Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls

We are still on the mission to find the "perfect" snack. After perusing food blogs, we went back to Chocolate Covered Katie and decided to recreate this recipe.


Ingredients:
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup + 3 tbs raisins
2 tbs peanuts
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
Optional Coating:
1/4 tbs baking cocoa
2 tbs flax seed meal


Combine all ingredients in food processor (except coating ingredients) until mix is well incorporated. It may seem like it will never mix, but trust me, it does :). divide in to equal servings and roll in to balls. I made  6 out of mine, but I think 12 is really more size appropriate.  If you want to coat them, mix the two dry ingredients and then roll balls in the coating.

Ed liked these. I liked these. The coating is good, but a bit bitter until you get it mixed with the dough part.

Without Coating:                                                With Coating:
12 servings @ 2 PPV                                      12 servings @ 2 PPV
6 servings @ 3 PPV                                         6 servings @ 4 PPV
3 Servings @ 6 PPV                                        3 servings @ 7 PPV

                            

Apple Pie Ala mode Smoothie (Hot or Cold!)

My Weight Watchers Leader Sheri, shared this awesome recipe with us! Her original version is as follows:


3 PPV each serving: (Makes 2 servings)
1 WW Vanilla Smoothie Pack
1 cup FF milk
1 cup of "fried" cinnamon Apples
4 Ice cubes


Cut Apples in slices and cook in a skillet with Cinnamon until tender. Refrigerate. When cold, Blend all ingredients in blender. Really taste like an Apple Pie A la mode....I'm serious! YUM!


I tried it and it was GOOD, but I wanted to take a different spin on it. I wanted to make it hot!


1 cup FF or 1% milk
1 cup water
1 WW vanilla smoothie packet
1 whole apple "fried" up as above


Mix water and milk together with apples and heat in a microwave safe container until hot. Mix in blender with smoothie packet until smooth. Serve and Enjoy!
Have the whole thing for 7 PPV or make 2 servings @ 3 PPV each!

Banana Cinnamon French Toast Casserole

It all started when Lorin shared a recipe with me for French Toast Casserole :)
Recipe can easily be multiplied to serve more, or to make a head to freeze and reheat later.
Original recipe credit goes to: Healthy Tipping Point

Ingredients:
6 Slices Light White Bread
4 large eggs
1 tbs vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tbs cinnamon
1 medium banana (peeled and sliced or mushed. I mushed mine)
1/4 cup raisins

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Liberally spray baking dish, I used an 8x8 square.
Cube bread in to chunks, dump in to prepared dish. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, milk, vanilla , cinnamon and banana (if mushed. If sliced/chopped wait to stir in when you mix in  the raisins.) Once mixture is well combined, pour over the bread cubes and stir until all bread is coated. Carefully fold in the raisins (and banana if you didnt mush it), until well combined.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until cooked through. Original recipe called for 20 minutes, and I think that would be appropriate if you sliced the bananas, but since I mushed mine, it added more liquid-ish and needed more time. Just keep a check on it every 5 minutes past 20.

Serve and enjoy!
Makes 4 servings @ 5 PPV each
Makes 2 servings @ 9 PPV each.

This was really super good. Can't wait to try it with other fruits in it!

Thankful Thursday {Week 5}

Linked up at the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop

I think this is week 5? I forgot to do it yesterday! GAH!
Today will be a super easy and possibly silly one. I am thankful for technology. All sorts of it. Phones, computers, TV's, DVD players and camera for starters. <3 Love being able to talk and communicate with friends and family and people I quite possibly wouldn't have met other wise. (Weak post today, but I need to get to work!) MAKE IT A GREAT ONE!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Granola Bars

Per request of my loving husband, he wanted a snack bar that was peanut butter chocolate something that was easy to eat and didn't have too much chew ( I will be posting the super chew bar recipe soon!) This has tons of ingredients (compared to my norm) and it smells scarily like a huge peanut butter cookie, so PLEASE :D bake at your own risk. Original Recipe credit goes to How Sweet Eats.

Ingredients:
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup puffed wheat cereal
1 cup crushed pretzels ( I used rods, that's all I had!)
2 tbs ground flax seed
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped (I completely pulverized mine!)
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup honey
100g semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.


In a bowl, combine oats, flour, puffed cereal, pretzels, brown sugar, peanuts, and flaxseed, and stir to combine. Add in peanut butter, and mix with a spoon to break it up and create a “dough,” mixing it in as much as you can for at least 5 minutes. Mix melted butter with vanilla extract and add to dough, then mix. Add in honey and stir to moisten completely. Fold in chocolate chips.


Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with non-stick spray and press the dough into the pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Remove and let cool completely before cutting – there may be minimal crumbling but they should hold together completely. If you find they are crumbling, stick them in the fridge to chill for a few minutes and try again.


Then, depending on how good or bad you want to be, this makes:
10 servings @ 10 PPV each
12 servings @ 9 PPV each
14 servings @ 7 PPV each
16 Servings @ 6 PPV each <~ Ed sized
20 Servings @ 5 PPV each

Very Yummy. Very Awesome. Very Evil!


Linked at : Ingredient Spotlight: Dry Cereal

Egg Bake with Hashbrowns

:) On the search for yummy, filling, healthy breakfast that can be cooked ahead and reheated. It started with Salsa Egg Bake but I needed a larger serving that would be filling for both Ed and myself. And this was created. You could simplify it some for yourself by using frozen hasbrowns, but I have a 10 lb bag of potatoes that needed to be cooked (all 10 lbs are NOT in this recipe :D ) Feel free to add more veggies to your liking.

Ingredients:
12 eggs (or you could use egg beaters)
8 tablespoons hot salsa (or mild, know your preferred spice level)
1/2 cup white flour
2 tbs water
1/2 cup shredded cheese
2 slices of chicken bologna, diced (or whatever meat/ lunch meat you have on hand)
2 lbs of potatoes, peeled and shredded.
5 teaspoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 375.
HashBrowns First:
Preheat large skillet over medium heat. Add oil. For the hashbrowns, once the potatoes have been shredded soak them in a large bowl of cool water. Drain them through a colander and back to a bowl of fresh water until the water runs clear (this is getting out some of the starch so the potatoes don't turn gray and yucky looking.) Pat the potato shreds a bit to remove some excess water, then transfer to hot pan with oil. Stir to cook, allowing them to sit and brown some.
Spray  9x13 baking dish and pour in the cooked hash browns, spreading evenly on the bottom.
Mix together the remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl, then pour evenly over the hashbrowns.
Bake for 30-45 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

YUM! :)
depending on how big you want the servings:
6 servings @ 10 PPV
8 Servings @ 8 PPV each
16 Servings @4 PPV each.

Ed and I both had this for breakfast today with some fried apples and it was sooo yummy! Ed had a 8 PPV serving size and mine was the smaller. and I am FULL :)

***Alternatively, you could cut the ingredients in half and bake in  an 8x8 dish, but I was looking for breakfast for the both of us for most of the week :)

Linked At: Recipe of the week: Eggs

Manwich Pasta

As a kid, I was VERY anti-manwich. I figured I still was, til I started cooking for my hubby. I am still not a huge fan of gloppy meat on a bun, but we have had Manwich Steaks (in the crock pot) and I finally got around to figuring the exact stats (and not losing them, YAY!) for Manwich Pasta. You can make it as simple or fancy it up some with whatever veggies you want. Serve with a side salad and you are doing awesome YUMMY things!

Ingredients:
224g (or 8 oz, or 4 serving sizes) Ronzoni Garden Delight Rotini, cooked al dente
1/2 lb 93/7 ground beef, browned
1 can Manwich, any variety (I used the bold variety this time)
1 can of corn, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup water
and I threw in about 1/2 small can of mushrooms.

This is so easy, I probably don't need to type directions :) (Double yay!)
Cook your pasta, brown the beef.
Once the beef is cooked, pour in the Manwich, stirring well. Put 1/2 cup water in manwich can and swish around to get all of the extra yumminess out, pour in to meat mix. Mix corn with meat mix. Combine meat and pasta in an 8x8 pan (or really whatever you want)
All done!

Makes 4 large servings @ 11 PPV each
or 6 Servings @7 PPV each

Thankful Thursday: Week 4

Linked up at the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop

Today is another time appropriate post :) I am uber thankful for my BFF Lorin :)

Even though we are about 8 hours apart now, I think we are closer than ever. She

has an amazing heart and is so so smart. She helps keep me grounded 

and has taught me so much about being a friend. Thank you my dear 

for continuing to be a part of my life and helping make me a better person :)

PS:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!