Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

We've been experimenting lately on our Rice Krispie treats folks! Besides dyeing the marshmallows fun colors, we've also tried adding chocolate chips, fruity pebbles, cake mix, you name it. My youngest loves anything peanut butter and chocolate together. She love Reese's peanut butter cups, Reese's Pieces, hey if it's got peanut butter and chocolate in it, she's all over it.  Well I was thinking about making a Reese's Peanut butter flavored rice Krispie treat.  

Now there are a ton of recipes out there, like Scotcheroos that have peanut butter and butterscotch in the treats and a thick layer of chocolate on the top, or peanut butter rice krispies with chocolate drizzled over the top, but BOTH of those are messy.  What I wanted was the peanut butter and chocolate INSIDE the Rice Krispie treat together... living in harmony... sharing the marshmallow-y goodness and easy to transport if necessary.

Chocolate Peanut butter Rice Krispie Treats!

You will need the following:

1 bag of Marshmallows (I used 21 oz campfire square marshmallows)
9 cups of Rice Krispie cereal
1/2 stick of butter
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 bag of chocolate chips (about 1 cup)
9x13 pan (grease with butter or cooking spray) 

Start by spraying your large bowl with a bit of cooking spray.  Add in 9 cups of Rice Krispie cereal.

I use my biggest bowl to hold all the Krispie goodness.

Here's the deal with the original Krispie recipe. If you do the recipe on the box (with the 6 cups of Krispies and a 9x13 pan) you get these thin, measly treats.  I like a Krispie treat you can hold onto and keeps it shape in a big ol' square - hence the 9 cups of Krispies.

In a pot on the stove, melt 1/2 stick of butter, 3/4 cup peanut butter, and the 1 cup of chocolate chips.

Melt the good stuff with the butter!

Slowly while stirring until they are all combined.

If heaven had a smell, it might be this...

Add in marshmallows and stir until melted together.

These are the 21 oz square campfire marshmallows (minus a few my kids ate)

If you are using a regular 12 0z bag of marshmallows I'd do a bag and a half of those.  

Bring the chocolate peanut butter mixture from the bottom and fold over the marshmallows.

Ooo  yum.

Stir on medium heat until an ooey gooey mess.

Eventually you will get a pretty smooth chocolate lava concoction.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Add this molten mixture carefully in to waiting bowl of 9 cups of Krispies

Spraying this bowl with a little cooking spray before you add the Krispies will save you a ton of clean up time later

Stir quickly until combined.

Soon you will have a beautiful sticky mess of cereal and yummy-ness.

Pour this mixture in to prepared (greased) 9x13 pan

Nothing is more satisfying the globing this big hunk of deliciousness and thunking it down in a pan.

I used to get my hands greasy with a little butter on them to pat down the Krispie treats, but I've learned if you run your hand under cold water, shake them off, then press down the treats with your cool hands it works just the same, and you're less greasy afterwards (easier to clean up on you) 

Chocolate Peanut butter Krispie Treats for dayz!

Let cool (probably the toughest part of this recipe).

Cut into thick squares and be prepared to be taken away to Peanut butter chocolate Krispie heaven!

Delicious, chewy, peanut butter chocolate Reese's flavored Rice Krispie Treats

These were so good the first time, we made them for a gathering of friends shortly after and they were gone within minutes.

Reach through the screen and grab this one for yourself!

 These travel great, and all also awesome for school lunches, pot lucks, you name it. 

Chewy, ooey, gooey... totally hits the spot!

This were a fabulous twist on a well-loved classic. Try them and let me know what you think.

Yes please!

Enjoy!!

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Casserole - (5 ingredients)

Well it feels like everyone is heading back to school and getting adjusted to their new fall schedules. If you are anything like me, you are always on the lookout for a few new recipes you that can throw in the crock pot (last minute) in the morning and come back to a home-cooked meal at the end of a busy day. Well look no further because I found an easy, 5-ingredient winner! Behold the slow cooker (crock pot) Chicken Enchilada Casserole.

Easy chicken enchiladas in the crock pot

 
Printable recipe found on my site here

You will only need 5 ingredients:

3-4 Chicken breasts (thawed, or frozen)
1 large (28 oz) can of red enchilada sauce (we did mild)
3 cups of shredded cheese divided in half
1 can sliced olives or buy a regular can and cut up your own
10 corn tortillas cut into strips 

(by the way I found this recipe here) and will be testing more recipes for you very soon.

Plop your chicken breasts into the crock pot sprayed with a little cooking spray. You can have them thawed, or like me plunk them in completely frozen.

You only need about 3 Costco breasts, because they are so big.

Dump in the entire can of red enchilada sauce.

So nice and easy when you are in a rush in the morning getting out the door

That's it for now!  The rest you will add an hour before serving.  Set on slow cook for 4-8 hours (I would recommend closer to 8 hours for the frozen breasts). 

Now you're back home from a busy day of running around.  Your house will smell amazing by the way, and you'll want to shred the chicken with two forks right in the sauce.  Also I tend to scoop out each breast, remove any fat that bubbled up during the cooking process and sort of skim the sauce for any fat chunks.

This slow cooked chicken is super tender and shreds so easily

You just want a nice sauce and lovely shredded chicken before proceeding.

Yummy!

Cut the 10 corn tortillas (we did white corn, but you can also do yellow corn).  

 

These are the 5 inch corn tortillas.

Add the strips to the pot with 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese (we did a cheddar/jack mix) and half the sliced olives.

The tortilla strips save you the time of rolling individual enchiladas the old fashioned way

Stir around gently until fully combined. Add a little seasoning salt here to taste if you wish, then pat the mixture down until it resembles an oval casserole in the bottom of the crock pot. 

Press down slightly to make a casserole shape in the bottom of the pot

Top with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese and the rest of the sliced olives.

Cover with the lid and cook for 1 more hour until cheese is all golden and melty, and the enchilada sauce is bubbling up from underneath.

Crock pot enchiladas, I think I love you!

Gratuitous close up shot of bubbling sauce through the cheese.

Somebody grab a fork

All that's left to now is scoop it up on a plate!  

Cheesy, awesome, get in my belly!

Serve with chips, lettuce, olives, sour cream, salsa, and some fruit.

This was an instant family favorite!

Delicious, hot and gooey, and tons of flavor and a real crowd pleaser.

I say crowd pleaser because i made three extra containers for the leftovers (they make great lunches for work or school the next day) but alas, I went back and they were arleady all gone!  Apparently I need to make this again really soon.. and so should YOU!

Enjoy.

Spider Babies

So I was minding my own business, enjoying a regular Tuesday, when a sudden cry from my middle child came from somewhere upstairs. It was an urgent! "Mom... mom... MOM.. come HERE!" Each 'mom' getting progressively louder than the last, and so we all know that means - it's potentially super serious. So of course I go running up into her newly remodeled, grown-up teen bedroom. Under her loft bed we have hung up some pretty, sheer, pale blue drapes. And nestled in those drapes... up in a fold in the fabric, is a small lump of something black. Upon closer inspection as I take a few cautious steps forward.. I realized it was something much more terrifying... I felt my heart skip a beat.... it was this:

Oh hi!  I'm your worst nightmare!

What's this pray tell? Well it looks like a mama spider and her egg sac.. and what's worse than finding a mama spider and her egg sac?? Well how about finding a mama spider, her egg sac, AND that the egg sac has just burst open, and hundreds of tiny baby spiders are coming into the world, like right now!

I'll just give you a moment to shudder.

So, I've got like, two hot seconds to figure out what to do next because I'VE GOT EXPLODING SPIDER babies ready to infiltrate my house. I'm the only grown up in the house (#adultingsucks). I'm trying to remember... where in the heck did I get these curtains from? Amazon? Walmart? Did they come from Mexico? On slow boat from China?... Great! Now I'm thinking this was a stowaway renegade deadly Mexican spider, that had hidden away in the curtain lining until it was safe to have her babies and today was that day. ARG!

My two older girls head for the hills (immediately run as fast as they can down stairs to safety - thanks for the support ladies). I'm pretty sure they left a cartoon-type cloud of dust they moved so fast. 

My youngest is at least brave enough to hang out in the doorway, and even grabbed the vacuum and plugged it in for me (my new favorite child, and hey remind me to update my will).  My heart is beating out of my chest because they are HATCHING right now and moving away from the nest. I can't have a bunch of baby spiders living in my daughters room, because she will never EVER go in there again.

How am I going to do this from the WRONG side of the curtain? I'd have to climb behind and be in there WITH the spiders to be on their side. No way Jose.  I can take the long wand of the vacuum and slide it behind the curtain, and then I'm going to make tension on MY side of the curtain, and hopefully a miracle will happen. There's no way I can fail at this. If even ONE of them gets away, there's just no point of living in the house, right?!

Keeping this small for your safety

So I summon all of my courage and move the vacuum nozzle up towards the many, MANY spiders... and I am terrified to move in any closer.  What if the mama spider runs down the nozzle onto my hand? What if they all fall to the floor? As the barrel of the vacuum gets close to the area, it suddenly sucked the whole curtain area into the hose with a tremendous WOOSH!  

Holy CRAP what have I done!?

I just watch helplessly as the curtain is sucked further and further into the barrel of the vacuum wand. Can't I just leave it like this for the next 5 years?

Ever so slowly... I pull out the curtain with my hand that's on this side of the curtain (keeping the tension) and.. everything is still there. 

Crap. 

The spider was pretty ticked off too. Hopping mad actually. Running around in that tiny slot of the curtain. Then, I almost fainted. I was literally shaking. In hindsight it's probably not good to faint in front of an angry spider and her hundreds of babies...

Note to self, don't pass out in front of angry deadly multiple spiders.

How I summoned more courage at this point, I'll never know. I put the nozzle back up the back of the curtain, very close to the spider fortress, and I put more tension on my side of the curtain and the fold is the fabric is more open this time, and I'm going slowly because I want to make sure this is the LAST TIME I HAVE TO DO THIS... and POOF... it sucks in the whole area down into the barrel of the vacuum wand... and when I pull it back out I also kept applying tension and...

The whole damn thing was gone!

Mama spider, baby spiders, egg sac.  The whole nine yards!!!

I'm pretty sure Jesus himself made the spiders vanish because I absolutely don't know how all of them could be gone.

Thank you Jesus!!!

I'm doubting my success. I've still got the vacuum on and running. I planning on running it for a good 5 more minutes too, maybe until tomorrow. I'm scared they are stuck halfway down the hose... all the while, checking for spiders and baby spiders all up and down the curtains. Nothing.  Not on the floor, not above the curtain rod... like got them all in one fell swoop?!

I lock the vacuum rod back in place, hopefully sealing them to their doom. (And when I say HOPEFULLY I mean if there is any justice in the world they will stay in their little dust cavern for all of eternity)- or until my husband can dispose of the contents in a safe and responsible manner, probably out in the middle of the street, and shortly after that I can set the vacuum on fire.

You know, just to be really REALLY sure they are gone.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup - Instant Pot

Who doesn't love loaded bake potato soup?  All hot and creamy, topped with a dollop of sour cream, shredded cheese and bacon. Serve it with a crusty loaf of bread and you've got yourself a really hearty meal.  I have made this soup in a crock pot several times and wondered if it could be done in the instant pot.  After checking out a couple of recipes, and a few trial runs, this one turned out to be not only the easiest, but the best.

Delicious, yummy loaded bake potato soup!

 Note: I got this recipe from www.belleofthekitchen.com
 She also has a video play by play on her site which is super helpful.

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoon butter
1 medium onion diced (or half bag of frozen chopped onions)
3 cloves of garlic minced (or a spoon full of diced jarred minced garlic)
3 cups of chicken broth
1 small can cream of chicken soup
4 large russet potatoes or 7-8 smaller russet potatoes chopped into 1 in cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons of seasoned salt 
   black pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon of flour
1 cup of milk
2 cups of shredded cheese (i used mild cheddar and a jack/cheddar mix)

Garnish:
Cooked bacon chopped up, or real bacon bits
Sour cream
Shredded cheddar cheese


Put 2 Tablespoon of butter into the Instant Pot and turn on "Saute" function.  Add in chopped onions and cook until soft (3-4 minutes). 

You gotta love the saute function!

Add in garlic and cook for an additional minute, making sure the garlic doesn't burn

Steamy garlic vision

Add in 3 cups of chicken broth, the small can of cream of chicken soup, stir

It's smelling pretty good right about now

Add in cubed potatoes, salt, pepper, to the pot.  Stir until well combined. 

Hey potatoes, are you really going to be fork-soft in 10 short minutes? Let's find out.

Place lid on the Instant Pot, turn the vent valve to "sealing" and cook on manual high pressure for 10 minutes.  

My instant pot with it's new pretty cover

Quick release the pressure.

What it looks like when you open the lid

Meanwhile, stir together the 1 tablespoon of flour and the 1 cup of milk with a whisk until it creates a slurry and set aside.  

I think it's easier to add the milk to the flour than the other way around

Once the steam is completely released and the pin has dropped, open the lid and add in the slurry.  Turn to pot to saute and cook the soup for 4-5 minutes, until thickened. 

Hey we're getting somewhere! I also used my Pampered Chef meat utensil to help mush up some of the poatoes.

Stir in the two cups of shredded cheese and stir until melted.

Everything is better with cheese.

 Cook until thickened. Taste and season at the end.

Seasoning is the key to non-bland soups.

Serve garnished with a dollop of sour cream, bacon chunks, and some extra cheddar cheese.  

Yummy loaded baked potato soup

Also a nice buttery crusty loaf of french break goes nicely as a "dipper" for the soup.

Activate smell-o-vision now.

Also toppings are key here, don't skimp!

The more the merrier!

My children are weird, well 2/3 of them are.  They don't like mashed potatoes, but they love french fries.  When my youngest said "What's for dinner" I told her it was "french fry soup with bacon"... and guess what? She bought it!  She had a whole bowl and proclaimed it "yummy"!  The middle child wasn't so fooled but I will still count this as a victory.  

The bread fell in, so sad we had to scoop it out - and devour it.

This was a very delicious and hearty week night dinner that the whole family enjoyed (minus one - there's always the one). I am always surprised how the instant pot cooks old school crock pot dishes in a flash.  You don't need all day to get all day flavor these days!  Hooray for science, and Instant Pots.

 Enjoy!!