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 2

Hi everyone! Welcome back for part two of a weekend in Chicago. As I mentioned in the last post, this one will include my favorite places for dinner, drinks and fun treats. We will begin with my top recommendations for dinner.  

The first place I want to mention is Fig and Olive.  As you might have picked up from my last post, good food is not the only thing that peaks my attention when looking for a new place to try, but atmosphere as well. Fig and Olive succeeded on both grounds. 

 I mean just look at how cozy and elegant this place is. I went here with my boyfriend for our one year anniversary and it was a perfect place to celebrate. Their menu is seasonal, so it does change, but I would recommend to try their signature crostinis which are always available on their menu. On top of having a delicious meal, we also had excellent service. I would go back without hesitation.

signature crostinis and shrimp pasta 

Next is Nico Osteria. Which is coincidentally a block or so from Fig and Olive. Both of these restaurants are within the high end shopping district, so the food is not the only temptation in the area. 

Nico Osteria was this year's anniversary dinner (I think you can sense a theme for how we celebrate the years we've shared together). This place was specifically located within the Thompson Hotel and is known for their Italian food and seafood. To say we were impressed is an understatement. 

We tried their cacio e pepe and pan seared gnocchi and we could not have ate it any quicker. We sat and tried to decide which we liked more and could not even come up with an answer. The meal ended on a sweet note, because of all food things in this world...I live for dessert.

 The dessert we picked was the Cheesecake Semifreddo. This was a combination of  apple cake, whiskey apples, honey, apple mousse, & salt and pepper almonds. JUST WOW. The term cheesecake was very misleading, but they led us down a delicious path that was excellent. We also tried a sweet cocktail which tasted like a better version of a dirty monkey that you would find at an all inclusive resort. Anyways, 20/10 for Nico Osteria. 

The last restaurant I want to touch on is Girl and the Goat. How many times can you say you love a place, because I absolutely loved Girl and the Goat. This location is nowhere near Nico Osteria and Fig & Olive, but still brings an excellent atmosphere and remarkable food. It's tapas themed, so it is designed for you to get multiple small plates for sharing. I went with my boyfriend and we split the goat ricotta blintzes, seared scallops, and wood fired lamb ribs. They recommend up to 4-5 plates for two people, but you can add on food as you please throughout your meal so we started with three and it ended up being a perfect amount. 

scallops, lamb, and goat ricotta blintzes

All in all it was simply amazing and I would live in their back room if I could. To those of you who made it this far, congrats I know this is already lengthy. I am going to lightly touch on some fun bars and then the best part... the sweets. If you are in the area of fig and olive and Nico Osteria, Luxbar and Maple and Ash are within the same area and provide excellent specialty drinks, good atmosphere, and a good vibe. These places are also worthy of dining at, I just personally haven't yet. 

Bar Sienna and Rm Champagne are both located within a block of Girl and the Goat.  I highly recommend checking out RM Champagne on a nice summer day where you can sit in their cute alleyway patio while drinking some of their signature frozé. 

  

If you are thinking of going real fancy, I invite you to the thought of drinking 96 stories up overlooking all of Chicago in the Signature room. The signature room is located in the John Hancock tower, where you can dine in the clouds. I only went for drinks, but it was a great experience. 

Finally, my favorite subject of the post, the sweets. For a quick pick me up, I recommend Sprinkles Cupcakes or Magnolias Bakery. They are on opposite ends from each other, so depending on what side of the bridge you are on could help determine which to try. Sprinkles also has their "attraction" of the cupcake ATM which saves you from the lines inside. Both very delicious, and I judge cupcakes quite seriously(like I said, I live for dessert).

 My two top worthy dessert picks are BomboBar (connected to Bar Sienna) and the Public House (located next door to the Kinzie Hotel).
BomboBar is known for their bombolinis, which essentially are stuffed fried donuts filled with the flavor of your choice and their specialty hot chocolate. Both are tasty and fun to try. I tasted the s'mores bombolini and confetti hot chocolate.

The last place I am going to mention is Public House for their famous alcoholic cake shake. That's right people, dessert and booze all in one. They have a few classic flavors that stay consistent on their menu and also make one to match the time of year. For example, pumpkin pie in the fall and peppermint bark in the winter. I tried their.. wait for it.. funfetti cake shake. Are we surprised after my selection at BomboBar?

Oh, and did I mention its topped with an entire piece of cake? I recommend bringing a friend or four to take this down with you. Or not, no judgement here. Well guys, that's it for Chicago. I hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for more travel and their best eats. Until then.

xo H