Brittany's PantryPeanut Butter W/Honey, Cinnamon, & Cocoa: Back To School Post #1
Brittany wrote this on 5 August 2013
chocolate, gluten-free, honey, peanut butter
Hi everyone!
I know I have been kind of missing the last week or so and I have a good excuse. Its summer! I have been immersed in home improvement projects, little red wagon walks around the neighborhood, bike rides, picnics, and appointments! I am also in the middle of trying to perfect an oatmeal raisin cookie recipe (that still is not ready after 9 batches-argg!) so that has been keeping me in the kitchen but away from my computer and all of you!
That said, I have been making big plans and am excited to share! Today marks the first day of my Back To School Series! I have been compiling lists, recipes, ideas, and tips to help make lunches, snacks, and weeknight dinners a bit easier, more streamlined, and less monotonous! The series will continue through August and September as we all get back into the swing of things and nail down a new routine for a new school year. Not everything posted here in the next few months will be geared toward kids, but the great thing is that even if you are single, married without children, or empty nesters, its nice to have some fresh ideas for healthy snacks, brown bag lunches at the office, and even pre/post workout food!
In addition to what is hopefully useful ideas for you, starting today, I will be featuring one of my favorite ingredients throughout the month: HONEY! If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I luuuuv to cook and bake with it! My local supplier has been harvesting and I am celebrating with a wealth of new recipes all highlighting the golden sweet stuff. Which brings me to my next announcement-another GIVEAWAY! My third and final giveaway of the summer will be a box of raw honey shipped straight to one lucky winner! More details on that later so keep checking back so you don’t miss it! Be sure to follow Brittany’s Pantry on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and subscribe via email so you are sure to get all my updates and witty prose!
And now, on to the eats!
We love peanut butter at our house. As in, we go through an obscene amount of it every month. We never get sick of pb&j and it makes its way into my baking and cooking on a regular basis. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to good natural peanut butter here-which we far prefer-but we make do with our favorite brand. We are a JIF family all the way, baby! But as much as I like peanut butter, I dislike repetition. I get bored with food quite often and even though the chitlins and the hubs don’t complain, I like to shake things up.
Can I confess something to you? Every time I watch the movie Matilda and I see her make a sandwich with that Smuckers Goober Grape, I wonder why I don’t do the same thing. I mean, what a genius time saver! So here is my version, sans the retro look and just a bit more versatile.
These two recipes are kicking off the Back To School series because they are, well, peanut butter! Can you get more traditional than that? Feel free to post your ideas in the comments section below! Here are some snack and lunch ideas to get you started:
– use either spread to make a sandwich but use banana bread instead
– dip apple or pear slices in it
– we LOVE them smeared on a warm multi-grain bagel
– make a chocolate peanut butter and cream cheese sandwich with raisin bread
– spread it on a graham cracker with some marshmallow fluff and make an extra special fluffernutter snack
– spread it on a rice cake
– top sliced bananas
– use it as a dip and pack it with graham crackers, pretzel sticks, or mini vanilla wafers
One Year Ago: Ranch Dressing, Saucepan Brownies
Two Years Ago: Smashed Potatoes W/Spinach, Cherry Hand Pies, Grilled Yogurt Chicken
Three Years Ago: Earth Bread, Banana Bran Muffins
Honey Cinnamon Peanut Butter
This will keep tightly covered in the fridge for weeks. Although I doubt it will last that long!
1 c creamy peanut butter
3 T honey
1 1/2-2 tsp cinnamon
Whisk all ingredients together.
Peanut Butter W/Honey & Cocoa
I wanted this to taste like peanut butter with chocolate in it, not chocolate with a bit of peanut butter. This has just a hint of chocolate without being too sweet.
1 c creamy peanut butter
1/4 c honey
1 T cocoa powder
a splash of hot water
Whisk all ingredients together. Add the splash of hot water if needed, as the cocoa can make it a bit dry.
Grilled Steak W/Balsamic Drizzle & Bleu Cheese
Brittany wrote this on 27 July 2013 balsamic vinegar, beef, cheese, gluten-free
Years ago-and I just realized how many posts I begin with those words-I watched Giada make something similar to this recipe. I like my steak straight up and pure; grilled with just salt and pepper, but every once in awhile, I recognize that change might be good. I try to embrace change in my cooking and menus and I am always up to doing something different. This Filet Au Poivre was a change for me and is now part of my regular ‘special occasion’ rotation. This one is too.
The summer before my daughter was born, my husband and I went on a hiking trip to the Smokey Mountains with another couple. We were supposed to camp for a few nights while we hit the trails, went site seeing, and basically marveled at the mountains. It was beautiful, amazing, and just thinking about it makes me want to go back! Unfortunately, on day two, we got word that an enormous summer storm was to hit our area. Not wanting to sleep in a wet tent, nor pack up soggy gear the following day, the four of us threw everything in the car and headed into Pigeon Forge to find a hotel for the night. By the time we got to town, it was pouring. As in, the end times type of pouring. We were more than a little bummed about the trip when we happened to glance at a sign for mountain cabin rentals. Our visibility was rapidly deteriorating so we quickly pulled over and our brave husbands ventured into the monsoon to inquire.
Eureka! They had a vacancy! We drove straight up the mountain for almost an hour and darted into the coolest cabin we had ever seen. Two bedrooms, a kitchen, a hot tub-so neat!! It was fresh and clean and soooo much better than a floating down the mountain in our sleeping bags. We ran around the house like kids, while the storm raged outside. We were so grateful we weren’t in a tent at the top of the mountain, but an air conditioned, quant little cabin on the top of the mountain! It was late so we played cards and snacked and crashed, only to wake up the next morning and unanimously agree to extend our vacation just so we could stay one more night there! And we did! We shopped all day in Pigeon Forge, bought oodles of pottery, and ate at the gristmill in the middle of town. If you have ever been there you know how awesome the food is. Being the resident foodie of the group, I told them I had dinner covered. I needed something worthy of that spectacular day, but able to be made with limited ingredients, prep, and utensils. This steak is what we had for dinner.
I have no idea what else we ate that night, but it was the perfect ending to a fantastic couple of days. It tastes special, but is really just a stellar combination of great flavors. Simple and easy. Definitely add it to your list of things to whip up these last weeks of summer. Or even last minute on the top of a mountain.
One Year Ago: Steak Salad
Two Years Ago: Zucchini & Corn W/Basil, Chocolate Chip Cherry Snack Cake, The Best BBQ Chicken
Three Years Ago: Basic Wheat Bread, Three Lemon Chicken, Turkey Meatballs, Margarita Pasta Salad, California Chopped Salad, Matt’s Pancakes
Grilled Steak W/Balsamic Drizzle and Bleu Cheese
Adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis
This recipe makes enough syrup for 6 steaks. If you aren’t cooking for a crowd, it is absolutely outrageous drizzled over a salad with grilled chicken and your extra bleu cheese.
6 steaks of your own choosing (filet, rib-eye, and NY strip are the best for this)
1 1/2 c balsamic vinegar
3 T sugar
crumbled bleu cheese
In a small, heavy bottomed sauce pan, bring the vinegar and sugar to a low boil over medium heat. Stirring often, let continue to cook down until syrupy. The length of time this will take depends on your pan, what kind of balsamic you are using, and your stove, but about 15 minutes is close. Don’t cook it too long! It will thicken a bit as it cools too. If you cook it too long, you will have balsamic candy-yummy, but not pourable over your steak! Meanwhile, salt and pepper your steaks and grill them on a screaming hot grill, about 4 minutes per side for medium rare. Let the steaks rest, and then drizzle with balsamic syrup and sprinkle with bleu cheese. Enjoy!
Ice Cream Sodas for a heat wave!
Brittany wrote this on 19 July 2013 chocolate, cream, gluten-free, milk
What a week! I pretty much scrapped my plans for blog post this week for two reasons. First of all, we are having a garage sale this week and as anyone who has ever had a garage sale knows, it kinda sucks. Which leads me into my second reason: its HOT!! Really really hot. Put those two together and you have a really uncomfortable, long, stressful, troublesome couple of days.
So the recipes I was originally going to share here will have to wait. Instead, I thought this longtime family favorite should make an appearance instead. Its cold and refreshing, quick and simple. All things that are on my list of requirements this week. All right. They are the ONLY things on my list this week. If they don’t hit those marks, I ain’t eatin’ it. Which means I have been living on salads, iced tea, and these ice cream sodas.
What I love love love about making these is that they are just a different enough to be kinda fun and unexpected, but they aren’t a big deal to do. Root beer floats are an obvious classic and these are the same concept but not so sweet and much more original. Kind of like old time soda fountain action going on in your kitchen. Or on your deck. Or your patio. Or with your toes in the grass. A fun straw doesn’t hurt either.
One Year Ago: Super Creamy Strawberry Ice Cream & Fried Rice Scramble
Two Years Ago: Oatmeal Raisin Snack Bars, Cornmeal Pancakes W/Blueberry Sauce, Grilled Pizza
Ice Cream Sodas
Inspired by Ina Garten and soda fountains everywhere!
I like to use sparkling water in these because unlike club soda or tonic water, it doesn’t have added salt.
flavoring: chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce, butterscotch sauce
ice cream: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coffee
milk
sparkling water
In a large glass, add about 2 T of your flavoring, or feel free to skip it entirely. If you use the syrup, add a splash (about 1/4 c or so) of milk and stir. This allows the flavoring to mix into the sparkling water without just sitting on the bottom of the glass. Add your desired ice cream in whatever combo you like and fill the glass with sparkling water. Enjoy!
Note: I have discovered through extensive trial and error 🙂 that mint chocolate chip ice cream, or any type with lots of little chunks of chocolate or nuts, are kind of lost in this recipe. Save it for a bowl and go with the smooth stuff here. Strawberry seems to be the exception. Our most favorite combo is chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream, but chocolate sauce with coffee ice cream is a close second!
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