Homemade Peanut Butter Cups (And I wonder why I'm not skinny.....)

These are fabulous.

Do you have a teen aged boy in your house? I do. Here's what you do. Make these. Let him eat a whole bunch. Wait for the love.

.......it will come.

Warning: I cannot be responsible for the weight gain that will surely commence in your home when you make these. You must bear the burden for that yourself.

All you need:

1 cup butter, melted

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 1/2 cups chocolate chip

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Mix the butter, graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and 1 cup peanut butter together in a medium bowl, until well combined:

DANGER!!!!! At this point, do not, FOR ANY REASON, take a taste. Otherwise you'll eat the whole thing. Use self control.

Spread this into an ungreased 9X13 pan:

Then stick the chocolate chips and 1/4 cup peanut butter into a small, microwave safe bowl, and microwave for 1 minute, then stir until smooth and combined:

Spread on top of the peanut butter mixture:

Then chill in the fridge for an hour. Cut into bars:

I will give you 3 guesses as to who took a bite out of the bottom bar. The first two don't count.....

Make these and hide in the closet with the whole pan and a gallon of milk.

Or give them to your family. It's up to you.

I got this recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/

2 Minute Chocolate Fudge Cake... Oh Yeah.....

I once saw on a diet episode of some talk show that you shouldn't eat after 8:00pm.

What a bunch of.....uuuhhhh.....hogwash.

That's when I eat all the best stuff!!

Oh, wait...... maybe that proves the point they were trying to make.

....Anyhow, do you even roam the kitchen, looking through the pantry and the fridge, only to find that nothing there strikes your fancy? (Then do you look again through the pantry like 5 minutes later, hoping that something delicious has materialized?)

This little cake is quick, easy, and yummy. Perfect for when your other late night snack choices include uncooked rice or celery.

Here's what you need:

• 3 Tb unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dark chocolate cocoa powder)
• 3 Tb sugar
• 1 Tb flour
• 3 Tb milk
• 3 Tb canola oil or melted butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1 Tb chocolate chips OR 1 Tb Nutella

Mix everything except the chocolate chips or Nutella in a coffee mug. Use a largish mug, so that it doesn't overflow in the microwave. Or, if you don't have a large mug, put a saucer under a smaller mug,  in case it overflows. Then go buy a BIG coffee mug for heaven's sake!! Why are you messing around with tiny mugs? Coffee is GOOD.

Then throw the chocolate chips or blob the Nutella onto the top. Then you're going to pop the mug into the microwave for 2 minutes. 2 MINUTES!!!
(A little warning- the cake is HOT when it's first out of the microwave. No matter how good it smells or how much you want a bite, wait for a few minutes!!!)

Yum.
I got this recipe from http://www.foodgawker.com/

The. LAST. Brownie. Recipe. You will EVER need!

Let me tell you how I discovered this brownie recipe. Wade was out of town all week at a training class. So I got a chance to go and visit him, and I like to take him something yummy and homemade when I go.(I have that whole Italian food=love gene) He told some of the other guys in the class that I was going to bring something, so I wanted to make sure it was really good!

And then I saw this brownie recipe, which was super easy to make, but also REALLY tasty!

This would be ideal to bring for a potluck, a bake sale, or to eat huge squares with milk at 11:00 at night while watching the Late Show.....

Can you see what I mean?? Seriously, COME ON! Chocolate, more chocolate, and caramel.

.......I wish I didn't like food so much. (ok, not really)

Here's what you need (SIMPLE!!):

• 1 pkg. (18.25 oz.) chocolate cake mix
• 1 cup chopped nuts ( Optional- I didn't use them I don't like nuts in my brownies!)
• 1 cup Evaporated Milk (You need the bigger can, the smaller one isn't a full cup. This is NOT the same thing as sweetened condensed milk! Check the label!)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted (mmmmmm....butter)
• 35 (10-oz. pkg.) caramels, unwrapped  (I used 2 pkgs of the Werther's Caramels because I had a coupon, but the cheapy store brand or the Kraft would be good)
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

So first, mix up the cake mix, the melted butter, and 2/3 cup of the evaporated milk, spread HALF OF IT into a 9x13 pan. The recipe said "ungreased pan" but that always seems sketchy to me, so I sprayed it with Pam. You can make your own choice. :) The batter is thick so it takes a minute to get it all spread around. Then, put that into the oven that's preheated to 350 for 15 minutes.

While that's baking, you're going to put the unwrapped caramels (ok, do they really think people are going to put the WRAPPED caramels into a pan to melt them??) (Well, maybe someone has.Like the whole hot coffee lawsuit. Lame. So anyhow, the unwrapped caramels, and the remaining 1/3 cup of evaporated milk go into a saucepan, stir them over low heat until melted.

So when the 15 minutes is up, take the pan out, and sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the baked brownie:

Then pour the melted caramel over that: (are you feeling the awesomeness of these brownies yet?!)

Then blob the rest of the batter over the top.

Then lick your fingers. Because that's how you roll.

Then, put that back into the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it's set (which to me means minimal jiggle when you kind of move the pan) (Mine took 30 minutes) Then cool in the pan before cutting. (I did a little experiment, you know, purely in the interest of science, and cut into them before they were cool. It worked out just fine.)

(See??!!!)

I got this recipe from Zesty Cooks 

Wade and his buddies, by the way, LOVED them. Mission accomplished.

DINNER TONIGHT:
Grilled Tri Tip
Salad
Strawberries



Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

All I have to say about these cookies is.... YUM! They are so addicting, they are the perfect sweetness, and I love the texture. I store them in the fridge, and they sort of have that "Texas Sheet Cake" icing flavor, moist, fudgy and yummy!! They are really quick and easy to make, and would be ideal to make with the kids, they could totally measure things and scoop the batter. I'll bet you have most of the stuff in your cabinet right now to make these suckers.... MAKE SOME!!! (Are you making some yet???...how about now?.....how about now...??)

Here's what you'll need: (I found this recipe on http://www.browneyedbaker.com/ )

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
• 2 cups sugar (it's ok, you can brush your teeth and exercise later......)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 Tb cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder, I bought it for another recipe I want to try this week, and it was AWESOME in this recipe. You can also totally use regular cocoa powder. This is NOT the same thing as hot cocoa mix, it's an unsweetened cocoa powder that you can find in the baking aisle)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (Creamy. If you've read my other posts, like this one and this one ,you know how I feel about crunchy)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups quick cooking oats (see- these are so healthy that they contain OATMEAL! Hahahahaha!!)

That's the cocoa powder I used...

Before you start, rip off a few pieces of wax paper and lay them on the counter. This is where you'll drop the cookies after you make the batter.

So, get a medium saucepan and put the butter, sugar, milk, and cocoa powder into the pan. Heat if over medium heat until it comes to a boil, whisking it to make it smooth. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat:

Then, add the vanilla and peanut butter, and whisk until smooth. (I have no idea why the peanut butter looks so disgusting in this photo! It must be the light!!)

Then, add in the oats:

Stir the oats into the rest of the stuff. Then, drop the mixture by spoonfuls onto the waxed paper. I used tablespoons, you could use teaspoons if you wanted the cookies smaller....

I put them in a tupperware container with wax paper between the layers of cookies, and stored them in the fridge. They are dwindling quickly. I should have told Wade that they were whole wheat cookies, then he would have left them alone.....

Happy Monday!!

......so did you make some of these cookies yet...?? Ha ha!

DINNER TONIGHT:

Chicken Florentine Artichoke Bake

Whole Wheat Bread

Green Salad

Orange Slices

**Thigh enlargement pills (**also effective for hip and abdomen areas)

DO NOT MAKE THESE!!

......DON'T


....ok, if you're still reading, you can make them. But I warned you....... And also, they are delicious.

I've heard them called "Muddy Buddys" or "Puppy Chow"....  and Oh. My. Gosh. They are so good!!

So here's what you need:

Rice or Corn Chex cereal (Crispix works great too!), peanut butter, semi sweet chocolate chips, butter, and vanilla

.....come on, any recipe with chocolate chips, peanut butter, and BUTTER has to be good, right??

So first get a large bowl, preferably one with a lid (I have the retro tupperware huge bowl) Measure out 9 cups of cereal into the bowl:

So now you want to get out a smaller, microwave-safe bowl, and put 1 cup chocolate chips, 1/2 cup peanut butter (you should use creamy pb, because the chunky kind is gross), and 1/4 cup (that's a half a stick) of butter into the bowl.

Then, microwave for about 1 minute, and stir.Then microwave for 30 seconds longer, add the 1 tsp of vanilla, and stir it up until it's smooth.

 (please, please don't make this right before dinner like I did. Then, at this point, your boys will come in and ask for some, then beg for some, then try and sneak some why you are snapping pictures for your blog. It's just not worth it.....)

Ok, so now pour the mixture on top of the cereal in the big bowl, and scrape the chocolate bowl with a spatula:

Then you want to gently stir the cereal/chocolate mixture together (try not to smash the cereal) and keep mixing until it's all pretty evenly coated:

(I know it looks good enough to eat at this point, but DON'T DO IT!!)

Next, dump 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar on top of the chocolaty cereal:

Next, you need to put the lid on the bowl (if you don't have a big bowl like this with a lid, just use a large Ziploc bag) and gently toss the mixture to coat the pieces thoroughly with the powdered sugar. Then you want to dump it all onto a few sheets of waxed paper to cool, then store them in the fridge:

And then.... oh. my. gosh.

Eat them. Try and keep your husband out of them, but if he's going to be a hog, at least wrangle some dish duty or laundry folding, or a foot rub out of him. These suckers are good for bargaining power! :)

......and when your thighs get larger, remember.....you were warned. And also, who wants to be super skinny anyhow.... <sigh>...... ;)

Happy Monday!!