Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

So I love anything with chocolate chips if I haven't mentioned it before...I'm sure I have since I'm a true chocolate lover.  I can't believe I haven't posted these on here yet, but here is a staple I have around here.  I make up a batch of these awesome chocolate chip granola bars every week.  They make a great on the go breakfast, or an easy snack or lunch...you know...whenever you don't have time or feel like putting something together.  I pretty much have a little square of these granola bars every day for breakfast with a chocolate protein shake (that I make with just a tad of milk and blend up with ice so it's like a frappacino...and some days I'll add a tsp of instant coffee...LOVE IT!).  I have to have a little bit of chocolate every day...before these, I used to eat chocolate bars, but these satisfy my chocolate cravings while being a lot healthier.  They also keep me feeling satisfied for longer periods of time than if I were to eat something else like a bowl of cereal. 
Anyways, here is what I can't live without...


Chocolate Chip and Roasted Almond Granola Bars
1 cup peanut butter (I just guess..I probably do a bit more..so decide if you like your granola bars more moist and chewy or more dry and crumbly when adding PB)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup Honey (or corn syrup if you don't have honey)
2 tsp vanilla

3 cups oats
1 cup cereal (honey nut cheerios, chex, honey bunches of oats, rice krispies...whatever you want)
3/4 cup wheat germ (better to have, but sometimes I'll leave it out if I'm making them gluten free for my sister)
4 tbsp ground flax seed (optional)
3/4 cup toasted almonds (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13 inch baking pan.  (i line mine with foil because it's easier to take the bars out and cut them up.)

Mix first 5 ingredients together.  Then add the oats, wheat germ and ground flax (optional).  Stir in chocolate chips, almonds and cereal.

Spread mixture into baking pan and bake for 20 minutes.  the let cool.

EASY PEASY!  ENJOY!

You can switch these up to make whatever kind of granola bars you like...add dried fruit, different nuts, whatever!

I found the basic recipe for this a long time ago on allrecipes.com.  I don't have the link anymore but ground flax seed and the amount of PB and addition of almonds are my changes.  The original recipe called for 3/4 cup PB and they were so crumbly it was hard to eat them.