the chocolate peanut butter gallery

Maybe I’m crazy, but I feel like sometimes being limited in the kitchen is almost more idea-inspiring than when you have every ingredient on the planet to work with. My kitchen is regularly fully-stocked and yet, often times I stare at the cupboards unable to form a meal plan. How is that possible?

This week I did something that I imagine everyone who loves to eat would probably dread doing: I had my wisdom teeth taken out. You think I’d be crushed from the limitations that brings… no delicious bagels to tear at, no crunchy snacks to munch on, etc.- but instead, my world was opened up to a vast array of velvety soups full of spring veggies, Scottish Oatmeal, vibrant smoothies and luscious desserts. Could I make these things before? Sure. Did I? Nope. Inspiration comes from odd places sometimes.

I prepped for my recovery by bookmarking lots of easy-to-eat recipes, including these lovely Chocolate Peanut Butter Pots De Crème. Who needs vicodin when you have something that’s delicious and full of chocolate and peanut butter? It’s also perfect for any of you gluten-free eaters, and a nice avenue for using PB&Co’s tasty Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter since the flavor of it really comes through nicely.

Note: I like a bit of a skin on my pudding so I didn’t put plastic wrap on top right away as the recipe suggests. Mine also came out a little light and foamy-looking on top, I think because of my vigorous whisking.

I guess it’s worth mentioning that cooking and blogging are also an excellent distraction from the discomfort. This was a great activity / dessert all around.

Get the recipe by Jacqui Scoggin on The Peanut Butter & Co All-Star Recipe Blog.

You’re probably not going to believe this, but we’ve been trying to cut back on our sugar intake ever so slightly. I could never give it up all the way, but after reading this NY Times article on the toxicity of white sugar, Taste Tester decided to make some changes. One of which was to give up cereal.

Cereal- also known as my go-to breakfast for pretty much my entire existence. Seriously?

I thought he was crazy. Crazy, I tell ya! But after some initial resistance, I consumed the last of my cereal stash and I too, have stopped eating it. It made sense, really since most dry cereals are shockingly loaded with sugar and never kept me full til lunch anyway. Life has been better since giving them up with one minor problem… what the heck do we eat for breakfast now??

There are plenty of options, but cereal was just so… easy. :-/ It produced 1 bowl and 1 utensil of dirty dishes; no prep work required. Eggs use a pan, oatmeal uses a pot… both take time… what to do?

We spent a month in Austin last winter, during which I near-stalked a local smoothie joint and discovered the magic of smoothies and fresh juices. I had never paid much attention to them before but wow, did I feel better after drinking one!

So instead of using up our bananas to make banana bread like usual, I tried making a smoothie for Taste Tester. I blended banana, reduced-fat milk, peanut butter, honey and cinnamon.

He said it tasted really good, but there was one problem: it was warm, not chilled like a smoothie should be. I tried putting it in the freezer for a few minutes, but the edges of the drink just froze. Clearly, I am a newbie at this.

So, the next time we bought bananas, I waited for them to get ripe, chopped them up and froze them individually, so I had 5 ready-to-go chopped bananas that could just get thrown in the blender for 5 easy breakfasts. It worked like a charm- they produced tasty, chilled breakfast smoothies that Taste Tester loves. Yay!

This may not be a solution to the dirty dish problem since you need to use a blender, but it is a solution to the healthy/filling/non-time consuming problems. Plus, now that I make them so often I can just eyeball the measurements so I don’t have to waste a bunch of measuring spoons and whatnot.

Check out the recipe after the break. Give up your standard-issue breakfast for a day and give this a whirl (Yay, blender pun!). You won’t regret it. And if you must have a little treat, go ahead and add a little cocoa powder in. I won’t tell anyone! ;-)

On the same smoothie-loving note, now that we are no longer in Austin near my go-to smoothie place, I discovered this stylish iPad App that will keep me stocked and busy with smoothie recipes! Super fun.

Enjoy!

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Your parents always taught you never to do drugs, but did they say anything about eating yourself silly on super addictive CPB toffee crackers? I didn’t think so. These crackers are just as addictive and head-swirlingly satisfying as drugs without… being drugs. Hooray!

My sisters and I all love peanut butter, but my mom hates it. Every holiday we join in to make dessert and probably much to her dismay at least one peanut butter dessert makes its way to the table. One of this year’s Easter desserts were these salty / sweet CPB Saltines. They seemed a bit too snack-ish to be on the dessert table, but no one was debating technicalities as they were too busy stuffing their face holes and reveling in the tastiness.

These are super addictive. You know how when you are destroying a bag of chips, each one is just so perfectly salty that you can’t resist grabbing another and another? These saltines actually get baked in the oven for a few minutes so they come out a bit crispy instead of full on crunchy like they usually are and they are topped in a layer of sweet crunchy toffee, dark chocolate and roasted peanuts. The sweet toppings combined with the salty crackers makes for a wonderfully deadly delicious combination of flavors and textures.

Get the recipe on Allrecipes. My sister topped hers with honey-roasted peanuts, but you could also add a layer of peanut butter and peanut m&ms as this blogger did. Enjoy!

As someone who regularly bakes and gives away treats, I tend to really appreciate it when the tables turn and someone gives me a personally-made pastry instead. I especially appreciate it when it’s a unique treat that I’ve never had before and when it’s something as delicious as these bars were. Who knew that something called “dried spent grains” could be so tasty?

Yep you got it, these yummy bars were a side product from a home beer brewing kit. The grains left behind from making beer were dried and re-incarnated in dessert form. So if you make them, not only do you get to enjoy them but you can do so with a cold glass of your own homemade small batch beer in hand (or at least, dreaming about said homemade small batch beer glass since the fermentation process takes a lot longer than these bars do). Kudos to the creator (Brooklyn Brew Shop) and maker (TJ!) of this recipe for deliciousness, creativity and resourcefulness. I would have just assumed the spent grains should get thrown away. For shame, ignorant hypothetical self! No barley CPB bars for you.

Big thanks to TJ for sharing! You can find the recipe he used from Brooklyn Brew Shop. (Though if you don’t happen to have dried spent grains on-hand, I’d be willing to bet that a crunchy cereal of some sort would work in their place. They just might not have that same wonderful Bill-Nye essence to them.)

Busy, busy, busy. We’re all busy. You’re probably too busy to be reading this blog post right now. But you’re smart because let’s face it, the prospect of eating delicious cupcakes or hell – just looking at them – beats out whatever you’re supposed to be doing right now. Laundry? TPS Reports? Butchering a Whitney Houston song? You’re singing right now, aren’t you? Stop it, just stop. Look – cupcakes! Ooooh!

Despite feeling like a generally productive person and loving to read about food maybe even more than I love puppies (that sentence felt wrong even as I was writing it. Who doesn’t love puppies??), I have fallen embarrassingly far behind on my google reader. How can this be? I’m a disgrace to my own nerdy kind! But there are a few blogs on it that I just love and can’t quit. Happy Go Marni is one of them. Her blog is full of awesomely delicious recipes complete with helpful how-to photos. When she posted these cupcakes made with two of my favorite ingredients, I just couldn’t help myself.

Could you?

Feeling up to the baking, but not up for dealing with my pastry tips and piping bags, I went for a low-fi decorating technique. I admittedly stole this cute and tasty technique from a wonderful cupcakery called Sugar Mama’s in Austin, TX. The honey adds such a pleasant sweetness, extra moistness and nicely ties the flavors of the honey-roasted peanuts and peanut butter together.

Honey is one of my new favorite things to use in the kitchen. In the face of all those other questionable sugar replacers out there, it seems to be a safe, healthy and tasty option for sweetening. Plus, it goes super well with peanut butter and cream cheese. Just make a small valley in the middle of your icing with your offset spatula, fill it with a drizzle of your favorite honey and top with a few butter toasted peanuts.

Since I was feeling extra lazy, I didn’t toast my own nuts (that sounds almost as wrong as the puppy thing). We picked some up from Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, MI. I love Zingerman’s for many reasons, one of which is that when you go there, they happily let you sample lots of their delicious items. Fancy peanuts seemed like a pretty safe purchase for us, but after tasting them, they were without a doubt coming home with us. They are ridiculously good, crunchy sweet peanuts that are great on their own, but also make a great cupcake topper.

Get the cupcake recipe, complete with “how to” photos at Happy Go Marni and pick up some tasty Butter Toasted Peanuts from Zingerman’s.

And now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to eat one and catch up on my reader. :-)