Nutty Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

While shopping at Target recently we noticed in the Christmas section we noticed something amazingly unhealthy. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – in a one-pound package. That’s an eight-ounce cup. Such an unhealthy snack but it sounds so delicious. We love chocolate and peanut butter but seeing such a large chunk of chocolate and peanut butter is a little sickening. But, it is still inspiring. We decided to make these nutty peanut butter bars with chocolate as a viable vegan choice. Yeah, it’s not really that much healthier, but when the mood strikes you just have to go with it sometimes (that happens a lot for us).

• ¾ cup walnuts
• ¾ cup cashews
• ½ cup almonds
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbs flour
• ¼ cup rolled oats
• 4 tbs vegan butter
• ¾ lb fresh ground peanut butter
• 12 oz vegan chocolate

1. In a food processor add all of the nuts, cinnamon, flour, oats, and 2 tablespoons of vegan butter and pulse until the nuts are chopped.
2. In a microwave safe dish heat the peanut butter so it is a little more workable. Stir the peanut butter every 30 seconds until warm and melted.
3. Add the chopped nut mixture to the peanut butter and stir to combine.
4. Line a square pan with foil and add the peanut butter mixture and smooth out across pan.
5. Melt chocolate with 2 tablespoons of butter. This can be done in a double boiler or in the microwave in a way similar to the peanut butter.
6. Pour the melted chocolate on top of the peanut butter and nut combination.
7. Let the peanut butter and chocolate cool in the refrigerator overnight before cutting into bars (as long as you don’t mind a slightly melted snack you can shorten the time a little bit, we are impatient people).