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.  

Rhubarb Dream Bars

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 C. flour

¾ C. powdered sugar

1 C. butter

Mix crust and press into 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Filling:

4 eggs (beaten)

2 C. sugar

¼ C. flour

½ tsp. salt

4 C. rhubarb

Mix the filling ingredients and fold in the rhubarb.  Pour on top of the crust and bake at 350 for 40-55 minutes or until the edges begin to brown.  

Banana Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:

1.5 cups very ripe bananas (3 fresh bananas or 4 thawed, previously frozen bananas)

2 tsp lemon juice

3 cups all-purpose flour

1.5 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¾ cup soft butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1.5 cups buttermilk (OR milk soured with one tbsp vinegar or lemon juice)

Icing:

½ cup softened butter

8 oz cream cheese, room temp.

1 tsp vanilla

3.5 cups icing sugar (also known as powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275 F, and grease and flour (or spray), a 9x13 cake pan.

Mash banana and mix with lemon juice and set aside.  In a med bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.  If you're making your own buttermilk, combine milk and vinegar (or lemon juice) in a small bowl, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla.  Beat in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk.  Stir in bananas.

Pour into cake pan and bake 1 hour and 10 mins (or until knife comes out clean). *if need be, cook longer, checking every 10 minutes until cake is fully cooked.

Immediately place in freezer for 45 minutes. (if not completely cool upon removal from freezer, let cool further before icing).

Cream butter and cream cheese.  Beat in vanilla and icing sugar on low until combined, then high until smooth.

Frost cake and enjoy!

This is one of my favorite recipes I’ve made to date…and I’m not even a fan of bananas.  The banana flavor is mild, just adding a touch of sweetness.  The frosting is amazing.  The cake is super moist.  If you have some bananas that you need to use up, I would definitely recommend this! 

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.  

Snickerdoodle muddy buddies

Review by Lyndee:

Ingredients:

5 cups rice chex cereal

12 oz white chocolate chips

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Measure out chex cereal and put aside in a large bowl.  Mix together cinnamon and powdered sugar in a a large ziplock baggy.  Melt white chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds.  Pour the melted chocolate over the cereal and fold in until well coated.  Add cereal to the bag of sugar and shake until well covered. 

This was possibly the simplest recipe I’ve ever made and it’s so dang good!! it really does taste like snickerdoodle.  Even the hubby liked it and he’s generally not a big fan of finger foods!!  It took less than 5 minutes and is totally delicious.  Can’t wait to share this one with the family tonight.  

Lemon bar muddy buddies (puppy chow)

Review by Lyndee:

Ingredients:

6 cups rice chex cereal

1 cup white chocolate chips

¼ cup butter

½ cup lemon curd

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

Melt white chocolate chips and butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave (stirring every 30 seconds).  Once melted, add the lemon curd and stir until smooth.  Pour rice chex into a large paper bag (or bowl if you don’t have a bag).  Pour lemon mixture over cereal.  Shake to mix and coat cereal.  Add powdered sugar and shake more to coat.  Spread out on cookie sheet to cool.  Once cool, store at room temperature in an airtight container. 

Oddly, this really does taste like lemon bars! I had never used lemon curd before but hey, it totally worked so hooray for that.  This is a very simple snack to make and a fun summer flavor. 

Chess Squares (aka Texas Gold bars)

Review by Lyndee:

1 box yellow cake mix

3 eggs

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

4 cups (1 lb) powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 300 and spray a 9×13 dish with cooking spray. Mix cake mix, melted butter and one egg to a soft dough. Press into the bottom of the pan. 

Mix powdered sugar, softened cream cheese and remaining two eggs until smooth, about 1-2 mins. Pour on top of crust. 

Bake at 300 for 40-50 minutes until top is golden brown.

There are phenomenal bars! So rich and creamy and different than your regular brownie.  They were super easy to make too.  These are definitely going into the dessert rotation.  I can only imagine what they would be like warm out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Holy cow! Delicious.