Food Friday: Chewy Peanut Butter Granola

So Lauren found this recipe about a year ago here on Pinterest* and the granola part has become a staple in her kitchen, my dad's kitchen and my kitchen. Since then we have made some variations to the recipe. If you like peanut butter, oats and honey, you are going to love this simple granola. It's good alone as a snack or my favorite over Greek yogurt with honey and fresh strawberries. Here is the recipe along with some variations we have tried.

Chewy Peanut Butter Granola

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey (I usually don't fill the cup to the rim)
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract**

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9X13 pan by greasing it with Pam.

Put honey, peanut butter and vanilla into a medium, microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds until the peanut butter is slightly melted. Wisk together until smooth. Use a rubber spatula to mix in the oats, making sure the oats are thoroughly coated in the peanut butter/honey mixture. Spread the granola into the prepared pan and bake for 8 minutes.

Let cool completely before you crumble any large chunks into bite-sized pieces. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks - yeah right it will be long gone by then!

Here are some variations that we have tried. My dad has used almond butter instead of peanut butter and adds dried cherries or raisins before cooking and swears it's better than the original. If you want more of a dessert, try adding chocolate chips before baking. Once I added a handful of milk chocolate chips. I don't know if that was a good idea or a bad idea because I ended up eating most of the batch by that night! And because I am trying my hand at clean eating, this is a very simple recipe to convert. Simply use all-natural peanut butter (you know the kind you have to stir before eating) instead of your typical peanut butter.

*The Pinterest recipe is for a parfait.

**One of the first times my dad made this recipe, he accidently grabbed peppermint extract. We do not recommend this. It tasted awful, but we got a good laugh out of it so maybe it was worth it!

Hope you enjoy this as much as we do!