Homemade Luna Bars, or slightly less sugary rice crispy treats

One of the things I've been spending a lot of money on lately is a new breakfast bar from Kellogg's.  It's a chocolate-chocolate chip All-Bran bar with added vitamins.  They're really good and great as snacks (if I wanted to eat a biscuit for breakfast, I'd eat a real biscuit), but pretty expensive when not on sale.

In the interests of saving money, I decided to try to make my own bar.  A while back, I found this recipe from V K Rees (probably best known as the photographer behind the amazing photos in Isa and Terry's latest books) for pumpkin Luna bars.  I didn't make those because I'm trying to wait until at least October before busting out the pumpkin everything.  But it led to the original recipe by Chocolate Covered Katie, upon which I based the recipes for the two batches I made.  The first recipe is also somewhat inspired by some treats that Sal made for a PPKamping trip a few years ago.

Speculoos Crispy Bars
Inspired by Chocolate Covered Katie and Sal

 3 c rice crisp cereal
1/2 c Speculoos (crunch or smooth)
1/2 c sticky liquid sweetener (I used rice syrup)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 - 1 1/2 c chocolate chips*

Line an 8" square pan with parchment paper and put the cereal in a large bowl.  Put the Speculoos, sweetener, and vanilla in a small, microwave-safe bowl and microwave at 15 - 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until everything is melted and blended together.  Pour this mixture over the cereal and mix well, making sure all the cereal is covered.

Pour the mixture into the pan and freeze for 30 minutes.  A few minutes before taking these out of the freezer, melt the chocolate chips (either over a double boiler or in the microwave).  Pour the chocolate over the cereal mixture and smooth over to cover the entire top, then put everything back into the freezer for another 30-odd minutes.  When the chocolate is solid, cut the bars into your desired size.


PBJ and White Chocolate Crispy Bars**

3 c rice crisp cereal
1/2 c peanut butter (or PB substitute, like Freenut Butter)
2-3 tbsp raspberry jam
2 tbsp raspberry syrup (or more jam)
2 tbsp sticky liquid sweetener
1 - 1 1/2 c white chocolate chips (vegan, obvs)

Follow the instructions as above.

*I used about a cup, and it barely covered my stuff.  If you want a thick layer of chocolate, use more.
**I only just put these in the freezer, so a) there's no pic and 2) they might suck.  I'll try to remember to update about their quality.