store leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer.
View Milk & Cereal Bars Nutrition Facts
Question of the Day:
What is your favorite breakfast cereal?
Link of the Day:
Erica { EricaDHouse.com } says
The husband has had a small amount of Captain Crunch in the pantry for a few weeks now. I think this is about to happen.
Jess @ The Baguette Diet says
I used to love the packaged milk & cereal bars for breakfast when I was a teenager…I can’t believe it never occurred to me to make them myself! My favorite cereal is banana nut cheerios…saving to try ASAP.
Danielle {Styelleish } says
Being a chex girl, I think I might try this with chocolate Chex… they look so yummy!
Anna says
if u do can u please report back? I would love to try them with chocolate chex…
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine says
These are so much fun! Love the cashew frosting! My favorite cereal is ALWAYS changing, but I am a sucker for all of Nature’s Path’s cereals!
Sara B says
Yess couldn´t agree more.. if you like the natural ones, I am sure you will like this: https://youtu.be/E3LPAmLh_KU 🙂 have a nice day 🙂
Andrea says
Aaah this recipe is amazing!!! I love milk & cereal bars and am so excited to see a healthy spin off the original. My favorite breakfast cereal would probably have to be cinnamon toast crunch or good old fashioned mini wheats–but they never fill me up, so I usually have a protein smoothie 🙂
KS says
Love your website and clever recipes 🙂 You may wish to re-think using agave nectar in your recipes though and do some reading on how unhealthy and highly processed it is 🙁
EVA says
Sugar is sugar; since she’s vegan she can’t use honey, and not EVERYTHING can be maple syrup-flavored. She uses just over 1/4 cup in the recipe, so I don’t think that it’s going to kill her. You can use whatever liquid sweetener you want, but just remember that what works for one person doesn’t always work for another!
Jessica says
Kashi Cinnamon Harvest or Fiber One Chocolate if I’m behaving…but I don’t normally! I can’t bring myself to eat Reeses’ Puffs anymore but I used to love them. I still have a fondness for Cookie Crisp.
Love Low Fat says
Those look too fun and tasty, yum!
Sprinklesofsweetness says
My absolute favorite cereal is Trix! I love the fruity and colorful pieces.
Jules @ WolfItDown says
Katie – they look fantastic! Much better than the ones you get in the shop *shudders*
My faaavourite type of cereal… I think it might actually be cheerios! I used to be somewhat addicted to bran flakes with almond milk too – soo good 🙂 And oats is always a winner ^ ^ I hope you’ve had a lovely Sunday x
Sabrina says
Perfect timing to post this recipe on a Sunday, so I was already able to make them! 🙂 They turned out so great and even though I was a bit skeptical at first, they really do taste like milk-cereal! I topped them with rasperry yoghurt, worked great!
Thanks for sharing this Katie, you’re my idol haha 🙂
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I am so excited you already tried them! I think you were the first 🙂
Kelly says
Is the yogurt the “frosting?”
Hannah says
i made this and it is a perfect snack! it was such a good idea!thank you!
Rachel @ Athletic Avocado says
Love this! Reminds me of the store-bought ones I used to get when I was little! Except Im sure these are better and way healthier!!!
Megan says
Hoping to make these for my fiance- Can I sub the oat flour with something else or is there a particular reason for it? Thanks!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I’ve not experimented with anything else, but you can definitely experiment! Be sure to report back if you do!
Karen says
I haven’t made these yet, but I’ve successfully used wheat flour in place of oat flour in other recipes.
Megan says
Worked great with wheat flour- thanks!
Steph says
My favorite breakfast cereal used to be crunchy nut cornflakes (boy is there a lot of sugar in them!) but now it’s definitely whole grain cheerios! Even just for munching on dry! 🙂
Matea says
Loving all these on-the-go breakfast recipes you’ve been sharing lately! 🙂
Diane says
I love your recipes but am struggling to find a print friendly option, is it me? Also, being a follower from the UK would it be possible to include measurement conversions with the ingredients? I usually follow the recipe from my phone and it’s a bit fiddly opening new tabs to find cup conversions to ounces or grammes. Apart from that I think your recipes are great and will be trying this one later.
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I am so sorry for the trouble (seriously… this printing thing is extremely frustrating, and I wish it weren’t so difficult!). The plugin that I used for printing recently went out of business, and rather than use a plugin that isn’t monitored, I’m trying to find the best replacement solution. The good news is that, until then, all you need to do is highlight the recipe with your computer mouse and right-click! It will give you an option to print 🙂
Anna says
My favorite cereals are definitely the chex varieties! I especially love the chocolate chex. It’s great that they’re gluten-free now too! they’re one of the few cereals I actually don’t feel guilty eating.
Marissa says
Will other flours work in this recipe? I just ran out of oats……
Kim Hoeltje says
These look wonderful! And so many flavor combinations! Def gonna try these!
Emily says
Mmm, these look good. Can’t wait to try them.
http://www.oohlalacakery.blogspot.com
Bianca says
Oh, I used to LOVE cereal bars when I was a kid! These sound (and look) great!!
heidi @ a week from thursday says
These look delicious. What a great snack. I would definitely make them with capt’n crunch, my guilty pleasure cereal.
Jamie says
I just whipped up a batch of these bars yesterday. They were so simple, and really easy to customize. I used puff rice cereal and added 1/4 cup of really good quality chunked dark chocolate, 1/3 cup of chopped pecans to my batch, and I subbed in 2 tablespoons for peanut butter vegan protein powder for the 2 tablespoons of the flour. The bars are a perfect post workout snack for me!
sonaly says
Great post and images.thanks for sharing with us.
Ariana says
I just found your recipe & plan on trying it tonight! I have an entire box of Cheerios that I had no clue what to do with lol. I have a question regarding the topping. Did you just take your yogurt of choice & “frost” the bars or did you mix the yogurt with something else like sugar? I have some plain yogurt I wanted to use but wasn’t sure if was supposed to be added with something else. Also, do you think if I pre-frosted the bars & froze them the icing would hold up? We’re expecting a baby in a few weeks & I’m trying to stock the freezer with as much food/goodies as possible, that require little effort upon thawing. Thanks!
Unofficial CCK Helper says
You can use plain yogurt, or if you’re using unsweetened yogurt then it would be a good idea to add some sugar.
I wouldn’t recommend freezing yogurt. It turns icy.
Susan says
What are these frosted with?
A H says
Yogurt.
Missy Mi says
As a sub for oat flour, I third mashing up some of my Cheerios. It worked very well, in my opinion. Worth a shot with other “puffy” cereals that can mash into a powder, or the powdered bits from the bottom of a cereal bag if it’s not too sugary.
Bobbi Harding says
How can I adapt this recipe to go with a 13×9 pan?
Jason Sanford says
Try doubling all ingredients. Doesn’t always work but usually does in a recipe.