No Bake Chocolate Granola

Have you ever made no bake cookies? You know the kind with lots of yummy peanut butter and sugar? Well I found a recipe for no bake granola at eatgood4life, tweaked it ever so slightly and came out with a delicious and healthy no bake granola that tastes so similar to those horribly bad for you but oh so good cookies that I kind of feel guilty for a second each time I eat it. Then I remember it's actually good for me and I do a happy dance.

In a large bowl combine:

4 C quick cooking steel cut oats
2 C brown rice cereal
1 1/2 C chopped dried banana chips
1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut
1/3 C flax seed meal
1/4 C chia seeds

In a small sauce pan heat until melted and well combined:

3/4 C natural peanut butter (no Jiff here, we don't want all that sugar)
1/2 C coconut oil
1/4 C honey
1/2-3/4 C bittersweet chocolate chips (It depends on how generous I'm feeling that day!)

Pour the sauce mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well. Spread evenly onto one or two cookie sheets, smash it down and place in the refrigerator until hardened. I say one or two cookie sheets because I have done both and if you spread it thinner onto two it is much better for eating in a bowl with milk because it crumbles more. If you want thicker chunks that are better for grabbing out of the bag and snacking on than press it all onto one pan.

After about 30 minutes you can break up the granola with a spatula and put it in an airtight container. It does not need to be refrigerated, but I have found that if you leave it out, the chocolate starts to melt a little and you end up with messy hands. And while there are worse things in life than having melted chocolate on your fingers, melted chocolate on the hands of a toddler that like to dart away from the table and onto the white love seat in the next room is not a good thing!