No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars

I've seen these No Bake Peanut Butter Bars pop up in a few of the blogs that I read and they looked really good. I went over to the site fANNEtastic food and there are a lot of other great recipes there too.  Check it out. There's a lot of possibilities with substitution in these bars, so don't feel like you need to go out and buy everything if you don't want to.

First, mix all of the dry ingredients.

Then mix the wet ingredients. She recommends microwaving the wet ingredients for 20-30 seconds to make the sticky mixture easier to spread. I don't have a microwave, so I just hoped for the best. It worked out fine. You just have to mix very very well. It will take a bit to really get the wet ingredients to spread evenly, but they will eventually.

Spread the mixture evenly in one big or two small pans and smoosh the mixture down. You can eat them now, although they'll be crumbly. Put the pans in the refrigerator, where they will firm up. I made a double recipe, which makes about 24 bars. I know that the portion size that makes 24 bars probably doesn't translate to a boy sized portion. Plus I find it impossible to not automatically want to double a recipe.

Ingredients (makes about 24 bars)

Dry
3 1/2 cups of rolled oats (quick cooking seem to work just as well)
3 cups of puffed brown rice cereal
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup chia seeds
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (or shredded)

Wet
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup brown rice syrup
1T vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients in a big bowl. I also added 1 cup of dried cranberries to my dry mix.

Combine wet ingredients and microwave for 20-30 seconds if desired.

Pour wet ingredients over dry and mix really well. You might feel like it will never happen, but they'll mix!

Spread mixture into pans, pat down and put in the fridge to set.

Done!


They came out great! Like I said before, this is not my recipe (see link above for the original), but you can make it your own by switching up the ingredients. You can use a different cereal, use another nut butter, leave out or add different seeds or chopped nuts, add dried fruit or whatever you'd like. The chia seeds and flax can be a bit expensive, so don't feel like you need to buy them if you don't want to (although, they're good for you!). I already had them, so I put them in.