Grampy's Magic Bars

Recognize these guys?

They were a welcome and familiar site on my grandmother's kitchen table back in the early 80's. Magic Bars. Could there be a more enticing treat for a gaggle of sweets-loving granddaughters? I think not. Grammyarta, as she was known, tended to agree.

Last week my dad, known as Grampy by many these days, celebrated his 76th birthday. Sadly, hundreds of miles away, we didn't get to spend the day with him, but we did whip him up a batch of Magic Bars. Happy birthday, Dad!

That's a good-looking 76, don't you think?!

Of course, the Magic Bars of yore were topped with chopped walnuts and sometimes, if we were really lucky, pecans. These days we avoid tree nuts here at Casa Kid Cultivation but guess what we don't avoid?

Pretzels. And pepitas. The two work together to deliver all the crunchy, salty, meaty flavor of nuts...without the nuts! So gather the troops and let the kids take the lead. This is the ultimate easy-peasy kid-friendly, grampy-approved recipe.

Grampy's Magic Bars
adapted from Eagle Brand

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 & 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
2 cups chocolate chips
1 & 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pretzels
1/2 cup pepitas

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease or spray a 9"x13" pan with cooking spray.

Put your graham crackers (I used about 7 ounces, or 1/2 a regular-sized 14.4 ounce box) in a large zip-top bag and let the kids bang the heck out of it with a rolling pin or baseball bat until you have crumbs.

Once you have crumbs, pour the melted butter directly into the zip-top bag, reseal, and mash the butter around into the crumbs until it's all combined.

Press the butter-crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Here's a trick. If you're careful, you can dump the crumbs into the pan, turn the plastic bag inside out and, placing your hand into what used to be the outside, use the messy, buttery inside of the bag to press down the crumbs like so. 

There. I just saved you a hand washing. You're welcome.

Pour the sweetened condensed milk in an even layer over the graham crackers.

Scatter the chocolate chips over the milk.

Add the pretzels and pepitas...

Then the coconut. Did I mention this is the perfect kid-driven recipe?

Pop them in the oven for 22-25 minutes until lightly browned. 

 Let them cool then cut into bars. Send them to your dad or grampy for his birthday.

 But make sure you save a few for yourselves.

Roasted Pepita Honey Butter and 25 Nut-Free Alternatives to Peanut Butter

Looly loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which is a problem because, in case you missed the memo, Roo is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. So, sadly, no almond butter or Nutella for us either. For years we've relied on Sunbutter for sandwiches, cookies, and pretty much everything else peanut butter-inspired. Huge props to Sunbutter. I don't know what we would do without you, my friend, and seriously, it is pretty freaking good. We're not tossing our jar of Sunbutter but with the school year looming and roughly 540 lunches to pack (that's 180 days times 3 kids!) perhaps it's time to expand our nut-free horizons.

Yup, that's a a smothering of homemade roasted pepita honey butter, baby. Chunky, salty, sweet, crunchy, nut-free yet nutty in flavor, and loaded with good stuff like amino acids, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. Pepitas, by the way, are pumpkin seeds, but "pepitas" is a much snappier way of putting it, am I right?

Bean worked the blender and helped taste test. After giving up one too many spoons to her constant lick stealing, I finally gave her a bowl and a spoon. Roo was intrigued but not ready to actually sample quite yet. And Looly, my usual holdout, she gobbled up half a pepita butter and jelly sandwich then wolfed down another thick slice of bread slathered in pepita butter. Yeah. That was after her lunch.

Roasted Pepita Honey Butter

2 cups pepitas, roasted and salted (I bought our pepitas already roasted and salted but you could easily roast your own pumpkin seeds instead).
3 tbsp. honey
1/4 cup canola oil
salt

Combine pepitas and honey in a food processor or powerful blender and pulse. Slowly drizzle in oil through top of lid and process until you have reached your desired consistency. I left ours just a little chunky and the extra crunch is awesome. Taste and adjust salt and honey to suit your mood.

And just in case you aren't swayed by my recipe, here are 25 more nut-free sandwich spreads to help get you through the school year.

25 Nut-free Sandwich Spreads

1. Sunbutter
2. Wowbutter (soy butter)
3. Nonuts Golden Peabutter
4. Biscoff Spread
5. Guacamole
6. Simple Foods Organic Chocolate Soy Butter
7. Mashed banana
8. Hummus
9. Edamame Hummus
10. Black Bean Hummus
11. Baba Ganoush
12. Roasted Vegetable Spread
13. Lemon Curd
14. Triple Berry Curd
15. Apple Butter
16. Vanilla Pear Butter
17. Pumpkin Butter
18. Mascarpone cheese
19. Goat cheese
20. Ricotta cheese
21. Schuler's Cheese Spread
22. Whipped honey
23. Marshmallow Fluff
24. Nut-free Kale Pesto 
25. Olive Tapenade
26. And of course, Roasted Pepita Honey Butter