Easter "Bunny" Chow

Happy Thursday, friends! It has been a bit since my last post, but I am back today bringing you a 15 minute recipe I found that will be a real crowd pleaser this Easter weekend. I found the recipe while browsing on Pinterest the other day and thought it was too cute not to try out for the upcoming holiday. The original recipe is linked here by Urban Simplicity. As always, I tweaked the recipe more to my liking which I will explain as we go on.

Above you will see everything required for this recipe except for the extra ingredient I added at the end. 

What her recipe requires:

-9 cups Crispix cereal

- 1 cup of white chocolate chips (you also could use milk chocolate)

-1/2 cup peanut butter

-1 tsp of vanilla extract

-1/4 cup of butter

-1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

How I made it:

I put the Crispix cereal into a large bowl and set it aside while I made the coating for the bunny chow. Her recipe called for 1 cup of chocolate chips, but I added about a half cup more and combined the 1.5 cups of chocolate chips, the half cup of peanut butter, and the 1/4 stick of butter after putting it into a bowl and melting it in the microwave for a minute. When it was done heating, I mixed until it was completely smooth in consistency and then added in the vanilla just as she did in the original recipe. 

I then took the mixture and poured it over the Crispix and mixed it in until the cereal was evenly coated.

When it was fully coated, I took the the bag that the cereal came in, poured a cup of powdered sugar at the bottom of it, and then dumped the coated cereal on top of it. She mentioned using a 2 gallon freezer bag to mix it; whereas my sister has always used a large paper bag. I tried to save on bags and just reused the one the Crispix came in. Anything will work, so long as the bag is big enough. Once the mixture is in the bag of your choosing, you will pour another 1/2 cup of powdered sugar on top and shake until the sugar coats your cereal mixture.

Once fully shaken/coated, you will lay out your chow onto wax paper until your chocolate/peanut butter mixture cools. This part is important so that it doesn't turn into a giant blob in the container you store it in. Once finished, she recommends storing the bunny chow in an air tight container and also refrigerated.

 Once cooled, add in the mini Cadbury eggs. And for my extra ingredient... cut up a few Reese's peanut butter eggs.  I'm not sure about you, but I can not think of a better way to finish off this bunny chow recipe than to sprinkle some of those peanut butter cups into the mixture. And let's be serious, we all know the egg Reese's version is best.

Lastly, serve it up and enjoy! Have a great Easter weekend everyone. Until next time..

xo H

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Happy Sunday fellow foodies! I am so excited to share this recipe with you today. These peanut butter cups are SO easy to make and are a lot healthier than the ones you'll find at the grocery store. They also take only twenty minutes to make. Does it get any better than that? I found this recipe from a site called Fit Foodie Finds; so all the credit from today's post goes to her. The exact link to this recipe is here. Like last time I encourage you to check out her site, her recipes are AMAZING and I am sure you will find something else on this site that you will enjoy.

This time I am going to put the full recipe because I tweaked it a bit to my liking but used her recipe as the base.

What this recipe requires per her site:

- 2/3 cup of natural peanut Butter 

-1/4 cup of coconut oil (melted)

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1/4 cup of honey or maple syrup

-1/4 cup of Rice Krispies

-optional dark chocolate drizzle and sea salt to top 

What I used:

-2/3 cup of Smucker's natural PB

-just under 1/4 cup of melted Trader Joe's coconut oil. I had used less than what the recipe requires because it was all I had left but I am happy I did; the oil from natural peanut butter seemed to make up for the lack of coconut oil and they still turned out great

-1 tsp of vanilla extract

-1/4 cup of honey

-1/2 cup of Rice Krispies; I love the crunch Rice Krispies give so I added more. 

How I made it:

All you have to do is take all the ingredients above and mix them together in a bowl. Add the Rice Krispies cereal last to the mixture. Once it is all mixed together put them in a cupcake tin lined with cupcake liners. I filled my cupcake liners just under half full. 

When all the batter is evenly distributed, put them in the freezer for a minimum time of 20 minutes. I left mine in the freezer for about 30 minutes before taking them out.

In her recipe, she gave the option for a chocolate drizzle topping. What she calls optional I found necessary for the full effect of a peanut butter cup. I microwaved dark chocolate chips in a bowl until they were at a liquid consistency. If you go to her recipe she will tell you the exact amount of chocolate necessary for the drizzle, I just eye balled how much I would need. 

Once the 30 minutes were up, I took the tin out of the freezer and topped them all with a full layer of the dark chocolate until the top was completely coated (again, I wanted a more full effect of a classic PB cup)

I then topped mine with a pinch of sea salt because chocolate and sea salt is such an amazing combo. I took the peanut butter cups, once covered with the chocolate, and froze them for just 10 more minutes and then they were done!

Last step? Unwrap and ENJOY!

Again, check out fitfoodiefinds.com, you guys will not regret it.

Hope you all enjoy this recipe find. I know I sure did. Have a fabulous week!

xo H

A Weekend in Chicago pt.1

Taken at Eataly Chicago

Hey everyone! Today's post is dedicated to the beautiful city of Chicago. This city always feels like home every time I visit. Though I don't live there, I invest a lot of time researching some of the best spots for when I visit. I also have some great resources from people who live there (shout out to Juan and Taylor).

Alright, so lets dive in. First and foremost, this city is a foodie's heaven. I am going to divide this topic into two different posts: breakfast/brunch and lunch spots being the first. Then stayed tuned next week for dinner, drinks, and fun treat spots.

seen above: Chilaquiles from Cindy's Rooftop and an old fashioned pistachio donut from Stans's

For breakfast some of my top sit down choices are Cindy's Rooftop, Beatrix, Bistronomic and Hutch.  As for a quick breakfast on the go, I recommend Stan's Donuts or Firecakes donuts.

Each had a great atmosphere, lots of options, and very tasty food, but my personal favorite was Cindy's rooftop. Their chilaquiles and hummingbird pecan glazed coffee cake was out of this world. Not to mention it has a great view of Millennium park and the lakefront.  I also recommend making reservations for this place due to its popularity and location within the Athletic Association Hotel.

View from the inside and rooftop view of Cindy's 

Moving on to lunch. Some of my favorite sit downs are the Hampton Social, The Copper Fox, Howels and Hoods, Eataly and the 3 Arts Café at Restoration Hardware.

picture taken at Hampton Social

Starting with the Hampton Social, located in River North, this place is a girl's dream.  It really does look like a little piece of the Hampton's was picked up and placed in Chicago. I would honestly say most people's main attraction to this nautical masterpiece is the rosé all day sign. What makes people keep coming back? The tasty specialty drinks, delicious food, and awesome atmosphere. It's the perfect place for a fun lunch spot in the summer. 

Howels and Hood has amazing burgers and is located right next to the Chicago River. It is the perfect place to catch a patio lunch in the spring and summer, but also was just as enjoyable while sitting inside in the colder months. 

The Copper Fox is another restaurant with a cute little outdoor patio, as well as an aesthetic inside that quite possibly has one of the best fried chicken sandwiches I've ever tried. Seriously, my sister and I raved about this sandwich for months after eating.

Moving on to my favorite, due to the amazing food and outstanding atmosphere, is 3 Arts Restoration Hardware.  Let me start off by saying this place is beautiful. The appeal is that as you wait for your table to be ready you get to browse multiple floors filled with gorgeous furniture while sipping on some wine. As if that isn't good enough, their food is just like their atmosphere: excellent. I highly recommend their lobster roll and shaved ribeye sandwich.  Expect to spend at least two hours here for the whole experience, but I promise it is well worth it.

Lastly, my staple of every Chicago trip is Eataly. This place is filled with every Italian food you can imagine. From pasta to pizza, gelato to a cannoli, and wine of every form, it truly has it all. They have multiple stations throughout to try a little of everything. The best part is that it is also a store where you can buy from a wide selection of drinks, cookware, treats, and food.

That's all from this portion of Chicago. Hope you all enjoyed and stay tuned for the next half!

xo H