Food Friday: Quick and Easy Peanut Butter Fudge, Sort Of

 Another thing we were going to take to the party this past week that we had to stay home from was some peanut butter fudge, so to speak.

Quick and Easy Peanut Butter Fudge

16 ounces white candy melts
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts.

In a double boiler place the candy melts and stir over medium heat until they are melted.  Don't walk away because if they get too hot, they will be grainy.

Remove double boiler from the stove.  Stir in the peanut butter and the walnuts then spread in a square pan OR as I did, I used a small portion scoop and placed a scoop in each well of a 24-well silicon pan.

Place in the refrigerator for two or three hours.

Remove from pan and enjoy.

This is the remaining amount of pieces.  Actually, as I am typing there are far fewer pieces still available.  It turns out Dear One really likes this sweet!  I am so happy.  I asked him if he liked them (having seen him eat two in a row!) and he said they were okay.  His favorite fudge is chocolate walnut fudge.  Maybe I can find a recipe for that....

Munchie Monday: Food Processor Peanut Butter

 When you get your mind set on something, it is hard to let it go sometimes!  I ordered a 48-ounce container for our VitaMix when they were on a big sale a little over a week ago. I was thrilled when it arrived three days later.  I was NOT thrilled that it was the wrong container for our VitaMix.  So, while trying to figure out how to return this one and receive the correct one, I decided to make peanut butter in the food processor.  Not willing to wait patiently for the new container before making peanut butter...

It was pretty easy.  When we had our Zoom Meeting Relief Society today we discussed Elder Jaggy's talk on patience at the most recent General Conference of the Church.  I should have brought up that sometimes our food projects take a fair amount of patience!

To make this peanut butter (which is very yummy, by the way!), place 2 cups of peanuts in the bowl of your food processor with the S-blade.  Pulse 4 or 5 times then pull out a small quantity of them so you can have chunky peanut butter.

Here are the chopped peanuts waiting to added into the peanut butter.

To go on with the "recipe", turn the food processor on again and process for 1 minute.  Open it up and scrape down the sides and process again for another minute and repeat the scraping.  Repeat one more time.  You will need to process AT LEAST three minutes, scraping down each minute.  My patience ran thin so I stopped there!

In the end you will have a nice tasty creamy peanut butter ready to accept the chopped peanuts. I saved the chopped peanuts Dear One can enjoy his favorite peanut butter which is chunky.

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Delicious Natural Peanut Butter

Many times since we got the VitaMix I have seen videos on making peanut butter, almond butter, and cashew butter.  Today I saw another peanut butter video and the stars aligned!  (I needed a large container to put some fresh granola into and the peanut container seemed a good size and was almost empty.)   The alignment included going to the store to find another similar container of dry roasted peanuts.  I could not find any what were unsalted so I took what I could get.  After making the peanut butter we have two empty containers which is what I needed for the granola!

To make peanut butter, you need either a high speed blender or a food processor. I used the blender so I cannot tell you about making peanut butter in the food processor.

Place 4 cups dry roasted peanuts and 3 or so deglet noor dates in the blender jar.  (If you want a sweeter peanut butter you can add more dates.  As it happens, 3 of these small dates did not really make any sweetness that I could discern.  No problem. I am not really a sweets person.  Not that I won't eat a nice thick rich brownie if it falls onto my plate, but...I am more of a savory, salty person.  In several ways.  Don't ask.)

Start the blender at 1 and move up to 10 quickly.  You will need to use your tamper to push the peanuts down into the blades.  It takes just about 2 minutes to grind up the peanut butter.  In the VitaMix you feel like you are killing the machine but it really is just smiling there at you when the peanut butter is done.

Here is the creamy delicious peanut butter.  Dear One was not instantly enamored of the idea of homemade peanut butter, but when he had a taste he immediately made himself a peanut butter sandwich. I call that success!

Munchie Monday: (No Sugar Added) Banana Bread Cookies

Since Dear One has a sweet tooth, I am always on the lookout for sweet treats for him that won't kill him.  This one is not too bad.

There is a YouTube channel by Garbanzo Girl.  She has quite a lot of pretty good information and recipes.  At least to me.  This is one of them.

Banana Bread Cookies (16 cookies) . (This is where you can watch her make these cookies. Her recipe is here with my changes inserted.)
2 ripe bananas ½ cup peanut butter 2 tbsp maple syrup 2 cups quick oats 1 tbsp chia seeds--since I left my chia seeds in Oregon, I used ground flaxseed meal here. 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp salt dash nutmeg--since I did not have any nutmeg I put in 1/4 teaspoon or so of ground allspice. ¼ cup vegan chocolate chips--since I really like chocolate chips, I put in a little more than 1/2 cup of mini dark chocolate chips DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat over to 350 Farenheit. 2. Peel and mash your bananas in a large bowl. 3. Add peanut butter and maple syrup. Mix well. 4. Add dry ingredient directly to wet ingredients: oats, chia seeds, spices. Mix well. 5. Fold in chocolate chips. 6. Form dough into 2 tbsp balls. Flatten each ball with your hand. 7. Bake for 15 minutes. Wait 15 minutes for cookies to cool.

These cookies came out nice and soft and certainly sweet enough for Dear One to eat several of them. We made them for the Emergency Preparedness Fair that was at the church over the weekend but SO MANY kind people brought cookies and bars and doughnuts that they were still giving them out after church on Sunday...SO I brought the cookies home to eat here. The neighbor's lawn people came by to mow today. It crossed my mind to put a big container of cookies on their front seat to get them out of our house, but they were faster than I was and drove off before I could do that. Oh well.

This is what ours looked like. If the Garbanzo Girl told us why she named them Banana Bread Cookies, I missed it.

Munchie Monday: No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

We have an Emergency Preparedness Fair coming up next week.  In Relief Society we were asked to donate cookies.  Since I am lazy I wanted to make bar cookies.  I asked if we could.  No problem!

 Tonight we had a potluck to get some of the final things together for the Fair.  I made these bars as a trial run.  They were well-received.

Sarah Kozowski at Sugar Apron created these bars.  She has other recipes!

No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

1 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon  vanilla extract

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

Line an 8 or 9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.  Use a 9 by 13 pan if you want thinner bars.

Melt butter and brown sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat.  When the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved stir in the vanilla and the oatmeal.  Cook over low heat 3-4 minutes or until the ingredients are well blended.

Pour half  of the oat mixture into the prepared baking pan.  Spread the mixture evenly and press down.

Melt the chocolate chips and the peanut butter in a small microwave-safe bowl for about 1 minute, or 1 1/2 minutes until you can stir them to a lovely smoothness.

Pour the chocolate mixture over the pan, reserving about 1/4 cup to drizzle over the top.

Sprinkle on the remaining half to the oatmeal mixture and tamp down with the back of a spoon.  Drizzle the remainder of the chocolate over the top.

Refrigerate 2-3 hours or overnight.

Bring to room temperature before cutting into bars.

This is Sarah's recipe, more or less the way she recorded it.

What I did differently:  I used a quarter sheet pan (more or less 9 by 13) with a Silpat liner.  After the bars had chilled for 5-6 hours, I put them on the cutting board and with the stainless dough scraper I went around the edges of the pan. I was able to then pull them out of the pan and put them naked on the nice Boos cutting board where, after they had set out for about ten minutes, I cut them into squares...about 24 pieces.  I used dark chocolate mini-chocolate chips that were just dying to be used up.  They were left over from the hot chocolate bar at the Christmas Zone Conference last year, so you know they wanted to be used up!

Munchie Monday: Rice Noodle Bowl with Ginger-Peanut Sauce

The other day a few missionaries were in the mission office to pick up supplies.  After they were gone I noticed a few papers left on the table where four of them had been sitting while waiting for the other two.  This is a recipe from them!  I do not know where they found it.

For the sauce in a medium bowl I put 3 Tablespoons each  lime juice, soy sauce, and rice vinegar.  Added 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1 Tablespoon ground ginger,  nearly a Tablespoon sesame oil, and 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes.  I whipped until well combined and set aside.

What I actually did since I did not have the cabbage, carrots, and cucumbers is that I sautéd a large sweet onion along with one red bell pepper sliced thin.  Cooked the rice noodles according to package...which was that I put them in a bowl and covered with boiling water and let sit for 8 minutes or so.  Drained the noodles and put the sautéed vegetables and noodles in a large bowl and poured the sauce over the top then tossed.  They were ready to eat.  Yummy.  Mostly.

These are the noodles we used:

This is what they looked like ready to eat:

The crazy thing is DEAR ONE ATE TWO BOWLS OF THIS STUFF!!!!!!  Unbelievable.  And the next day he ate the rest. Unheard of!  Funnily enough, I did not like is as much as I thought I would.  Isn't that a pretty pass?!

Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Peanut Sauce

Recently I found a recipe for peanut sauce.  Today I made it.

Quick and Easy Peanut Sauce, PACC version

1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 Tablespoon rice vinegar--plain or seasoned

Put all the ingredients into a small blender and blend until smooth.  This is fabulous for dipping all kinds of vegetables in:  red bell pepper strips,  celery sticks,  steamed broccoli, probably anything you want.

Food Friday: Spicy Peanut Salad Dressing

Today I made a salad dressing that was especially yummy.

This is what I did:

In a small blender, I placed

1/4 cup peanut butter
2 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoons Ume Plum Vinegar though other vinegar or even lemon juice would have worked
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons water
2 teaspoons fresh ginger paste (or just finely minced ginger)
1 heaping teaspoon sambal oelek or garlic chili paste

Blend very well until a nice smooth sauce. If it is too thick to be a salad dressing, add water, one Tablespoon at a time until the texture is right.

Yields:  about one cup

This tastes really nice on a big fat vegetable and bean salad.

Food Today: Oreo Brownie Peanut Butter Cupcakes!

A friend told me about the blog of one of her friends....networking is everything, isn't it!  I went to that blog which is called "I Sing In The Kitchen".   This particular recipe struck my fancy but made a few changes.

We have a "birthday party" for our women's Relief Society at church this week. I am one of the ladies bringing cupcakes.  When I saw the recipe I just had to make it.

In preparation I needed to bring home some Oreo cookies and a brownie mix, treats that are rarely seen around here...  I have a very good brownie recipe but really like the ease and moistness of brownie boxed mixes, so I purchased several of them, as well, not knowing how much brownie batter I would need.  It turns out that one box (18.4 ounces) of dry brownie mix will make one and a half dozen 2 1/2 inch cupcakes.

I Sing In The Kitchen used mini Oreos and tiny cupcake papers.  I chose to use the regular size ones...being a bit slothful. 

SO...if I was to give a recipe:

Stack two Oreos together with peanut butter in between, or use sweetened cream cheese!

1 or 2 bags of Oreo cookies (I used regular size)
Peanut butter, creamy or chunky
2 or 3 brownie mixes
Cupcake papers (I used 2.5 inch papers)
Frosting

Prepare brownie mix according to box directions.  Put cupcake papers into muffin tins.  Take a small spoonful of peanut butter and spread it onto one Oreo then top with another Oreo and place in cupcake paper in muffin tin.  With a small portion scoop, scoop up brownie batter and carefully release it onto the Oreo stack then put the tin in the oven.

When cooking the brownie Oreo peanut butter cupcakes, my oven took 17-20 minutes to cook at 350 degrees F..  I pulled the pans out when the edges were just a bit soft knowing that they would continue to cook a little a they cooled.

Oreo stacks with brownie batter on top prior to cooking.

Cool 1-2 minutes in the pan then remove from tin and finish cooling on a rack until completely cool.

Make your favorite decorating icing and decorate the cupcakes as you choose.  Since mine are still not cool as I write this post, I do not have photos of icing yet. I place to put a small curlicue or a simple blossom on top.  Not being much of a decorator, this will tax my skill and creativity to the max, as it happens!

Cooked and cooling brownie Oreo peanut butter cupcakes!