Miles is in a phase where his diet is about 50% cinnamon graham crackers.  Recently, the store was out of his favorite brand, so I got generic, and His Highness was not pleased.  To his credit, I tried one and they really weren’t as good as his usual kind.

So anyway, I was looking to use up the extra graham crackers, and I found a recipe that looked like I could adapt it to include them.  These are really, really good.  I am going to have to hide them from myself to keep from eating the whole pan.  They’re pretty soft and slightly chewy, and they hit the spot on an icy day.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Bars

• 1 sleeve cinnamon (or plain) graham crackers, pulverized in a food processor.  This should yield a generous cup of crumbs.
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt (or 1/4 tsp table salt)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2-1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, depending on how chocolatey you like your life

1. Heat oven to 325 F.  Spray an 8″x8″ or 9″x9″ pan with baking spray.
2. Grind up your graham crackers.
3. In a standing or with a hand-held mixer, mix butter and brown sugar until fluffy.  Add egg, vanilla, and peanut butter; mix.  In a separate bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs, salt, and baking soda.  Add to peanut butter mixture and mix until well-blended.  Finally, mix in oats.
4. Press into the prepared pan with the back of a spoon or your hands.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown.
5. Immediately sprinkle the hot bars with chocolate chips.  Let them sit for a few minutes until they’re glossy, then spread them out to form the topping.