A Cereal Bar Recipe with Sweet Peanut Butter

There are few culinary pleasures in this world like enjoying a heaping spoonful of peanut butter while standing in your kitchen.  Not much can match it – except for the 2^nd spoonful.  Given my ’druthers,  I’d joyfully  work peanut butter into most every dish – noodle recipes, salad dressings, tofu dishes, chocolate desserts – and serve it on every occasion.  But Hubby, ever so rightfully, cautions me against it in big crowd situations.  Lots of folks are allergic to peanuts, so we lose the peanut butter unless we know for a fact that everyone present can eat it. Can’t be too careful about that. So entertaining with peanut butter is somewhat of a lost art these days, but if there are no in-house peanut allergies you’re safe to indulge at home.  This is the perfect, crispy, homemade Sweet Peanut Butter Cereal Bar recipe for your kids (and you!)  You probably have all of the ingredients on hand, assuming you stock Chex and Honey Nut Cheerios.  Ok, maybe you’ll need to make a special trip to the store for the sunflower seeds, but in my opinion, they’re worth it.  Their mild nutty taste and soft texture go a long way. And you’ll need honey (a great compliment to peanut butter) but who doesn’t have plenty of that around right now? You’ll also need brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and of course –the glue that holds it all together – the hero of our cereal bars… smooth, creamy peanut butter.  And I won’t tell if you help yourself to a spoonful or two while you’re preparing this. Do you have a favorite peanut butter recipe?