Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats... with Chocolate

Oh boy. Not healthy. Too easy. Really fast. At least they are perfect to share! There's not too much to say about these. If you like Rice Krispie Treats (and really, who doesn't?) and peanut butter, and chocolate, you'll dig these. Like a crispy peanut butter cup, but cut to your own specific size needs. That's about all you need to know. Make them. Love them. Enjoy treat karma and share them.

The base of this recipe is just straight up Rice Krispie Treats, but I decreased the butter, added peanut butter and on top, added quick melted chocolate that cools to a nice mess-free hardness. It's the same thing I like to do with these zucchini brownies.

Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Treats with Chocolate
Preheat oven to 200 degrees
Butter a 9x13 glass baking dish

6 cups Rice Krispies
40 large marshmallows (about 10oz or 4 cups)
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 cup chocolate chips

Measure out Rice Krispies and set aside in a large bowl. In a pot large enough to hold all of the ingredients, including the Rice Krispies, melt the butter and peanut butter. Add in the marshmallows and melt everything together stirring constantly.

When the marshmallows are nearly melted, add in all of the Rice Krispies and stir gently to combine.

When everything is evenly combined, pour everything into the prepared pan. I like to lightly spray my hands with cooking spray, or rub a little butter into my palms and then press down the cereal mixture to even it out a bit.

Sprinkle about a cup of chocolate chips on top of the cereal in the glass pan. Pop the pan into the warm oven for about 5 minutes. When the chips are soft and starting to melt, take the pan out and spread the chocolate over the top of the Rice Krispies treats. 

Let the treats cool completely and enjoy!!

Things made this time last year...

Charred Artichokes

 

Dijon Vinaigrette Potato Salad

Things made this time two years ago...

Pappardelle with White Truffle Butter

Pizza and Bread Sticks

Sweet and Spicy Peanut Noodle Salad and Beer Can Chicken

I am friends with a chef. I real professional chef who directs and staffs and manages a HUGE professional kitchen. I have no idea how many people they serve everyday, but I do know he works crazy hard, makes amazing food, and he's willing to teach me something new every time we hang out - cheers to you Tom! On top of all of this, he's married to a dear friend of mine who's been adding love and joy to my world for 23 years! Last time we had a weekend together he taught us Beer Can Chicken - this is hands down my favorite way to make a chicken. We've cooked this chicken in our smoker, and baked it in the oven. It's moist, delicious and super easy. 

The second recipe is a great way to use up the extra bits of Beer Can Chicken. I love spicy salads, (Lettuce Wrap Salad and this Mango Chilli Chicken Salad are some favorites!)  and this is a great new one for our rotation. Like a lot of my recipes, I upped the veggies. In this particular recipe I decreased some of the oil used in the dressing.

Beer Can Chicken
Preheat oven to 350
Line a baking dish with tin foil 

1 whole chicken
1/2 can of beer*
1/4 cup rub of choice (we've used dry run and blended herb rubs)
*(we've used micro-brew IPAs, Coors and even a giant Fosters for a turkey. All good! I've heard Near Beer and O'Douls comes in cans. I wonder if root beer would taste?)

Pat dry the chicken, remove the neck and organs and rub it all over with your favorite dry rub. My dear chef friend made ours, it is smoky a little sweet, tangy with a little kick of spice. We are so lucky!! 

Drink half a beer and place the can in the cavity of the chicken. The bird needs to stand up on the beer can. Bend the can a bit if needed. Place the bird and can on the foil lined baking dish. Bake at 350 until the thickest part registers 165 degrees. About an hour and 15 minutes.

We baked this chicken specifically to use shredded. Sunday night we made pizzas and this was part of a BBQ Chicken Pizza. Monday I made a green salad for lunch and topped it with some chicken. Monday night we made the Sweet and Spicy Peanut Noodle Salad with a bit more of this chicken. This salad is SO good! 

Sweet and Spicy Peanut Noodle Salad - adapted from A Cozy Apron
Serves 4 as a light dinner

For the Dressing
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons peanut butter
3 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
Sriracha - to taste. We added ours on top of the salad servings since we were sharing with our toddler.

For the Salad
1/2 pound noodles - I used spaghetti
5 oz chopped chicken - about 1 breast
2 cups shredded red cabbage
1 1/2 cups sliced carrots
3 green onions
1 1/2 cups sliced cucumbers
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped peanuts for garnish

Start a pot of water to boil for the noodles and start in on the dressing. In a very large bowl, whisk all of the dressing ingredients until smooth. We added the Sriracha later to keep the dressing mild so our toddler would eat it.

Next chop all of the veggies. I used a mandolin to thinly slice the cucumbers and carrots. Grating them would be just as easy and just as nice.

When the noodles are done, rinse in very cold water and toss with the dressing. Add in the veggies and toss until everything is nicely coated in dressing and nicely mixed up.

Serve in bowls and top with chopped peanuts, more cilantro and some Sriracha.

Enjoy!!

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

For a long time now, these have been my fave brownies. They are delicious and they are gorgeous! They are my go-to treat to share. My work had a March Madness potluck and I (of course!) signed up to bring something sweet. I'd planned to bring the cheesecake brownies, but wound up deciding peanut butter was needed. A bit of googling lead me to Martha Stewart's peanut butter swirl brownies. I changed things up only a tiny bit (more on that later) and these are just as wonderful as the cheesecake brownies. I officially have two fave brownies. 

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies - from Martha Stewart
Makes 16, 2 inch square brownies
Preheat the oven to 325

For the Brownie Batter
1 stick butter, cut into pieces
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
4 ounces (1/2 cup) chocolate chips
2/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

For the Peanut Butter Filling
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Grease an 8 inch square baking dish, line with parchment and grease the bottom only of the parchment.

In a double boiler (or a bowl over a pan of simmering water) melt the butter and the chocolates stirring occasionally. When the chocolate is all melted, let the mixture cool a bit. 

While the chocolate cools, in a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder.

Next, mix together the peanut butter filling ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. 

To finish up the chocolate batter, whisk the sugar into the melted chocolate. Add the eggs and mix well. Stir in the vanilla and last, stir in the flour until well combined.

Pour half of the chocolate batter into the greased baking pan. Dollop over half of the peanut butter mixture. Pour over the rest of the chocolate mixture and then finish dolloping over the peanut butter mixture. With a butter knife, cut through all of the layers and drag down one side of the pan. Continue this pattern along the whole pan, and then switch directions 90 degrees and drag the pattern across the batter the other direction.

Bake about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted towards the side of the pan comes out rather clean with a few sticky crumbs inserted. (I learned its good to avoid testing baked goods for doneness in the middle - it's often a bit wet and the tasty treat will keep cooking for a bit once you take it out of the oven. Best to test about halfway between the edge of the pan and the center.)

Cool completely and then chill before cutting. With the parchment overhang, you can lift the brownies out really easily. If you chill completely, the cut brownies will have clean, nice edges. Good example. Hurried example. 

A few things about this recipe...

The original recipe calls for powered sugar in the peanut butter mixture. I made a mistake and while I had even measured out the powered sugar, I ended up adding granulated sugar. I think this make for a plenty thick peanut butter layer that was very swirl-able. Something thicker would be really hard to swirl! 

The double boiler method of melting the chocolate is fussy. Next time I make these, I will just melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over very low heat. I will use the saucepan as my mixing bowl and save a dish. 

Turns out today is National Peanut Butter and Jelly day. Glad I could cover the PB at least!

Enjoy! 

Chewy Homemade Granola Bars

A friend of mine just had a beautiful, amazing, gorgeous baby boy. We got to meet him today and hold all 9 pounds of him. I'm used to swinging around all 26 pounds of my not-so-little boy and 9 pounds feels like holding a box of tissues! Tiny babies are amazing. Anyway - I took the mama these dense, chewy, peanut buttery, chocolaty granola bars so she has something to eat while wandering the house in the wee hours holding that beautiful, amazing, gorgeous, AWAKE baby! New mamas and papas NEED energy food.

Chewy Granola Bars - slightly adapted from Frugal NW

Makes 24 bars, or you know, one serving.

Preheat the oven to 350

4 1/2 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (regular flour would be fine)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup softened butter

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup corn syrup (rice syrup or maple would work too)

1/4 cup honey

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips

1/4 cup chopped dried cherries

To begin, grease the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Then lay a layer of parchment paper in the bottom so the edges hang out. Grease the parchment paper. You're going to pull the bars out of the dish using these flaps so make sure you have enough to grab.

In a large bowl, mix together oats, flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, mix together softened butter, peanut butter, corn syrup, honey and vanilla.

Mix wet ingredients into dry and then fold in cherries and chocolate chips. Put all of the granola into the baking dish and with damp hands, pack it down as firmly as possible. (You can also spray your hands with baking spray to help keep them from sticking to the gooey ingredients.)

Bake 25 minutes or until the top is lightly browned. Let the granola bars cool completely before trying to cut them. As with brownies, I think it would be a good idea to refrigerate these before cutting to get a nice, clean edge. 

As you can see, I rushed things a bit and didn't let these cool enough before I cut them. Boooo!! 

A few things about this recipe...

I think shredded coconut would be a wonderful addition. 

I didn't have a lot of dried cherries on hand, I think I'd up the cherries and drop the chocolate ratio a bit. (What did that say?? Drop the chocolate??)

Apricots and white chocolate would be amazing substitutes!!

Enjoy!