Peanut Butter Brownie Truffle

 Here's a very simple, fake/home made recipe that will impress EVERYONE.

For Serious.

First off, make a box brownie mix of your choice.  If you want thick brownies with lots of peanut butter on top, make an 8x8 or 9x9 pan.  I was going to feed the masses, so I made a thin brownie layer in a 9x13.

The original pictures look more scrumptious because they're just plain bigger.

While that is baking, mix up your peanut butter mixture.   Butter, PB, milk, and powdered sugar. Very similar to making the PB cups/eggs, but this has a creamier overall consistency.  Much more spreadable.

Then, BEFORE you start the next step, put it in your fridge to harden up.

I didn't think about that step before I continued on.

It's an important step.  Trust me.

 The reason it should harden is that you have all of this peanut buttery goodness all over you pan.  See the picture?  It's like a soft frosting.

If you don't wait for it to harden, like some of us I know, the chocolate will just make a mess when layered on top.  It becomes more of a peanut butter and fudge swirl effect than a solid three layered one.

This isn't a bad thing, it's just, well, a thing.

And it makes for really bad photos.

However, the dessert is delicious, and I highly recommend it.  I used a double fudge brownie recipe with chocolate chips included. Well worth it!

Southwest Chicken Wraps

 The original recipe can be found here.  I know, I know, I didn't really follow it, but before we start off on the wrong foot, I want you to know my inspiration!

My ingredients:
1 Bell Pepper, cut into strips
2 Celery stalks, thinly sliced (could have used more)
1 lb pre-cooked chicken, cut into strips
whole wheat tortillas
toppings: lettuce and shredded cheese

The biggest departure point on that ingredient list is the celery.  I've never tried celery in my fajitas before.  I stir fried the peppers and celery, then added the chicken to heat through.  The celery maintains its consistency so well, I think I'll add it to all future fajitas.

The other part that's different is the sauce.  I normally add salsa and guacamole to my fajitas, but I created this sauce instead.  It was 1/2 C light mayo and 3/4 C fat free ranch, with about 2 T of taco seasoning.  That might be two packets' worth, I'm not sure.  I always buy it in bulk.

 The original recipe calls for you to cook the chicken (if necessary) and to mix it up in the sauce.  Thomas loves sauces, and if he were home I might have done it as such.  However, I just drizzled about 2 teaspoons of the SW sauce over my meat as I was creating the fajita and it added the right amount of flavor for me.  This sauce was definitely easier than making guac and salsa, but if you have those on hand, it might be interesting to try it all together.

Super YUM!

Homemade Reese's Cups

 I absolutely adore chocolate and peanut butter.

I know, I know, you've heard that before.

However, when I had the chance to make a knock-off of a Reese's peanut butter egg, I jumped on it!

Especially since I already had all the ingredients on hand.

 You basically mix up the peanut butter, powdered sugar, and butter (then a little milk) until it becomes mold-able.

The original recipe said it'd be like Play Doh.  It seemed more crumbly than that, but the peanut butter did make it squish together easily.  I'm sure you could add more milk to make it easier, but I wanted a nice, thick consistency.

 Once you make your egg shapes - see my eggs?  Nope?

Me, neither.  I decided to do more of a cup instead of messing around with make them ovum shaped.  Sorry.

Once you've made your chosen shape, stick them in the freezer.

This only makes them super firm, and helps the chocolate harden more quickly, in my estimation.  It's not like they weren't holding their shape before hand.

Then you melt your chocolate - I did one bag of milk chocolate and one 60% cacao chips - with a little bit o' shortening.    Place your finished product on some waxed paper and wait about 10 minutes for the chocolate to harden.  Then dig in and enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pretzels

I can't decide if this is more "nailed it" or "failed it".  Yes, I made delicious whole wheat pretzels that I will happily make again.  However, I'm not entirely sure that they came out the way they were supposed to.

Here's the recipe, with FAR better pictures than what I have (sorry about that).  My dough didn't rise but a centimeter, if that.  It was a dry dough, even though I added some extra water throughout the process.

I didn't mind the dry dough so much, except for when trying to roll out the pretzels.

It was a bit crumbly, and hard to make on a consistently even roll, but it worked out.

But, like I said, I baked them for about 9 minutes, took them out, and they won my heart over.  I was only supposed to get about 6 or 7 pretzels from the batch, and I got 6, so I wasn't that far off.

The pretzels were on the small side.

I rolled each one out to 15", but the finished product is only about palm sized.

That was a lot of time to spend on only six pretzels.

Thank goodness they were good!  The original recipe suggested a dip for them, but I loved them as is.

Crock Pot's Finest

 Okay, Crock Pots hate me.

True story.

I'm the only person in this world that could mess up a crock pot recipe, unless it's for an apple butter or chutney.

However, I found this recipe for Cilantro Lime Chicken, and it looked so good I could resist.

 I also couldn't resist tweaking it a bit.

First off, instead of plain salsa, I used a generic brand of Peach Pineapple Chipotle Salsa, still 24 oz.

And instead of 2 jalapenos, I used 1 and 1 bell pepper.

And then it looked super chunky - like the picture to the right, so I added a can of Rotel Tomato and Chili sauce.

 Once the mixture looked more liquidy, I added the chicken.

Oh, but I used 8 chicken thigh tenders instead of 4-6 breast halves.  I just like dark meat more, okay?!

And then I put it on high, because I wanted it done in two hours.

HAHA!  Didn't happen.

 Our Crock Pot, well this one, rather (we have 4 or five of various sizes) has a timer function where it cooks for the time you set it for.

I set it on high for 4 hours, and by the time I had prepped everything and added it to the pot, it was at 3:47 remaining.  That's an easy prep, yes?

Ended up with that as the cooking time, too.

However I had eaten by then, so it made 6 hearty lunch/dinner portions when added to my cilantro brown rice.

Sorry, no pretty shots, just Tupperware.

But when I did eventually try it, it was completely worth the wait!  I can't wait to have this again, and maybe serve it with tortillas next time, too.  So juicy and tender, you should try this one ASAP!!

Taste of Sweetness Saturday: Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

 Melt white chocolate.  Dip strawberries in it to create the shirt layer.

Melt dark/milk chocolate. Dip shoulders to create the jacket.

Get a black/chocolate icing or gel tip (pre-made) to create the buttons and bow ties.  For the ties I made an X in the size that I wanted for the tie, then filled in the opposite sides to create the bow.  People think they're adorable, and they're so delicious, too!

as always, my apologies for the blurry iPhone photos!

Holla for Challah!!

I'm still on a bread machine kick, but I'm trying to space out the recipes while Thomas travels so that I'm not eating an entire loaf of bread for me every week.

One recipe that Thomas has wanted me to try, though, is for some Challah.  I found this recipe (via Pinterest, of course), and thought I'd give it a go.

Now, I know this is a cheater post, but I wanted to make sure that all of you bread machine junkies, like myself, had a chance to find this recipe.

I ran my machine on a 2lb, light crust, sweet loaf cycle and the bread was perfect.

Seriously.  My crock pot meal was taking too long, so it was a mostly Challah-tastic dinner.

Holy socks, it's wonderful!  Holla!!