Peanut butter bars

We're having Thanksgiving dinner at church tomorrow and I have to work. Generally, I'm out of work by the time church starts but I wanted to make something to bring with me. Since it had to be prepared tonight I decided on dessert. Peanut butter bars.

I wanted to make these for my small group a couple weeks ago but decided at the last minute to make something else (Oreo Cheesecake Cookies, yum). I pulled all the ingredients out tonight though and went at it. The recipe is very simple:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup butter, melted

1 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

4 tbsp peanut butter

The first 4 ingredients are mixed together well and pressed into an ungreased 9x13 pan. Then mix the chocolate chips and peanut butter and melt. I used a bowl and microwave, stirring every 30 seconds. That mixture is poured on top and spread evenly. Put a lid or cover on it (not anything that will touch the chocolate though!) and put it in the fridge at least an hour.

It tastes like Reese's cups. It's heaven.

Let me also admit that I stole this picture from someone else (because my phone had an accident and I haven't exactly figured this one out yet!) But they really do look and cut like that :-)

Chicken and Dumplings

Growing up I was quite deprived in my food choices. My Mom is kind of picky so I didn't know I liked a lot of food until I left home. Luckily, my Aunt Julie always sent my Dad home with his own container of Chicken and Dumplings and he was nice enough to share with me. Sunday's are my favorite cooking days because I have time to cook meals that take a little too long to cook during the week. Chicken and dumplings is one of those meals!

I started off with a two chopped onions in some oil in my already hot cast iron dutch oven. I cut up a whole chicken and put the pieces on top of the onion once it was translucent. You don't really have to cut up the chicken, you can throw it in there whole; I cut it into pieces so I can get more of the fat off. I used seasoned salt and pepper to season the chicken and onions. I used 32oz of chicken stock plus another 32oz of water so the chicken would be completely covered, put the lid on, and left it to cook for an hour.

Once your house smells delicious it's about time to take the chicken out. I pulled the meat off with a fork and then used my fingers to shred it into smaller pieces. I recommend using your fingers to do this so you can make sure you haven't missed a bone somewhere!

Put the chicken back into the chicken stock and start adding pieces of biscuit dough. There are multiple ways to speed up the process here. You can buy pre-made biscuit dough and chop it up; use Bisquick to make biscuit dough or you can do it the hard way and make your own biscuit dough from scratch. Since I never do anything easy can you guess which way I went? Exactly, I made my own dough. I made enough for 30 biscuits (based on my Aunt's recipe) because I wanted it to be thick (and hers is always thick!). You'll need to stir while you add and the dough will float. Let it cook/simmer about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the dough stays in the mixture you're ready to go. Probably you'll want to add more salt and pepper. You could also add carrots, celery, and garlic to give it some more flavor!

Southwest Chicken Wraps

I'm excited to put another pinterest find to test! This was quite easy and quite good. It reminds me of a Grilled Stuffed Burrito from Taco Bell, but I know what the meat is in this case :-)

I made some changes to the original recipe. Instead of black beans I used refried black beans. I liked the turn out because the beans were a good way to keep all the ingredients stuck to the tortilla. I think that might be the only change.

Here's how I did it!

I started with a tortilla.

To the tortilla I added the refried black beans. I scooped these straight from the can to the tortilla.

Next I added the rice chicken mixture. To about a cup of cooked rice I added 1T chili powder, 1t cumin and 1/2t garlic salt. I boiled a chicken breast and shredded the meat (it's a little over a cup of meat I would say) and mixed it with the rice. The rice is delicious, btw.



Next was the cheese. I used Colby jack and cheddar and sprinkled it all over. Then I added some dollops of sour cream and folded the wrap up.

Put your skillet on the stove and get some heat going. Spray both sides of the wrap with cooking spray and place it seam side down in the pan. Let it cook until it's nice and crisp, about 2 minutes each side. Delicious!