Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars… With A SPECIAL Ingredient

Have you ever had a craving or wanted to make something only to find out you were missing one or more of the ingredients? You always want what you can’t have… that’s the saying. Well this totally happened to me the other day. I hadn’t been feeling well and the only thing that sounded good to eat were the granola bars I had made a few weeks back. The only problem was when I got out everything to make them I realized I was completely out of Rice Krispies… DOH!

I started looking around the pantry and saw peanut butter and that sounded good; oooh and chocolate chips those are always good with peanut butter. Yum!! By this time my stomach had been grumbling for awhile, now it was full on yelling “FEED ME!” Granola bars were really the only thing that sounded good to eat and I was determined to make a batch! Do I just add extra oats and skip the Rice Krispies? Do I use something else? So I looked in the pantry again and saw the two huge boxes of Multi-Grain Cheerios we had just bought at Costco last week. I swear fireworks started going off in the pantry… well maybe just in my head. I tweaked the chocolate chip granola bar recipe a little bit to add peanut butter and these bad boys turned out pretty darn good. Plus now I have extra for any late night cravings or if dinner tonight seems like to much to eat. My boys are pretty big fans of them too. I had to hide the last few so I could save them for later. Does that make me a bad mom?! I don’t think so 🙂

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups Multi-Grain Cheerio’s

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp chocolate chips

Directions:

In a small saucepan heat peanut butter, honey and brown sugar over medium heat. Stir to combine.

Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to medium-low and let cook for 2-3 minutes.

In a large bowl combine rolled oats and Cherrio’s.

Stir vanilla into peanut butter mix and remove from heat.

Mix wet and dry ingredients in bowl with a wooden spoon. Make sure there are no dry oats/cereal left.

Prepare a small jelly roll pan with parchment paper.

Pour mix into pan and spread out with hands. You want the bars to be a little bit less than 1″

Sprinkle chocolate chips across top and slightly press down.

Let cool on counter for 1-2 hours.

** I only let my first one cool about 20 minutes before I devoured it. It tasted great but didn’t stick together very well.

Cut into bars and enjoy.

Wrap in parchment paper and store in a ziplock bag any un-eaten bars.

This batch made about 20 bars for me. You might make more or less depending on how thick you like your granola bars.

These are great for a quick breakfast in the morning, or for an afternoon snack; or even a late night snack. (it may not be good FOR you to eat as a late night snack, but I figure it’s better I eat one small granola bar vs. one big bowl of popcorn)

Update: Since I first made these I have made 3 more batches and they keep getting better and better! These are perfect snacks to have on hand for those first few days of crazy back to school madness!

What are some of your favorite quick and easy snacks you like to have handy?