Quick Peanut Butter Mousse

I think we've all figured out by now that the hubby likes dessert.  And peanut butter.  And we're usually running here and there and don't have tons of time for a full out dessert.  Add to that the fact that I'm a sweets addict and I am not to be trusted with a whole cake of any kind.  :)  So, yesterday, the hubby asked about dessert and I suggested mug cakes which have been our go-to lately.  I then went looking for a recipe.  I am not even sure where I found it but the mug cake itself was not good.  Ugh.  I HATE wasting high quality ingredients on something that I won't eat.  Does anyone else feel like that?  But I couldn't do it. Into the trash the cake went.  However....there was a silver lining to the cloud.  I made a quick peanut butter mousse to go on top of it and it was amazing!!!



At least the cake looked for it's photo shoot.  :)

Seriously though, that mousse was enough dessert all by itself.  So much so that it was dessert today again after our run and veggie quesadillas.

How to make it?  I used an 8 oz block of softened organic cream cheese, about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup of organic peanut butter, a splash of vanilla and some almond milk.  I used my mixer on high for about 1 minute and it was done.  That is seriously an easy dessert that tastes heavenly!

I went for some great runs this week too!  I tried out my new trail shoes (Altra Lone Peaks) for a 7 mile run on some of my favorite trails yesterday while doing the Virtual Run for Sherry.  I was so glad to be a part of something that makes people aware of the dangers that can lie out there for us runners, and just people in general.  Keep awareness up while showing that it won't stop us is one way to we can strike back.  Living in fear is no way to live.  I was proud to #run for Sherry yesterday and I want to thank Beth from Shut Up and Run for being open about her loss and organizing all of us to make something positive come from her cousin Sherry's death.



When I am doing something I love, I tend to get lost in it.  Whether it's cooking, running or cleaning (yes, I really do love to clean) I am at peace, and have found my joy.  Not every moment is like that but I really strive for it.  And I'm learning that surrounding myself with people who care about me and who I care about is all the joy I need, because being a part of their lives is something I love as much as cooking and running.  Life is imperfect and every day is not promised to us.  Living life "fearlessly but aware" is the best I can do.  So, my run for Sherry has reminded me of that.  I will cherish and love my family and friends, take each day as the gift it is, and keep moving forward even when things aren't as good as they can be.  There just is no other way to live.  Lately I've been struggling with some things and I needed to remember all of that so badly.

I'll end today with some of my most favorite thoughts/quotes for how I want to live my life and what I hope people see when they see me...

1. She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails. - Elizabeth Edwards

2. There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.

3. Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. - C.S. Lewis

4. When you choose to forgive those that hurt you, you take away their power over you.

5. For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others.  For beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness.  And for poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.  Audrey Hepburn

I could go on and on, but I think you've heard me babble on enough!

Sheri

 

Chocolate, uh, Dessert?

Okay, so I don't know what to call these, but they are good!  They'd work as a dessert - which is how we had them- or I imagine as a snack, or even the protein component of an otherwise healthy meal.  Chocolate as a meal.  Now there is a thought to consider!  But, before I get around to sharing my dessert, I have to tell you a funny story about dinner...

I don't know about you, but sometimes when I get done working, I'm tired.  The kind of "want to plop on the couch and just rest for hours watching tv" kind of tired.  Dragging my butt out to run, bike or even to make dinner becomes a supreme chore on those days.  It's like the last kid leaves the house for the evening and I become a pile of useless mush.  And just as I sit to relax, the inevitable question comes out of the hubby's mouth, "What's for dinner?"  More often than not, I have a plan, but on those days when I am a pile of mush without a plan, I am not too ashamed to admit it's often a pb&j night, or even worse, a run out to pick up burritos.  This night was one of those nights.  I was a pile of mush with no plan.  And we'd just had pb&j so that was out, and I really, really didn't feel like driving to get burritos.  I tried a few ploys to get the hubby to take me out but he's been sick and wasn't really on board.  I know he would have taken me, but that just felt selfish, so I decided we'd do veggie fajitas.  Or...even better...pineapple veggie fajitas.  One problem.  We were out of tortilla shells.  I figured the couple of mile drive to the store was better than an across town burrito run and hopped in the car.

While I was there, I considered getting a fresh pineapple but thought it would be easier to just use the pineapple I had frozen up a few months ago.  Bad choice.  Once I got home and started prepping the veggies I discovered we had no pineapple.  None.  Insert a huge sigh here because that's how I felt.   But what did I have...?  Pineapple frozen fruit bars.  And, yes, I did add a popsicle to my veggie fajita mix.  And, yes, it worked and tasted great.  I wouldn't recommend it as a replacement for the taste of fresh pineapple being sauteed with the peppers and onions but it did in a pinch and saved dinner.  Yeah, that was a bit dramatic, but that's how I felt.

So, after all that, what was the first thing out of the hubby's mouth after eating the fajitas???  Yep, he asked what was for dessert.  So, I headed out to the kitchen, tossed some peanut butter, cocoa powder, powdered sugar and chopped almonds and came up with this...



Now, as I was doing this "on the fly" so to speak I have no real recipe to share, but consider this inspiration to try something different and see what you can come up with.  I did chill the "dough" a bit because it was a little on the loose side while warm but it held it's shape better after 15 min in the fridge.  I had a few too many of these but I tried to justify it by telling myself it was a good protein punch.  Feel free to rationalize this way to yourself too!

Enjoy!
Sheri

"Better than going out" Chicken Critter Salad

It was a long week filled with stress, sickness and just trying desperately to get back into some kind of a routine.  Friday afternoon came, I got done work a little early and hubby and I hit the trails at our favorite local park for the first run all week.  It was a shorter run than normal so we hadn't made any plans for snacks, etc to take along and when we finished, we were starving!  On the ride home we tried to decide what we wanted for dinner.  One of the places we still like to head out to every now and then is Texas Roadhouse.  I love the deep fried pickles and hubby loves the rolls and we both agree our favorite thing on the menu is the Chicken Critter Salad.  We thought of heading home, cleaning up and going out, but quickly decided that Friday night is not the night to head there, or anywhere in our town, for dinner and decided to make it at home.  I'm so glad we did!

Of course we started off with some fried pickles - easy and simple.  I drained some dill chips while I heated some oil in a saucepan and then tossed the pickles in a flour, cayenne, seasoned salt mix and fried them until crispy.  For a dip I blended ketchup, horseradish mayo, Italian seasoning blend, hot shot pepper blend and paprika.  We nibbled on these while we made the ingredients for the salad.

First, I tossed some cubed leftover bread with a blend of butter, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper and then put it in the oven at 400 degrees.  Then I made a batter of flour, milk, and seasonings for the chicken tenderloins that I'd thawed out.  I dredged the chicken in the batter and hubby fried them in the same oil we'd used for the pickles.  While he did that, I cubed 2 hard boiled eggs and washed the salad lettuce.  Once the chicken was cooked, we sliced it and put it over the egg, greens and tomatoes and put warm croutons on top.  And added just a bit of honey mustard dressing on top.  Perfection!!  We enjoyed our favorite meal without calling ahead, dealing with crowds or forking over any $.  What a great date night!  Only thing missing was the rolls, so next time I will be sure to have some dough ready to go.

One thing we don't get out very often is dessert so it was extra-special to enjoy a dessert after our meal.  I wanted to try a new recipe and I have seen Black Magic Cake on more than a few blogs, so I decided that would be perfect.  I used this recipe from Allrecipes Black Magic Cake and was excited with all of the wonderful reviews.  We weren't disappointed. Of course, it had to have a peanut butter icing because it wouldn't be a chocolate cake in our house any other way.  :)  Nothing fancy, just a Peanut Butter Buttercream essentially.  So creamy it melted in your mouth.  I wish I had a recipe, but it was more of a clean out the odds and ends to concoct a frosting sort of event - in the most delicious way possible.



I think we were so spoiled with our evening in we might have to replicate it the next time we've got a craving for our favorite salad.  Being home, enjoying working together and then having a relaxing dinner was more than worth it!

 

Craving chocolate? How about a Muffin?

I have been on a chocolate kick lately...it's just about all I want to eat.  I'm really not usually like that...I like chocolate but I can usually resist the temptation.  Not these days!  I want chocolate and I really want it a lot.  Who knows or understands these demands the body puts out, but I'm not arguing.  If you want chocolate, I figure, have chocolate.  Yeah, I think being sick for too many days has made me a little crazy, but just bear with me..  :)

I decided on chocolate chip muffins as a way to take care of two problems:

1) No more open chocolate chip bag in the pantry. Very tempting!

2) At least when I eat the chocolate, I'm getting a bit more bang for my buck.

So, I decided on a muffin with chocolate chips and dried cherries.  Oh my mouth was watering just thinking about it.  But, then I had a thought.  Hubby hates cherries and chocolate together.  What to do?  What to do?  Well, I did what I did with the coconut almond cups.  I split the batter in half, and made half of them with dried cherries and mixed peanut butter and sprinkled peanut butter chips on top of the rest.  Crisis averted.  Now back to my baking.

I found a recipe on Food Network and although I wasn't planning on a chocolate muffin, the recipe there just sounded too good and so one more layer of chocolate was added to my muffin plan.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Adapted from Food Network

1 3/4 c all purpose flour

2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

2 T cocoa powder

3/4 c sugar

3/4 c milk chocolate chips

1 c milk

1/3 c vegetable oil

1 egg

1 t vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, and chocolate chips into a large bowl. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a separate bowl and mix gently. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. At this point, I separated my batters, and added 1/2 c peanut butter to one and 1/2 c dried chopped cherries into the other.  You can mix anything in you'd like.

Pour into either a greased or paper lined muffin tin.  You can sprinkle additional chips on top of muffins before baking if you'd like.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are risen and springy.

These are really very moist, delicious muffins.  I hope you enjoy them!

 

Ooey Gooey Squares of Yumminess

 

Ha!  Top that doozy of a name.  Seriously, though, these were about as easy as anything to make and pretty tasty.    I was still in a panna cotta coma, not really wanting to accept any other dessert but hubby really wasn't up to more milk.  :( 
So, I scrounged through the cupboard and came up with this.  Not too bad for about 5 minutes of work and 20 minutes of waiting, 30 if you actually save your tongue from 3rd degree burns and allow the caramel to cool out of the oven. 


Ingredients:
1 cup of brown sugar, divided in half
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups of ap flour
1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.

Blend flour and 1/2 cup of brown sugar in large bowl.  Add the peanut butter and once it is well incorporated into the dry mix, add the egg.  Press this mixture into a 8' X 8' pan. 

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and add brown sugar.  Bring to a full boil and boil for one minute.  Remove from heat, add pecans and vanilla and spread over flour mixture. 

Bake for 20 minutes, and remove from oven.  Sprinkle chips over hot mixture while cooling. Wait 10 minutes before cutting.  (You may have to hide the pan at this point!  But be careful, the caramel is HOT!)

Enjoy!   We certainly did and they are officially on the "make again" list!!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies

These are for Santa....yep, that's the story I'm going with.  Actually, the real story is better 'cause we got a new camera for Christmas!!  And, to celebrate, I made cookies.  But I couldn't take any "as cooking" photos because the camera was charging so first thing this morning hubby and I were trying it out.  And as you can see in the picture above, the results are pretty amazing.  I couldn't believe the difference in my photos and I can't wait to take more pictures to share with you.  But, first, do you want a cookie recipe?

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies
adapted from Nestle

Ingredients:  

2 cups all-purpose flour 
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1 teaspoon salt 
2 sticks butter or margarine, softened 
3/4 cup granulated sugar 
3/4 cup packed brown sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
2 large eggs 
1 2/3 cups (11-ounce package) peanut butter and chocolate chips, or just peanut butter would work too.

Preheat oven to 375.  Then mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl and set aside. Cream butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl.Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg is added. Gradually mix  in flour mixture. Stir in chips by hand.  Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets or parchment paper.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes and then transfer to cooling racks.