Peanut Butter Chocolate No-Bake Cookies

Stephen is back at camp this week and before he left, I wanted to send him with a special treat.  I saw these granola snacks on two peas and their pod and they looked so good and easy.  I didn't have all the ingredients so I changed them around a little bit and was so happy with the results!  They remind me of no-bake cookies my mom used to make but they have a little twist.  So if you have 15 minutes and a few ingredients, you can make these too!  Also, you don't have to turn on the oven, which is a major plus with the hot weather we've been having!  Hope you have a good week at camp Stephen! Lilly and I miss you!

2 cups oats
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1/2 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup honey
2 Tablespoons butter
1 cup chocolate chips + 1/2 cup chocolate chips (to melt and drizzle on top!)

• Combine the oats and cereal in a bowl.
• In a medium saucepan, combine the peanut butter and butter until is melts a little and becomes a smooth mixture (this doesn't take but a few minutes)
• Add the peanut butter, honey, and chocolate chips to the cereal mixture and stir until it's well mixed.  
• Use a small cookie scoop and place cookies on wax paper. (It's important to pack the mixture into the scoop so it will stay in a ball) Allow them to sit for about 15 minutes or until set. 
• Melt the remaining chocolate chips, pour the chocolate into a ziploc bag, cut a small hole in the edge of the bag and drizzle! 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Layer Dessert

I had such a great time with my family last weekend.  All the cousins, aunts, uncles and my grandparents were in town for the Wagner Family Reunion and it was so fun to catch up with everyone!  It was especially crazy to see how much my little cousins Madelyn and Mia had grown up.  I hadn't seen them since my wedding we had a wonderful time hanging out.  I just love those girls!  We all had a great time being together, thanks to everyone who traveled to Tulsa so we could be together!

Anyway, I made this dessert while everyone was here.  It's good, it's classic, it's simple and always a hit.  This is actually Stephen's favorite dessert and he will tell you that I don't make it nearly enough. 

In my rush to get everything done last week, I didn't take pictures of the process but it's so simple all you do is make each layer and assemble it! 

Layer 1 - The crust!

2 cups flour
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 sticks butter

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Melt the butter, add the pecans and flour then stir.  Pat the mixture evenly into the bottom of the dish.  Bake 20 minutes then allow to cool completely before adding other layers.

Layer 2 - CreamWhip 

8 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 cups whipped cream (or cool whip)
1 cup powdered sugar

Add all ingredients together.  Make sure cream cheese is softened at room temperature.  When the crust is cool, layer in the mixture.

Layer 3 - Chocolate! or Lemon or Raspberry or Blueberry, or anything else you can imagine.

3 small pudding mixes (I used 2 chocolate and 1 vanilla)
4 cups cold milk

Again, mix together until pudding is formed then add to the other layers

Layer 4 - Whipped Cream

2 1/2 cups whipped cream and some sugar to taste or cool whip

Top it off with the remaining cool whip or whipped cream then add chopped pecans to the top if you like.  Stephen also like to add heath bites, just add them right before you serve it or they get soggy.

Note: Heavy whipping cream doubles in size when whipped.  So 2 cups of whipping cream will make the 4 cups of whipped cream you need for the dessert.  Or you can use a large container of cool whip and divide it for the 2 layers. 

Keep it in the refrigerator until you're ready to serve!  Enjoy!

The Family

Me, Melissa, Madeline

Love you guys!

Pesto Roasted Vegetables

I wrote this post a couple weeks ago but wasn't able to post the pictures so I finally came back around to it.  Enjoy it a little postponed! And I also apologize for the lack of posts, I've been in a baking slump lately, but more to come this week!

So, this week has been really great!  I had a short break from school this week and planned to get a lot accomplished.  I made lists and organized the lists and had every intention of completing each item.  Then, I decided to forget all about being productive and went to summer camp.  I really needed some time away and it was the perfect thing.  Stephen was the camp pastor this week at teen camp and I had a blast being with him.  We went swimming, made some pottery, did some painting, went to the lake, spent a little time in the kitchen and I was so excited to hear Stephen preach!  He has such a gift and it's great to see God use him!

Since I dropped everything and left so quick, I came home to an oddly stocked refrigerator.  Some things had gone bad and others needed used up so I decided to make this for dinner.  Roasting vegetables has become my favorite way to prepare veggies and adding the pesto was great too!  So here's how I did it, you can change it around to pick the veggies you like.

Pesto Roasted Vegetables

1 head cauliflower
1 head broccoli
3 small sweet potatoes
(could also add some green beans but mine had gone bad...)

pesto (see my previous post for this recipe)  Also, if you don't have enough basil for the pesto recipe, you can use some spinach, that's what I did today and it worked really well!

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and chop the vegetables into bite size pieces.

Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on the size you chop the veggies, you want them to be tender.

Toss with the pesto and enjoy! Such a simple and great side dish!