Friday Fascinations 7 - Everything Linky Party - Chocolate Peanut Butter Crescent Rolls

This week we are going to do an everything linky party. You can link up anything that you have been working on, thinking about, writing about, whatever. Literally any post of yours that you would like to share with my readers link it up!

Oh and if you have a linky party that you would like me to visit please link it up in the Places to Party tab above. I love visiting parties and when I have time I go to that tab and visit all the parties that are open at that time.



Today I am going to share with you one of the easiest snacks i have ever made. I found this picture on pinterest and decided to recreate it. I made it for a carry in meal at a friend's house. I chose it because I didn't have a lot of time and I needed something I could make pretty quickly. This fit that bill and it was also super yummy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crescent Rolls

 

Ingredients:

• Crescent Rolls
• Peanut Butter 
• Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Unroll crescent rolls
2. Spread peanut butter on crescent rolls
3. Sprinkle chocolate chips on peanut butter
4. Roll up like crescent rolls
5. I added a dab of peanut butter and a chocolate chip on top so that people would know they weren't just crescent rolls, this is optional, but it makes them look cute! :)
6. Bake according to package directions (You can add a few minutes to the cooking time if it looks like they need it)

Verdict:
That's it. How easy is that? And these are super yummy! They are great for making ahead and serving later. They are yummy warm, but they are even better the next day. I tried these warm and later that day and the next few days and they were great each time!

Here are some pictures of the process:

This is what they look like on the inside

Linky Party 

The rules:

•  For this party you may link up anything that you have been working on - crafts, recipes, random musings, etc. I do not mind links to giveaways or parties as long as you state that it is a giveaway or party in the title. Link up whatever you want just please be honest in the title. I do some themed linky parties sometimes, but this one is a free for all!
• Please follow me in some way. If you absolutely hate my blog then of course don't follow it, but if you hate it should you really be linking up? (I leave that for you to answer :) There are several ways to follow me offered on the right sidebar.
• Link up directly to the post, not your home page.
• By linking up you are giving me permission to feature your post including but not limited to pictures and quotes from your post, and also to feature your post in my various social media outlets.
• This is a family friendly, christian blog. I reserve the right to remove a link to any content that I find offensive or not compatible with this blog, with or without notice.
• Please add a back link or my button to your blog or post somewhere. You can find my buttons on the left sidebar.
• Please check out some of the other links and leave some love in some way (comment, pin, follow, etc.)

Oh and I'd love it if you would take a button!

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Absolutely Delicious Granola Bars

I posted this over at Mamal Diane a week ago and I thought I would share it here with you now!

First of all I want to to thank Diane for honoring me by allowing me to write a post for her wonderful blog! I can see that she has many great ideas and I will definitely have to take my time looking around and trying out some of her fabulous recipes and tips!

I'm Randomly Fascinated from Domestic Randomness. I am a new mom to My Little Guy who is almost 6 months old. At Domestic Randomness you can find me sharing my thoughts on all sorts of domestic topics. I have recently been writing a series comparing major diaper brands. I also like to discuss Recipes, Saving Money, Wedding Topics, Swagbucks, and other Random Thoughts. Please feel free to come visit me and let me know what you think of my random thoughts!

Anyways, on to the actual post :)

Absolutely Delicious Granola Bars

I asked my husband how he would describe these granola bars and he said "absolutely delicious". I said "No, I mean what should the title be?" And he said "absolutely delicious granola bars, that's what they are". So here it is just for you, my absolutely delicious granola bars.

I do not know the origins of this granola bar recipe. I got the basic idea from my aunt years ago, I think that she got it from some cookbook somewhere, but  I don't know what book it was so I'm sorry to the original author, I can't give you credit for the idea because I don't know who you are. I have adapted this recipe pretty liberally so I guess it is mine now.

This recipe is tripled because my husband and I LOVE these granola bars and if I made a small batch they are gone in just a few days and I would have to be making more constantly. If you would like to make a normal amount of granola bars simply divide the #s by 3. These measurements are not exact. Those of you who follow my blog know that I tend to just throw things in and not worry about exactness. As a courtesy to Mamal Diane's readers I tried to measure before I threw things in :)

Ingredients:
3 cups Peanut Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar

1 cup Honey

1 1/2 cup corn syrup

4 cups oats

7 cups cereal (almost any rice or crunchy cereal will work, I generally use the leftovers at the bottom of the boxes, in whatever types I have on hand)

2 cups dried cranberries (any dried fruit will work, I used to use raisins but found that I prefer cranberries, I love the tart taste with the sweet granola bars)

2 cups peanuts (or any type nuts, if using larger nuts chop them in smaller pieces)

1/2 cup chocolate chips (whatever type you like best works, I used a smaller amount because I am not super into chocolate, but chocolate lovers can feel free to add more :)

Any other add ins you think would taste good in these. Some things I have tried - other nuts, seeds, other dried fruit, protein powder, fiber powder, wheat germ, flax seed etc.

In a large (if using triple recipe, then a very, very large bowl, I used a roasting pan because I didn't have anything else big enough) mix together oats, cereal, cranberries, peanuts, and any other dry add ins you want.

I used grape-nuts flakes, corn flakes, honey roasted honey bunches of oats, and wheaties for the cereals

Put peanut butter, brown sugar, honey, and corn syrup in a large glass (microwaveable) bowl. Microwave on high for several minutes (sorry I forgot to take note of time) until corn syrup is boiling.

Mix together.

 Pour over dry mixture. (Be careful not to burn yourself on the bowl or mixture, both are very hot!)

 Mix together.

Pour on wax paper lined cookie sheet. Wet hands. (helps mixture not stick to hands) Press mixture into an approximately square shape.

Freeze (this helps the sauce set faster, if you don't mind waiting you could let it sit out or put in fridge)

After fully cooled take out of freezer and cut into squares

Store in airtight container. I like to store them in the freezer or fridge because I like them cool.

One of the things I love about this recipe is that it is so versatile. You can adapt it almost any way you want and it will still turn out fabulous as long as you use something sticky in the sauce. I haven't tried it but I think you could probably use maple syrup also, or just use all honey and skip the corn syrup. You can use almost any add ins that sound yummy to you as long as they are in small enough pieces to mix in well. I think every batch of granola bars that I make is different, but so far they have all been great!

Thank you again to Mamal Diane and to her wonderful readers! I am very grateful to you for allowing me to post my random thoughts on your blog! I can't wait to see what Diane has for us next!

I hope that you enjoyed my recipe! I would love it if you would come stop by and visit me at Domestic Randomness. If you want to stay a while you can subscribe by email, RSS feed, or Google Friend Connect.

Linked Up To:
Women Living Well, Serendipity and Spice, A Pinch of Joy, Frugal Girls, Nap Time Crafters, Mom on Timeout, Growing Home, While He Was Napping, Clean and Scentsible, Uncommon, Addicted to Recipes, Simply Klassic Home, Cornerstone Confessions, Summer BBQ Party,

How to Save Money and Food: Reconstituting Stale Marshmallows

I have a feeling that most of you think that we blogger moms have it all together. That we have our whole lives organized in a binder, we whip up crafts every day, and every recipe that we try turns out great. (I know that you are thinking that because that's what I thought before I started blogging). The truth is we are just people, just women, just moms like you. To illustrate that point I thought that I would share with you a flop turned fabulous (well turned ok and not flopish :)
For some reason I have the hardest time keeping marshmallows fresh, I guess I just don't eat them often enough (which is not really a bad thing :). And they always get hard before I use them. I have tried in the past to make rice krispie treats out of these dried out marshmallows and it didn't work out so well, apparently dried marshmallow don't melt well. One time I tried using lot of butter but that obviously is not a great idea. Another time I tried using milk but it soaked into the rice krispies and the treats were soggy. So this time I again had some dried out marshmallows, and I again wanted to make rice krispie treats (I know I am a glutton for punishment, I could just use them in hot chocolate or smores, but I had 2 bags of marshmallows, that's a lot of hot chocolate and smores). So I got the idea to look up what to do with dried out marshmallows, how to reconstitute them so that they would melt again. I found The Fat Dollar who wrote an entire article about things to do with stale marshmallows they said that to reconstitute marshmallow you can put them in a ziplock bag with a piece of bread. I did this and it did make the marshmallows soft again, but I think because I had so many marshmallows 1 piece of bread didn't do it, I didn't want to waste all my bread with this experiment so I didn't add any more. I went ahead and started the rice krispie treats and of course the marshmallows would not melt again. So I remembered that another tip on The Fat Dollar was to microwave the marshmallows with a bowl of water. I figured that if you can microwave them with water then you can add water to them while cooking. So I added water to the marshmallows and it worked! I added a little bit at a time until the marshmallows were all melted. The marshmallows melted and the rice krispies were not soggy. I also learned from The Fat Dollar that you can store marshmallows in the freezer and they will not go stale. I think I will try that next time, but if I have stale marshmallows again I will know what to do.

 My dried out, stale marshmallows

 The marshmallows with bread in the bag

Another tip from The Fat Dollar: For marshmallows that are sticking together add some powdered sugar to the bag and shake, this will separate the marshmallows.

 My marshmallows are not melting

After they are melted.
I always add peanut butter to my rice krispie treats.

 I don't worry about shape with my treats. They taste good no matter what shape they are!

Linked up to:
Uncommon, Frugal Girls, Nap Time Crafters, Women Living Well, Serendipity and Spice, A Pinch of Joy, Mom on Timeout, Growing Home, While He Was Napping,

Easy Peasy Braided Bread

 I have to say, I love my bread machine. I never made bread before I got a bread machine (well, maybe once or twice, but not very often at all). It just wasn't worth the time to me. I mean all the time to mix up ingredients then let it rise, then punch it down and let it rise again and so on and so forth. Just way too much work. Plus, I am not an early riser so by the time I started the bread we might be eating it at Midnight. So I absolutely love my bread machine because using it means that we can have fresh bread any day we want, it only takes about 20 minutes of my time, I just have to wait a little while for it. Sometimes if I want to be fancy but not spend tons of time on bread I will make the dough in the bread machine then shape it in a fun way. One of my favorite ways to shape bread is to braid it. It comes out so fancy, but it really only took minimal work. So here it is, The Easy Peasy way to make braided bread.

First Things first, if you don't have a bread machine consider getting one. If you want to find one for a good price check your local Good Will and garage sales. If you want to make bread the old fashioned way please feel free to skip this step :)

Make your favorite bread dough recipe, whatever that happens to be. I chose to make 1 loaf of french bread and 1 loaf of honey oat bread.

Roll dough into a ball on floured surface

Form into 3 equal-ish balls

Roll each ball into a long string of dough

Press ends of each string together

Braid like hair. (The one on the left side over the middle, then the one on the right side over the middle, then left, then right, etc)

Pinch the other end together

Sometimes I just bake the braid on a flat cookie sheet. This time I put it in a loaf pan to make slicing easier. You can let it rise a little more if you want your bread more airy, or you can go ahead and bake it if you like more dense loaves.

Bake however your recipe says. I think mine says something like bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour. I decided to make a little roll too, just for fun :)

Here are my 2 loaves. Aren't they pretty!

The honey oat bread

Linked up to:
Tater Tots and Jello, Naptime Crafters, Frugal Girls, A Pinch of Joy, Uncommon, Addicted to Recipes,

Moist and Yummy Pumpkin Bread

I should probably be posting this in the fall. That is when most people think about and make things with pumpkins. It makes sense because they are most available then. However I am not constrained to make pumpkin dishes only in the fall because I freeze my own pumpkin mush! (If you don't freeze your own mush, it is also still available in stores year round I believe :). I will plan to blog about making and freezing pumpkin mush this fall (because I have no pictures so I can't post about it now :) so all of you can join me in gloriously bucking seasonal constraints and make pumpkin bread all year round! The funny thing is, the reason that I freeze pumpkin mush is because I don't really care for pumpkin. (I know, doesn't make sense right?) I Love roasted pumpkin seeds, and the cost to buy plain raw pumpkin seeds (roasted pumpkin seeds from the store are not nearly as good as homemade) is about the same or more than buying an actual pumpkin so I buy the pumpkins instead (What I really need to do is find a jack-o-lantern carving party and steal all their pumpkin seeds). And I can't let all of that pumpkin go to waste (because my husband does actually love pumpkin) so I end up pureeing tons of pumpkin. Last year I think I only did 2 mini (pie) pumpkins because I was large and pregnant and supposed to be on couch rest (I didn't know, oops) so I didn't do a lot but I did manage to put about 10 cups (individually packaged into ziplock bags, 1 cup per bag for easy measuring and use later) of pumpkin mush in the freezer. The year before that I think I ended up pureeing somewhere between 6 and 10 pumpkins (and not all of them mini) so I had way way too much pumpkin. Unfortunately at that time we were still at the apartment and I only had the freezer above the fridge so I had to store it in the fridge and most of it went bad, but not before I pureed it and turned half of it into pumpkin butter. (In case you were wondering, no you can't can pumpkin mush, so it must be stored in a freezer). Thankfully I have a chest freezer now so that won't happen this year.
Anyways back to the recipe, I have no idea where this recipe came from, I found it a couple of years ago and picked it because it calls for a decent amount of pumpkin mush and like I said I had an overabundance of pumpkin mush so I needed to use it up somehow. And amazingly enough I do actually like this pumpkin bread, I don't eat a lot of it (which is ok because my husband does) but it is definitely not a bad recipe. I am pretty sure that I adapted it from it original recipe (I adapt almost every recipe so that is a pretty safe bet), but since I can't find the original recipe I am not positive. Oh and I doubled the recipe when I made it so the pictures show a bigger amount than the recipe calls for.  Anyways, here is the recipe.

Moist and Yummy Pumpkin Bread
makes 2 large loaves

2-4 cups pumpkin mush (I used 5 cups for the doubled recipe)
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups sugar
4 eggs (my recipe says beaten, but I didn't beat them and it was fine)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2-4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup water (if you are using store bought pumpkin mush you may want to up the water, frozen homemade pumpkin mush tends to be more watery than store bought)

You can also add in 1/2 t allspice, 2 t nutmeg, 1 c pecans, 1/2 c raisins, or 1 c chocolate chips but I find that too much spice tends to cover up the pumpkin flavor. I might try chocolate chips sometime though.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Stir together flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar (and allspice and nutmeg if you are using them)
Add eggs, water, oil, and pumpkin
Stir until well blended
If desired add pecans, raisins, and/or chocolate chips and mix well
Grease loaf pans and pour batter into them.
Bake approximately 1 hr
Doneness - knife test - if knife comes out slightly sticky, not wet, it is done
Remove from oven, cool slightly (10 min)
Take out of pans to let cool on rack.
Slice and Enjoy!

Verdict:
According to my husband "delicious". A couple months ago he took some to a carry in at work and he said people were raving about it and it disappeared really fast. One of his coworkers said it was the best pumpkin bread he had ever had and begged me to send more. I definitely recommend making this recipe! This bread also freezes well. Since I made so much I am planning to freeze some (if I get around to it before Mr. Random eats it all) to be enjoyed at a later date.

Here are pictures from this recipe:

The batter. If you are going to double the recipe like I did then you will need a very big bowl.

Like I said in the Low Country boil post, Monday was my baking day, my oven was full!

This recipe doubled made 3 large loaves, 3 smaller loaves, and 12 small muffins

Linked up to:
Uncommon, Naptime Crafters, Frugal Girls, Tater Tots and Jello, A Pinch of Joy, Addicted to Recipes, Cornerstone Confessions,