Asian-Inspired Granola Bars

And now for something, completely different: Granola Bars!

It *is* okay to eat something other than ramen from time to time, so I picked up some black sesame and shredded coconut at the grocery store and decided to do something interesting with them.

I ended up with these rockin' coconut-sesame-peanut butter granola bars!

Ingredients:

[wet]

1 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 - 1/2 cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, I happened to have smooth so that's what I used, but I bet crunchy would be big ballin')

sprinkle salt

1 tbs water

[dry]

1.5 cups regular rolled oats

1 cup rice crispies or other puffed rice cereal

3/4 cup shaved coconut

2.5 tbs sesame seeds

handful of either regular or white chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

Put everything under "wet" into a small pot and let it simmer for about 4 minutes. Meanwhile, mix everything under "dry" -- except for the chocolate chips -- together in a bowl. After the wet stuff has been simmering for a few minutes, pour it over the dry mix and stir it all together. Let it sit for a minute or two, and when it has cooled a bit put in the chocolate chips. You don't want to put them in too early and melt them!

Which I did.

Line a 9x9 pan with wax paper, and dump the granola mix onto it. Press it all down and smooth it out, then put it in the fridge to chill - don't cut it till it's cold! After about an hour it should be ready to ENJOY!