Peanut Butter Granola

Going on a road trip with my sister and 4 nieces...gonna need snacks. I was originally going to make a snack mix recipe that has pretzels, cereal, cheez it's, and ramen noodles but when I told Dave I wanted to make it he "forbid" me from having anything with orange powdery cheese on it in the car! I said "excuse me, we are adults and aren't going to get cheez it's in the car, duh". Then he went on a minor rant about how there's already glitter embedded in the car that he can't get out and to please not add orange powdery cheese to the mess I've made LOL. I laughed, rolled my eyes, and found a different recipe just in case we actually do make an orange mess in the car hahahaha. So we have peanut butter granola instead - if we don't eat it all in the car it'll be great added to some plain greek yogurt for breakfast.

• 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/3 cup honey or pure maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup chopped toasted nuts (almonds, peanuts, etc.)
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 325'
2. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.
3. In a glass bowl, combine peanut butter, honey or maple syrup, vanilla, coconut oil, and salt. Melt until the ingredients are smooth and well combined. (took me just a few seconds on high).
4. In a large bowl combine the oats and nuts. Pour the peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon until evenly coated.
5. Spread the granola onto the prepared baking sheet, bake for 15-20 minutes stirring a couple times.
6. Let the granola cool completely before stirring in the chocolate chips if you are using.

Yields 4 1/2 cups of granola. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks. 

found the recipe at Mels Kitchen Cafe.

West African Peanut Soup

Cathy has been talking for so long about this great soup that Al makes, quite truthfully it did not sound good to me so I didn't bother following up and getting the recipe to try it...but then she started raving about it again the other day, and I was in the grocery store when she told me the ingredients, so I figured I'd finally make it. And she is right, this is SO good. Yes, it sounds weird. No, peanut butter and tomatoes do not sound like a good combination. Yes, it is delicious and very easy to make. Trust me people, ignore how it sounds and try it!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup roasted and shelled peanuts
• 2 Tablespoons peanut or neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn
• 1 medium red or white onion, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tablespoon)
• 1/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken (about 2 thighs or breasts) cut into chunks
• pinch of cayenne
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 cups stock or water
• 2 sweet potatoes or yams (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into thick slices
• 8 plum tomatoes, cored and halved (canned are fine, drain first)
• 1/2 pound collards or kale, washed and cut into wide ribbons
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup peanut butter, chunky or smooth

Directions:

Chop peanuts, or crush them with the side of a knife, or pulse them in a food processor to chop roughly.

Put oil in a deep skillet or medium saucepan over medium heat; add onion, ginger, and garlic and cook stirring occasionally until onion is soft, 3 to 5 minutes. Add chicken and cook for another 3-4 minutes until just coloring. Add 1/2 cup peanuts, cayenne, and salt and pepper.

Stir in the stock and sweet potatoes, bring to a boil then turn heat down to medium-low so the soup bubbles gently. Stir in tomatoes and kale/collards, cook stirring occasionally until the chicken is cooked thru, approx. 10 minutes.

Stir in 1/4 cup peanut butter. Taste, adjust seasonings (you may want to stir in additional peanut butter at this point). Serve garnished with remaining peanuts.

4 servings
recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman/Cooking Channel

Tiger Fudge

I packaged this and gave it away without
taking a picture! You get the idea tho...

This is the easiest fudge I've ever made! Not sure it should be called fudge, it's more like buckeyes in bar form -  but it's so good and easy that I don't care what it's called. Delicious is what it should be called!


3 ingredients:

8 ounces (1 1/4 cups) white chocolate chips
8 ounces (1 1/4 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/3 cups peanut butter, divided

• Prepare an 8x8 pan by lining it with aluminum foil and spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray.
• Place the white chocolate and 1 cup of peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl. Place the semi-sweet chocolate and 1/3 cup peanut butter in a separate microwave safe bowl.
• Microwave the white chocolate mixture until melted and smooth, stirring after every minute. Repeat this same procedure with the semi-sweet chocolate mixture.
• Pour the white chocolate mixture in the prepared pan, then drizzle the dark chocolate around on top trying to not glop it too much in one spot. 
• Take a small knife and drag it thru the chocolate a few times to swirl the two chocolates together - don't do too much or it'll get too mixed together. I went up and back 3 or 4 times and then went the other way a couple of times. Just do it until you like how they are combined.
• Refrigerate for 2 hours. Once set remove it from the pan and cut into small squares to serve. Store in the fridge for up to a week in an airtight container. 

Cassandra's Chewy No-Bake Cookies

I was whining that I don't like to make no-bake cookies cuz it's always a crap shoot if they'll turn out - I seem to either get runny and not set or hard and dry (does this happen to you too?). Maybe out of pity, maybe to be nice, or maybe to shut me up Cassandra gave me the recipe she always uses - says they are her dad's favorite - so I figured I'd make them and see if I could get them right for once. These are different from any no-bake I've had - chewy and gooey, more cookie-like than traditional no-bakes, and they are really really good. I am SO happy she gave me this recipe! Thanks Cassandra!

In a saucepan put 2 cups of sugar, 1 stick butter, 2/3 cup cocoa, 2/3 cup milk. Boil for 1 and 1/2 minutes, turn off and add 1 Tablespoon vanilla and 2/3 cup peanut butter. Stir until the peanut butter is melted, then add 3 to 3 1/2 cups of oatmeal and mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax or parchment paper.

Notes: I didn't have regular whole milk so I used 1/3 cup cream and 1/3 cup skim milk - maybe that's why they turned out SO good?  I don't know how long it took them to set up, I scooped them onto parchment using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop and walked away for a couple hours. When I checked they were done, and sort of addicting - I just wanted to try a bite of one but couldn't stop eating...and they're especially good with a glass of milk! Made 28 cookies.

Let me know how they turn out if you make them, I need to know if I just got lucky this once or if it's a no-fail recipe! Enjoy!

Rocky Road Cookies

I saw this recipe in a magazine - it's actually one dough that they made into 3 different cookies, what's not to like about a one dough with multiple options recipe? Well I was curious and wanted to try it...I had the ingredients on hand for the rocky road version so that's the only one of the 3 I tried - it's a basic dough so not much to talk about there, but after baking one sheet and taste testing (someone has to be the taste taster!) I thought they didn't have much flavor so decided to doctor the rest of the batch. 

I added a very big scoop of peanut butter,  a pinch of coarse salt, more marshmallows, and more chocolate chips. Oh, I should say that I didn't use chopped up dark chocolate - I had milk chocolate chips in the pantry so that's what I used, and I left out the nuts because I don't like nuts in cookies. Maybe the cookies would have been better with the ingredients called for instead of my substitution haha!! Anyway...adding the peanut butter to the batter made them taste much better.

 I drizzled them with chocolate chips melted with a tablespoon of shortening. You can drizzle by dunking a fork in the melted chocolate and flicking over the cookies, but I put it in a small ziplock baggie and cut a small corner off the tip and drizzled that way - much less messy and you can control the amount on each cookie easier I think.  They turned out really good - I will make these again with my changes for sure.  Note that on the website they aren't showing these as one dough for three cookies like they did in the magazine, the other 2 options are bourbon cranberry walnut, and caramel popcorn - both can be found on the website.

the batter is very crumbly but after scooping into balls it comes together and holds its shape... 

put the melted chocolate in a small baggie and snip a small corner off

then drizzle over cookies

2/2024 UPDATE: going back thru some of my old posts and when I click the link for the recipe it isn't found anymore. I hate that I didn't provide the recipes sometimes back in my olden days, this has happened to me before - only providing the link to the recipe was an oversight on my part. I can't find the original recipe, here is one from Wilton that seems pretty basic and looks similar to my finished cookie. Read the notes up top though that I really doctored the basic recipe - chances are I'd do the same with this recipe haha! 

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon Clear Imitation Vanilla Extract, 2 oz.

• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

• 1 cup almonds

• 1 cup mini marshmallows

  
  

• Preheat oven to 350ºF.
• 
  
• In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; mix well. Stir in chocolate chunks, almonds and mini mallow bits. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie pan.
• 
  
• Bake 11-13 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 3 minutes on pan; remove and cool completely on cooling grid.