Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola

As of today I’ve been in Destin, Florida for five days.  Surprise!  Jealous?  You should be, it’s awesome here.  Sun, sand, emerald blue water and doing a whole lot of nothing.  It’s been glorious.  But of course I had to take a little time out of my day and tell you all about a little road trippin’ snack I made.

See Jeremy and I are actually pretty health conscious (despite what I blog about) and have been getting in shape for this vacation for awhile.  Knowing that we would be in the car for 12+ hours, I wanted something healthy to snack on should hunger strike.  And let’s face it, the healthy options at a 7-Eleven are pretty much limited to the bottled water.  We had to be prepared!

So I thought a nice snack would be homemade granola.  I’ve seen a few recipes but never attempted it myself, so after doing some research I found one that sounded like it had potential and was super versatile (because no way in heck was I NOT going to change the recipe!).  I started with Playgroup Granola Bars from Allrecipes.com.  I modified it alot but the bones of the recipe were great…the granola turned out awesome!  I could not keep my hands out of it and seriously didn’t know if there would be any left by the time we actually got on the road.  And yes, this recipe is healthy.  But healthy can taste really, really good.  Like, “no way can this be healthy” good.  Eat it by the handful or pour some milk over it and enjoy it for breakfast.  And DO play with the recipe…experiment with flavors and ingredients!

Enjoy!

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola
Author: 
Category: Breakfast, Snack, Dessert
10 cups
 
Ingredients
  • 2 c. Thick Rolled Oats
  • 2 c. Hard Red Wheat Flakes
  • ½ c. 7-Grain Mix (If you can't find it at your local health food store, substitute Wheat Germ or Flax Seed)
  • 2 c. White Whole Wheat Flour (I like King Arthur)
  • 1½ t. Salt
  • ½ c. Sugar in the Raw
  • ¼ c. Cocoa Powder
  • ½ c. Chocolate Protein Powder (I like the All Natural Chocolate Muscle Milk)
  • 2 Large Eggs, lightly beaten
  • ¾ c. Honey
  • ¼ c. Safflower Oil
  • ¼ c. Peanut Oil
  • 2 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
  • ½ c. All-Natural Peanut Butter
  • ½ c. All-Natural Dry-Roasted Peanuts (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large cookie sheet with non-stick spray.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the oats and the next 7 ingredients.
  3. In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the eggs and the next 5 ingredients.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Spread evenly into the cookie sheet, pressing down with the back of a spoon or your hands. Sprinkle the dry-roasted peanuts on top and gently press into the mixture. Bake for 22 minutes and let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, or until the granola is cool enough to handle.
  5. Get another cookie sheet and break up the granola into small pieces (the peanuts will probably fall off but that's ok), dividing between the two cookie sheets. Bake both cookie sheets of granola for another 10 minutes. Let cool completely and store in an air-tight bag.

 

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