No-Bake Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Granola Bars

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Granola Bars

I made these last night for our family night snack and I love them.  They have turned in to my favorite granola bar and I am planning on making them again.  My batch made 12 bars and I used Brown Rice Crispies instead of regular ones but I am sure either would work since they taste about the same.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup honey

2 T. peanut butter (I used smooth)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups quick cooking oats (not rolled)
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (I used what I had which were chips that were actually a little bigger than normal, I just tried to chop them up a bit, but did a pretty lousy job of it so I have big chocolate chunks)

Instructions:

In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey, peanut butter and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes.  Take off the heat and pour in vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan or cookie sheet and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness.  If you want to fill the entire pan, I would double the recipe.  I used a glass cake dish that was 14X9 and I filled it about half way.  Make sure you firmly press it together so that it is compact and looks like a large granola bar.  

Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and press down lightly. Cool on a counter top to room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Makes about 12 bars.

Texas Sheet Cake

Yesterday, I made Texas Sheet Cake...some people outside of Texas call it Chocolate Sheet Cake, but don't be fooled, it is Texas Sheet Cake! It is rich and chocolatey and feeds a bunch since it is a shorter cake and you make it in a jelly roll pan. It is Heavenly, and I have tested a few recipes and found that Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman, has the best recipe.

• Ingredients for ....THE CAKE:
• 2 cups Flour
• 2 cups Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 2 sticks Butter
• 1 cup Boiling Water
• ½ cups Buttermilk
• 2 whole Beaten Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• _____
• FOR FROSTING:
• ½ cups Finely Chopped Pecans
• 1-¾ stick Butter
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 6 Tablespoons Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.

It is amazingly rich, chocolately, and won-der-ful...especially when you make it while you are in Australia and it tastes like home. Mmmmmmmmm

Craft-Oatmeal cans to cute container

I love to take ordinary objects and make them into something new and extraordinary! Here is an example. This is just a plain old Quaker Oats Oatmeal can but I took scrap booking paper and my circle and scallop punches and made a super cute container! This would be a fab container for a gift for sometime. You could fit a t-shirt in this, some candy, jewelry, scarp booking supplies...lots and lots of options!

I am one of those people who believes that when you give a gift, the packaging is part of the gift...so I think the packaging should be spectacular. To me it shows that I cared enough to make it really special for that person...and my gift wrapping is always noticed and complimented...so I know it works!

So, anyway, this could be the cutest little pencil or marker holder ever or whatever you can think up in that beautiful head...but turn a bland old item into something GREAT!