Bulk raisins are on sale at Sprouts this week, and I’ve got a great way for you to use them.

With raisins on sale this week, and rolled oats last week, I thought I’d share one of our family staples. Despite my love of all hot breakfast cereals, none of my kids want anything to do with oatmeal. It’s possible I fed them too much when they were babies, since that powdery oatmeal was so easy to mix with water, formula or breastmilk and airplane right into baby faces. So now they’re all done with oatmeal, and yet, I buy rolled oats when they are on sale.

A friend posted this on Facebook years ago, and my kids still get happy when I roll them up. We’ve done many variations, but most commonly I go ahead and toss raisins in.  The original recipe my friend posted has several more variations–cranberry pistachio and almond joy, for example.

I’m listing the ingredients below in ‘parts’, because I find it easier to vary it when I think of it that way. The link above is more like an ordinary recipe. You can substitute any other ‘butter’ for peanut butter, just keep in mind if it’s runnier, because you’ll need less, and maybe less sweetener, too.   These keep well, I’ve heard, but I haven’t had any last long enough to find out.

• 4 parts rolled oats
• 1 part coconut flakes
• 1 part peanut butter
• 1 part ground flax seed
• 1 part chocolate chips
• 1 part other thing you like: almonds, raisins, sunflower seeds, things like that.
• a bit less than 1 part honey or agave nectar, depending on what else you’ve added

You basically need enough honey to make the stuff stick together. So start with some, and stir it in. It’ll be ok, they’ll eat them no matter what, really.

I’m working up to having a variation of these always available to wean my kids off granola bars. At least until I start making granola bars.

Cheep Cheep!