Addictive Peanut Butter Granola

Hurray, an actual recipe!

If recipes were judged based on the number of times you make them, then this recipe gets five stars from me. I love it for many reasons: I can make it quickly from ingredients I have on hand, it is reasonably nutritious (especially for a sweet snack), it's satisfying, and most importantly, it's delicious! I adapted it from a now-lost recipe I found on allrecipes.com, so my kudos and apologies to the writer of the original granola bar recipe from whence my beloved peanut butter granola came.

I truly believe peanut butter and chocolate are a magical combination. When I was a child, my favorite candy of all was Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Now that I am older and no longer live on candy, I eat this chocolate-studded granola in place of Peanut Butter Cups. I usually stir the granola into milk or plain yogurt and eat it alongside some fruit.

Addictive Peanut Butter Granola
4-6 servings

2 1/4 cups oats
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil (or you can use a bit less than 1/3 cup; I usually do)
1/3 cup peanut butter, chunky or smooth as you prefer (I do like the texture chunky peanut butter gives the granola)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 of the following add-ins:
-1/2 cup mini chocolate chip morsels
-1 cup mixed peanut butter and chocolate morsels
-1 cup chocolate chips

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2) Mix together the oats, flour, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the vanilla extract.
3) Add the vegetable oil and peanut butter and mix. The mixture will be a bit chunky.
4) Stir in the brown sugar.
5) Stir in your chosen add-in. The mixture will be a bit moist from the oil and peanut butter, but overall it will be rather dry and chunky. Spoon the granola into a square 8-inch cake pan.
6) Bake the granola at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, and then dig in! Before storing, allow granola to cool completely in the pan and then store it at room temperature in a tightly sealed container. This granola will keep for at least a week. My batches never last longer than that!