homemade granola bars (with only 4 ingredients!)

in an attempt to be healthier and to stop getting so dadgum hungry in the middle of the day, i decided to try out a new homemade snack food. and it. is. AMAZING. i don't know why i'm so surprised, but these little granola squares are so good. and so much better for you than store bought! goodbye corn syrup and preservatives! (well, that statement really depends on the ingredients you use, and i admit, i could have made them even healthier than i did. i'm not sure if the peanut butter i used is actually preservative free, but the next time i make these granola bars, i'm going to be using homemade peanut butter from a post i just found on pinterest yesterday.) the original recipe can be found here.

this is seriously all you need:

4 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped peanuts (i used honey roasted because they were on sale)

3/4 cup peanut butter (the healthier the peanut butter, the healthier the bar)

1/2 cup honey

(1/2 cup chocolate chips--optional. i made half the batch with, half without)

this is what you do:

i first chopped up my peanuts in the food processor, then combined them with the oats. add the honey and mix it all together. i couldn't get it to combine completely, so i did as much as i could without getting frustrated, then moved on with my life.

next you melt the peanut butter and add to the concoction. once the peanut butter was added, it was a lot easier to combine it together. it takes a few minutes to get it all worked in together. give it some time before you decide to add more honey or peanut butter because i was surprised at how well it eventually mixed together.

 if you are wanting to add in anything else like chocolate chips--that's what i added to half the batch--or dried fruit, now is a good time to do that. the "dough" wound up looking something like this. it was pretty crumbly-looking, but it was still moist throughout and once i pressed it into the pans, it was a uniform mixture. 

put the "dough" in a greased baking dish...

and press it down. 

this is what i ended up with.

bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. the amount of time you need and the overall crispiness of the granola squares depends on thick you make them in the dishes and how much you press the "dough." mine were about a 1/4" thick. bake until golden brown.
note: i went ahead and cut mine when they first came out of the oven because they were still soft. after cooling they hardened more, so i am glad i decided to cut them fresh!

did i mention how amazing these are?