Reeses Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

This pregnancy has me craving things I would not normally want to eat. Rice Krispie treats have never been big on my list, and I definitely do not gravitate towards the chocolate peanut butter combo that my husband loves. That's his thing, and I'm happy to make that for him...but it's never been my thing.

I was making dinner for our small group last week and wanted something easy that I could pull together quickly. A simple text to my foodie girlfriends erupted in lots of ideas. When one suggested Rice Krispie Treats, another quickly added that she had recently tried a Reese's version that was to die for. Bingo! I had my dessert for the night. A soft and ooey-gooey marshmallow treat with chocolate and peanut butter sounded so good, my mind was made up.

The grocery list is short and simple:  A box of Cocoa Krispies, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Butter, Karo and Mini Marshmallows. I added a Peanut Butter and Nutella drizzle to the top of my dessert in the end.

Start by chopping up some peanut butter cups. I found bags of 6 on sale for a dollar a piece, so I bought three packages and used 18 total peanut butter cups. I cut them two times horizontally and two times vertically to get 9 pieces from each peanut butter cup.

Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Salad

I want to eat this salad again. This Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Salad was really good and the peanut sauce was so easy to make, I can think of a many uses for the peanut sauce alone. I don't really know what it was that sparked my appetite one day. All I could think about was a spicy asian dish - I didn't know what it would look like, but I knew what it would taste like - so I went on an Internet search for the flavors I had imagined. Luckily I found this recipe on Epicurious.com and decided I needed to give it a try.

I had most of the ingredients in the pantry: soy sauce, chicken broth, garlic-chile sauce, peanut butter, rice vinegar, cilantro, ginger, chicken and brown sugar. I had to make a stop at the store for the green onion, red bell pepper and noodles.

To make this UNIVERSAL dressing, start with 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter. The recipe specifically says do not use old-fashioned style or freshly ground - but I'm not sure exactly why. It just says so... I scooped this into my cuisinart blender.

Next you need to measure and add 1/4 cup soy sauce to the cuisinart.

Then measure and add 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar. "Unseasoned?" I haven't come across "seasoned" so I assumed this 100% natural rice vinegar was fine to use.

This is where you get to dictate how spicy the sauce will be. I used 2 tablespoons of chili-garlic sauce - found on the asain food aisle of your grocery store. Lately however I haven't had any luck finding this brand. My next project will be to track down an Asian Market and a Meat Market here in Austin.

1 tablespoon of packed brown sugar.

1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger.

This is about a 1/2 cup of cilantro leaves. The original recipe says to add this to the salad later, but I would rather it be chopped up in my sauce.

I like this before and after photo. Here are the sauce ingredients...

Start blending the ingredients together and add chicken broth a tablespoon at a time until you reach the consistency you like. I added about three tablespoons.

Voila, here is the SPICY PEANUT SAUCE!

While the sauce is chillin' in the fridge I prep the fresh salad ingredients. Chop up a handful of baby carrots or you could also grate two large carrots.

Chop 3-6 green onions.

Slice up a red bell pepper.

To add some healthy protein to this meal, I marinated a chicken breast in soy sauce, sesame oil, a tablespoon of brown sugar and sliced jalapenos. Then threw it in my sauté pan until cooked through. The soy and brown sugar gave this a nice caramelized glaze and the jalapenos a very subtle kick.

Be sure to let the cooked meat rest for 5 minutes before you cut into it. This lets all the juices "redistribute."

I was only making salad for one, so I put the extra veggies in a baggie for later.

This was not part of the recipe either, but I really like to eat spinach so I started with a handful of fresh baby spinach in my large mixing bowl.

Throw in the carrots.

Add the red bell pepper.

Add the chopped green onion.

Now for the noodles. The recipe calls for linguine or dried chow mein udon noodles. I did not want linguine and my grocery store did not offer the udon noodles, so I purchased these rice sticks. I was impressed with these thin glassy noodles! They are dried fragile noodles and I had to use kitchen shears to portion out just 1/4 of the package.

I boiled some water, dunked the noodles and three minutes later I rinsed in cold water. Done!

I started with the cool and cooked noodles, added about three tablespoons of the peanut sauce and whirled the pasta around until it was all covered.

Next, top with the fresh veggies!

Then I sliced the chicken and placed on top.

Chow mein noodles gave the salad a perfect crunch!

May I present to you my Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Salad. I ended up making and eating this salad for three meals in two days. I even made another batch of the peanut sauce two days later. I think it is extremely versatile since it would pair perfectly with chicken or beef, on a salad as dressing or as a side dipping sauce. I want to eat this salad now!

Spiced Popcorn Snack Mix

This recipe for Spiced Popcorn Snack Mix was first spotted in Rachael Ray’s magazine, but it wasn’t until I saw it on Aggie’s blog that I was convinced I had to make this popcorn for myself (and my friends). This will be the last recipe I post from the Fall Football Party, however. I’m sure ya’ll are getting sick of snack foods and ready to read some hearty meal recipes again. I have some GREAT stuff coming down the pipeline. How about Tempura Asparagus? Oh, this one will be good – go now and buy asparagus to get ready for that post! Also coming up I have Won Ton Soup, Black Olive and Red Pepper Risotto, Firecracker Shrimp, Oatmeal Cookies, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, T-Bone Steak with Baked Sweet Potato…I can’t wait for you to see these dishes!

But when you need a spiffed up snack mix, this popcorn was really easy to make and the flavors blend REALLY well together. I found myself picking out all the pumpkin seeds though, they were my favorite.

Here is what you need:
8 cups air-popped popcorn (I used three regular size bags of microwave popcorn which is too much – unless you increase the other ingredients)
1 cup roasted peanuts
1 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
7 TB butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I would use more of this next time)
1 tsp cinnamon (I doubled this amount)
Salt and Pepper


I had two sheet pans of this popcorn. One would be better.

I purchased the roasted and salted pumpkin seeds, but you could certianly do this yourself.

Again, I purchased the roasted and unsalted peanuts, but you could toast these yourself too.

Butter into a hot pan.

Melt it.

Add brown sugar and WHISK! Whisk in the cayenne too until bubbling and thickened, 2 to 3 minutes.

Sprinkle the popcorn with peanuts and pumpkin seeds. Then pour the brown sugar all over the top of the popcorn. Toss to coat. Season with cinnamon, salt and pepper.

Bake at 200 degrees until toasted, 40 minutes. Let it cool completely. This was very well received. Thanks Aggie for giving me the push I needed to try this snack mix.