Monster cookie energy balls

If you like monster cookies, and who doesn’t, this is a great no bake snack that will satisfy your sweet tooth.

INGREDIENTS

2 ½ cups quick oats

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup mini m&m's

DIRECTIONS

Combine oats, peanut butter, honey, chocolate chips and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Use a wooden spoon or a handheld mixer to combine. Add the mini m&ms and stir in.

Shape into one-inch balls and refrigerate for 30 minutes. This recipe will make about 36 balls. Store in a covered container in the fridge.

Notes: Resist the urge to add extra chocolate chips or m&ms. It will make these crumbly.

Peanut Butter Brownie Puppy Chow

 

Be warned - this is super addicting! 

Ingredients

·         6 C. rice Chex cereal (I found peanut butter Chex and used that)

·         1 C. milk chocolate chips or melts

·         1/2 C. peanut butter creamy

·         1 tsp. vanilla extract

·         1 to 2 C. brownie mix from the box (dry) 

·         Optional: Brownies, Reese's Pieces, or Peanut butter cups (chopped)

Instructions:

Place cereal in a large bowl and set aside.

In a microwave proof bowl, melt chocolate, peanut butter and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. Pour over cereal and fold until covered.

Dump into a large plastic bag and add brownie mix, seal and shake until coated. (If you don't have a large plastic bag, pour brownie mix over cereal and stir well. Or you can use a pot with a lid to shake it in.)

Toss in whatever chocolate or peanut butter candy pieces you want. I did peanut butter M&Ms, fudge brownie M&Ms and Reese’s pieces.  Shake again.

The original recipe called for 1 cup of boxed brownie mix. I found that didn’t coat the cereal mixture very well, so I added more. Then I made an 8x8 pan of brownies with the remaining mix. You could crumble those into the puppy chow too.

Peanut Butter Explosion Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3.4 oz. box instant vanilla pudding

1 cup chocolate chips

1 1/4 cups halved Reese's mini peanut butter cups, divided

1 cup mini Reese's Pieces, divided (or peanut butter M&M's) 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the butter until creamy. Add the peanut butter and sugars and beat again. Add the eggs, honey, and vanilla and beat until mixed in.

Stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, and pudding mix. Slowly add to the butter mixture until everything is mixed in.  Stir in the chocolate chips, 1 cup peanut butter cups, and 3/4 cup Reese's Pieces gently.

Use a 2 Tablespoon cookie scoop to make 36 dough balls. Press the remaining candy into the tops of the dough balls.  Place the dough balls on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Let rest on the hot cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a piece of parchment paper. Let the cookies cool completely before storing in a tightly sealed container.

Peanut Butter Oreo Truffles

Ingredients:

1 package peanut butter Oreos

1 block cream cheese

2 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter

12 oz chocolate almond bark or candy quick

Crush cookies in food processor until small crumbs.  Mix with room temperature cream cheese and peanut butter until well blended. Roll into 1 inch balls and set in fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Melt chocolate in microwave according to directions.  Dip balls into chocolate and set on wax paper.  Store in an air tight container in fridge until ready to eat. 

Peanut butter and chocolate are pretty much my favorite combination in the universe so these are right up my alley! 

Trash Treats

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. butter

1 (16) oz. bag marshmallows

2 tbsp. peanut butter

4 c. potato chips, crushed

2 c. Pretzels, crushed

1/4 c. M&M's

1/2 c. chocolate chips, melted

Grease a 9" x 9" pan with cooking spray.

In a large pot over low heat, melt butter. Add marshmallows and stir until smooth. Add peanut butter and stir to combine. Turn off the heat and quickly stir in crushed chips and pretzels.

Using a spatula or wax paper, press mixture into pan. Sprinkle with M&M's. Drizzle with melted chocolate. Let chocolate cool and harden before serving, about 30 minutes.

These bars were a perfect combination of sweet and salty. The only thing I would change is to mix the M&Ms in to the mixture before pressing in the pan.  They tend to fall off the top after you cut them.  I also had a small amount of Reeses Pieces in the kitchen so I added those too.  Yum! 

No Bake Crunchy Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

1 C. peanut butter

2 C. crushed graham crackers (1 pack or 9 graham crackers)

1 C. powdered sugar

2 C. chocolate chips

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Spray 9x13 pan.  In a saucepan, melt butter and peanut butter, stirring until smooth.  Remove from heat and set aside.  In a large bowl, mix the crushed graham crackers and powdered sugar.  Once mixed, add the peanut butter and butter mix.  Stir.  Spread the mixture evenly into the pan. 

In a pot over medium-low heat, combine the chocolate chips and vegetable oil.  Stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted and smooth.  Pour the chocolate over the peanut butter layer.  Cover the pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Cut bars and enjoy.  

Monster Cookies

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups creamy or chunky peanut butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated white sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup M&M's plain chocolate candies

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, combine the peanut butter with the sugars and butter. Use an electric mixer to mix until well combined. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Mix in the oats and baking soda. Then stir in the chips and M&M's.

Drop the cookies by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. If you'd like your cookies to look pretty, dot a few extra M&M's and chocolate chips on each mound of dough before baking.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheets until cookies are set. Transfer to wire racks; cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Almond Bark Cookies

I absolutely love these easy, no bake cookies. My mom always has them on her goodie tray during the Christmas holidays and I can’t wait to go home today and enjoy a few.

2 lb. almond bark (white)

1 C. mini marshmallows

2 C. dry roasted peanuts

3 C. rice krispies

1 C. peanut butter

Melt almond bark and add the remaining ingredients. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. 

Chubby Hubby Clusters

Recipe from Six Sisters Stuff

Ingredients:

1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup peanut butter chips

½ cup butter, cut into pieces

¼ cup peanut butter

2 cups pretzel sticks, roughly chopped

1 cup salted peanuts

In a large bowl, mix together chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butter, and peanut butter.  Microwave on high for 45 seconds, stir, and microwave again for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth (if it isn't completely melted, return to the microwave for 20 second intervals, stirring after each time).

Add pretzels and peanuts to the melted chocolate mixture and stir until they are completely coated in

chocolate.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto wax paper and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until firm.

Optional: drizzle with melted peanut butter.  If you don't eat them all in one sitting, store leftovers in an airtight container.

This treat was easy to make (no bake) and combines some of my favorite flavors.  Chocolate, peanut butter and salt…how can we go wrong with that? Thanks, Six Sisters for a great recipe to add to the Christmas goodie platter! 

Cake Mix Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup of Peanut Butter

1/2 cup water

1 large egg

15.25 ounces Yellow Cake Mix

For the frosting:

1 stick margarine (1/2 c.), softened

1/4 cup milk

1/­2 tsp vanilla (depending on your taste)

3 tablespoons of cocoa

2-­3 cups of powdered sugar

Heat the oven to 350°F.  Spray a 13 X 9­inch pan with no­stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl combine 1 cup of peanut butter, water and egg in large bowl, stirring until smooth.  Stir in cake mix until blended well. Spread into prepared pan.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until puffed and light golden brown. Cool completely.

Mix all frosting ingredients with a hand mixer until smooth. Add more powdered sugar or milk until you reach desired consistency and spread on top of bars. Or, if you’re feeling lazy, buy a can of whipped milk chocolate frosting. 

These bars were easy to throw together and smelled delicious coming out of the oven.  While they were very tasty, be warned that they are very “dense”.  I would cut them in small squares or be prepared to wash it down with a glass of milk. 

Peanut Butter Puff Corn

Ingredients:

Two 3½ oz bags puffcorn

¾ cup butter

¼ cup peanut butter

1¼ cup brown sugar

⅔ cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pour puffcorn into a large, greased roasting pan. Put butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and light corn syrup in a large saucepan (mixture will bubble up so it has to be big). Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add baking soda and mixture will foam up. Pour mixture over puffcorn and stir to coat. Bake at 250 degrees for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove from oven, pour onto waxed paper and break into pieces.

Although it takes a little time to make this due to the stirring every 10 minutes, it is totally worth it! This is sweet and delicious with a bit of crunch.  

Popcorn cake

Review by Lyndee:

2 bags butter flavor microwave popcorn

2 cups M&M’s

½ cup broken pretzel sticks

1 stick butter

16 oz bag mini marshmallows

½ cup creamy peanut butter

Prepare a large bundt  or 9 x 13 pan by spraying evenly with cooking spray.

Pop 2 bags of buttered microwave popcorn as directed on the package and dump into a large bowl. I used a butter flavored.  Pick out the kernels that didn’t pop.  Mix in M&M’s and pretzel sticks.  Melt butter over low in a large saucepan. Once melted add mini marshmallows and peanut butter. Stir until melted and smooth.

Remove from heat.  Let sit a minute or two so it doesn’t melt your M&M’s. Pour over your popcorn mix. Stir until all the ingredients are combined and then press into the prepared pan. Cover with foil and let your cake set for at least an hour to cool.

When you are ready to serve the cake loosen sides of your cake from the pan by running a butter knife around the edges. Flip your pan over onto your serving platter. I used a 9x13 pyrex pan that had a lid instead of bundt. I used butter to coat the pan instead of cooking spray. 

This was so yummy! It’s like a cross between a rice krispy treat and a popcorn ball.  It was a big hit at my nephews birthday party. 

Chocolate and peanut butter buckeye balls

Review by Lyndee:

Ingredients:

2 cups creamy peanut butter

3 cups rice krispies

3 cups powdered sugar

¼ cup melted butter

2 packages melted chocolate chips or almond bark

Mix all ingredients but the chocolate together.  Form into small balls and place on cookie sheet.  Set in fridge until firm.  Once firm, dip in melted chocolate.  Place back in the fridge until set (about an hour).  Store in fridge or freezer until ready to eat. 

I’ve always loved this sweat mix of chocolate and peanut butter but it seems I only get them around Christmas.  I decided to try a batch and keep them in the freezer for when I need a quick sweet tooth fix.  They turned out delicious.  Mine weren’t as pretty as the ones my family makes.  I got lazy rolling the balls and instead used an ice cream scoop.  Then I ran out of chocolate so some of them didn’t get completely covered.  Again, they still tasted great but they aren’t going to win any food presentation prizes.  

Peanut butter pudding cookies

Review by Lyndee:

2 cups peanut butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 small (3-4 oz) package of vanilla pudding

2 cups reeses pieces

Mix together peanut butter and sugar.  Add the eggs, vanilla and pudding mix until completely combined.  Stir in Reeses pieces. 

Scoop out 1 tbsp balls and place on a lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart.  Bake at 350 for 14-16 minutes. 

These were easy to make and made a huge batch! They are a “thick” cookie.  Pretty tasty if you like peanut butter…which, who doesn’t? 

Super easy triple chocolate peanut butter fudge

Review by Lyndee

Ingredients:

1 container frosting

1 16 oz jar creamy peanut butter

Melt frosting in a microwave safe dish for 1 minute.  Stir in peanut butter.  Spread into a 9x13 pan lined with foil.  Refrigerate and enjoy.

The recipe said this was the simplest fudge ever and I can’t deny that.  It called for vanilla frosting to make peanut butter fudge.  I opted to make a chocolate peanut butter fudge because they are my favorite pair and I had a triple chocolate fudge frosting on hand.  This was super easy and it tastes rich and delicious.  My only compliant would be that it was still a little soft even after being in the fridge overnight. 

Reese’s Squares

Review by Rachael:

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs

1 lb confectioner’s sugar (3-3 ½ cups)

1 ½ cups peanut butter

1 cup butter, melted

1 (12 ounce) bag milk chocolate chips

Directions:

 Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar & peanut butter. mix well.  Blend in butter until well combined.  Press mixture evenly into a 9 x 13 pan.   Melt chocolate chips in microwave or double boiler.  Spread over peanut butter mixture.  Chill until just set and cut into bars.

Step one took awhile, it was difficult to get those three ingredients to mix together. But finally I added the butter & got it to look like some form of a layer I could use. The directions didn’t say if you should spray the pan or not, but I did. I figured between peanut butter & chocolate it would probably stick. I made the mistake of letting these chill all night before trying to cut them. Once they are set all the way it’s very difficult to get them cut. They top layer of chocolate was chipping off & they didn’t look very pretty. They tasted okay, not exactly what I wanted from this recipe. I LOVE Reese’s and to me they were nothing like them. Maybe this would be good crumbled over ice cream?! 

Reese’s peanut butter cup rice krispies

Review by Lyndee

Ingredients:

4 peanut butter cups

2 tbsp peanut butter

6 cups of rice krispies

Directions:

Melt peanut butter and peanut butter cups in a pan with butter.  Add 6 cups of rice krispies.  Drop and cool on a sheet or press into a buttered baking dish.  Cut into squares when cool. 

This recipe was wrong.  The people that pinned it are obviously missing an ingredient.  There were way too many rice krispies and not enough goo.  They didn’t stick together.  I even melted some more peanut butter, cups and kara syrup together and added that when I realized they weren’t going to stick.  It helped a little bit but basically you just have flavored rice krispies.  Don’t get me wrong, the flavor is awesome.  Sprinkle this on some ice cream or just eat it with a spoon, but these do not work for bars or cookies.  Total bummer. 

Peanut butter pound cake

Review by Lyndee:

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

½ cup peanut butter

5 eggs, room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla

3 cups flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp baking soda

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Prepare a bundt or tube pan (dust lightly with flour). 

In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, powder and salt.  On medium speed, cream together butter and sugar until they are fluffy.  Add the brown sugar and peanut butter.  Continue mixing.  Add the eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients and the milk to the creamed mixture.  Alternate between adding the flour and milk.  Mix completely. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 60-70 minutes.  Only fill your cake pan ¾ of the way so it doesn’t run over.  If you have extra batter make muffins or a small loaf.   It is done when toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven let sit for 15 minutes.  Then remove from pan.  Dust with powdered sugar or frosting.

Frosting

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup peanut butter, creamy

2 cups powdered sugar

Milk (amount varies depending on consistency desired)

Cream butter and peanut butter.  Add powdered sugar and milk with mixer set on low.  Pour over the top of the cake.  I also melted four ounces of semi sweet chocolate and drizzled it over the top of the frosting. 

This cake didn’t go so well. First of all, I accidentally set my oven to 375 instead of 325 and didn’t realize until it had been baking for 30 minutes and starting to burn.  Not awesome.  The batter was delicious though before I stuck it in.  This cake took a long time to prepare and to bake.  I think mine was dry because of messing up the temperature.  It looked great and the flavor was pretty good.  But like I said, pretty dry so not sure if that’s recipe, my mess up or a combo of the two.  If you microwave it for 15 seconds and add a scoop of ice cream it’s pretty good though.

Buckeye Bark

Review by Lyndee:

2-1/2 lbs chocolate candy coating

1 (16.3 oz) jar creamy peanut butter

2 c Confectioners’ sugar

8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Melt half of the chocolate candy coating according to the package directions, then spread over parchment paper or a silpat-lined cookie sheet. Spread to a large rectangle, but not too thin – approximately 1/8″ to 1/4″ thickness. Place in freezer to firm up.

In a large bowl, beat together the peanut butter, Confectioners’ sugar, melted butter and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy. Remove first chocolate layer from the freezer and spread the peanut butter mixture over the top. Return to the freezer and melt the remaining chocolate candy coating. Once that is melted, spread it over the top of the peanut butter layer and freeze until set.

Break up the bark into small pieces using a butcher knife. Store in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to serve.

This was awesome! So much easier to make than the little balls and it tastes just like a Reese’s peanut butter egg.  The only thing I would change next time, is to spread it out on a bigger pan so it wasn’t quite as thick.  For some reason my I had a lot more peanut butter mixture than chocolate coating.  But it was still delicious! 

Healthified brownies

Review by Lyndee:

Tonight I had a hankering for brownies.  I had a mix in the cupboard but didn’t want full fat.  I was out of black beans but I did have applesauce.  I’ve heard that a lot of people swap applesauce for oil when making cakes and other baked goods so I did a little online research and sure enough, found you can do it with brownies too.  The posts I found suggested doubling the amount. If your mix calls for ¼ cup of oil, use ½ a cup of applesauce. 

Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix

2 eggs

¼ cup water

1 cup of unsweetened apple sauce

Preheat oven to 325 and grease a cake pan.  Mix your ingredients according to the directions.  Bake. 

I decided to get crazy and mix up a serving of PB2 and add a little peanut butter to half the brownies for some fun flavor.  PB2 is a healthier version of peanut butter (40 calories versus 190 and minimal fat).  You take two tablespoons of the powder and mix with 1 tablespoon of water.  I mixed that together and added a few dollops to the brownies.

The batter tasted normal and they looked fine when I put them in the oven. I baked for the required time and took them out.  They looked a little “bubbly”.  Like there were little mini air-holes in the batter.  They taste pretty good.  Obviously not the same chewy consistency of normal brownies but like brownies just the same.  And I knew they were so much healthier for me.  I think next time I would bake them in an 8x8 pan instead of a 9 x 13 so they were a little thicker.