No Bake Reese's Bars

I've seen recipes on Pinterest for peanut butter bars
that claim to taste just like a Reese's -

and not just your average Reese's peanut butter cup,
which regular-sized -

 or mini -

I can usually pass up without a thought.

I'm talking about the holiday Reese's.
Those wonderful treats with a
way-more-peanut-butter-to-chocolate ratio

and none of those hard chocolate ridges around the edge.

Like the pumpkin-shaped Reese's for Halloween -

or the heart-shaped ones on Valentine's Day.

But by far, the best and most exciting Reese's variation to hit the
shelves each year, is the Reese's Eggs!

It's my favorite.
I buy a ton and keep them in my freezer so I can
enjoy the peanut buttery goodness until at least summer.
Or that's my plan until I eat them all in the month of May
because I can't take looking at them anymore!

Anyways, long story short -
I decided I needed to try one of these recipes
and see if they really tasted as good as my favorite Reese's treat.
The one I tried had only 5 ingredients.

 

I ground graham crackers in the food processor until they were 

fine crumbs and then I had threw them in my mixer 

with some melted butter.

Next came powdered sugar -

and more mixing until it looked like this -

Then I just smoothed the mix into a 9 x 13 inch pan and 

popped it in the freezer while I made the chocolate topping.

All you need is a little peanut butter and some chocolate chips,

that you melt together -

and then smooth on top of the bars.

They don't take long to put together,

and after only about 15 minutes in the freezer,

they are ready to cut and eat.

One batch makes a ton,

and they really do taste an awful lot like my beloved Reese's eggs!

They're also a nice treat to make on a hot day 

because you don't have to turn your oven on.

Perhaps I can just make these in the future instead of 

buying Reese's eggs in bulk each Easter.

We'll see :)

No Bake Reese's Bars

1 c. butter, melted
2 c. graham cracker crumbs(about 2 sleeves ground to a fine crumb)
2 c. powdered sugarconfectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 c. peanut butter

Chocolate Topping:

1/4 c. peanut butter
2 c. chocolate chips

Combine first four ingredients in a large mixing bowl until well-combined and smooth. Spread evenly into a 9×13 inch baking dish. Combine ingredients for chocolate topping in a medium glass bowl. Melt in the microwave for 30 second increments twice, stirring after each until combined and smooth. Spread on top of the peanut butter bar base and place in freezer for 15 minutes. Remove from freezer and cut into individual bars.

Our Fun-Filled 4th

We had a great Fourth of July weekend!

We seem to be one of the few people around town

without a lake cabin to visit,

so we have to get creative to survive 

long, hot summer weekends.

We started out with a visit to the Splash Pad -

 It was our first time there,

 and the kids loved it!

 We brought along a picnic lunch,

and the pond behind the splash pad -

was a great place for throwing rocks before heading home.

 On the 4th itself,

 the kids did some trampoline-sprinkler jumping -

before settling in for the neighborhood fireworks show!

 They loved it all, especially the sparklers!

Sadly, they followed up all of this fun -

with a stomach bug that kept them both snuggled in bed,

watching movies together in Walter's room.

 The good news is they recovered quickly -

 and they looked adorable resting together :)

So much fun, we almost dyed!

There was an awesome event in town over the weekend -
a 5K race called Run or Dye. 

It was held out at the fairgrounds
and as you can see from the map above
at different sections of the race you were "dyed" different colors.

Here are the kids and I,
nice and white before the race began -

I had them wear sunglasses
to keep the powdered dye out of their eyes.

Walt started off with me in the runner's chute -

Just looking at all the crazy colors on the ground got him excited!

We danced to music and every so often
everyone would rip open a dye packet
and colorful powder would blow on us from all directions.

 Once the race started,
Ruby stood here waving at runners and waiting for us to come by.

Walt had gotten tired in the first leg of the race,
so I started piggybacking him until we found Daddy and Ruby.

We were already pretty colorful by the time we got to Ruby.

It was too hot to run three miles with a three-and-a-half-year-old

on my back, and let's be honest, I'm not in that great of shape.

So these two walked with Daddy to the next color station 

while I ran the course on my own.

They shared some water to hydrate while they waited,

and then came running to meet me when they saw me,

so the 3 of us could go through the orange color station together!

As we walked through we got hit with fistfuls of orange color!

We finished looking like this -

They had fun getting dirty and colorful,

and I loved having my two little monkeys be a part of the race!

M&M Pie

We had some leftover Easter candy -

 and I could think of only one way to get rid of it -

 Mmmmmm, right?

I gathered the ingredients -

 while these two began opening the individual bags 

and dumping them into a measuring cup.

 I creamed together the butter, sugar, peanut butter, and flour -

and then Walt added the eggs,

and vanilla.

 He snitched a few mini M&M's before pouring them into the mixer,

 followed closely by some mini chocolate chips.

Ruby did some final mixing,

before we dumped it all into the pie crust.

After about 45 minutes in the oven -

it looked good enough to eat!

You've gotta serve this rich, gooey pie with ice cream -

adding more calories with some homemade fudge sauce is optional, but highly recommended.

M&M Pie
1 pie crust
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. flour
3 Tbsp peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
1/2 c. butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c. mini M&M's
2/3 c. mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, flour, peanut butter, and butter, mixing well. Add eggs, vanilla, M&M’s, and chocolate chips. Transfer filling to prepared pie crust. Bake until firm in the middle, approximately 45 minutes.