Tuesday, July 12, 2011

No Bake Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls & Our Weekly Menu Plan


This summer seems to be flying by! We are in the middle of an incredible heat wave. I've been holed up in the house with the AC for a few days, finally dragging myself and the kids out to go grocery shopping.

My kids and husband have grown accustomed to eating some sort of dessert in the later evening, right before my husband leaves for work. While I love providing homemade desserts, I hate the thought of turning on the oven to heat it up in here. Thus, this batch of no bake peanut butter balls. Takes just 4 ingredients and a kid or two willing to get their hands messy and you're ready to go!

  
No Bake Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls

1-18 oz. jar of smooth or chunky peanut buter - I prefer smooth
1 - 16 oz. bag of confectioners sugar
1/4 c. butter, melted
chocolate almond bark
or
chocolate candy melts
or
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips & 2 tsp. shortening

In a large bowl, stir together the peanut butter, confectioners sugar and melted butter until the mixture is crumbly. For the next step, the best way that I've found to make a smooth filling is to use your hands to mix everything together.

Line a baking sheet with foil. Roll the peanut butter filling into 1 inch balls and line the baking sheet with rows of the balls. Set the baking sheet in the freezer for 5-7 minutes to chill the peanut butter balls for easier dipping.

While the peanut butter balls are chilling, melt the chocolate in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl that is deep enough for dipping. I melted 6 blocks of chocolate almond bark at a time, stirring at 45 second intervals until smooth.

Remove the baking sheet from the freezer. Insert a toothpick or wooden skewer into a peanut butter ball and then dip it into the chocolate, turning quickly to cover the entire candy. Place onto a second baking tray that has also been lined with foil. Swirl the chocolate on the top of each candy for a pretty design. Refrigerate until the chocolate had completely dried.

Store the candies in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

**Warning** These little candies are very addictive!!


Weekly Menu Plan for July 10 - 16

Sunday - country chicken and vegetables in the crock pot

Monday - crock pot Jack Daniel's bbq pulled pork sandwiches - homemade Jack Daniel's bbq sauce!

Tuesday - bacon, lettuce and tomato jam sandwiches, cottage cheese and cucumber salad

Wednesday - breakfast for dinner: pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and biscuits

Thursday - Brunswick stew using leftover pulled pork and corn bread

Friday - grilled chicken and pasta with lemon basil sauce

Saturday - burrito pie and rice

Stay cool!


I'm linking up to:

Menu Plan Mondays
A Bowl Full of Lemons 
The Goose Berry Patch Blog

15 comments:

Liz Mays said...

I love the idea that they're no bake. That's brilliant, my friend, just brilliant!

Cracked up when I scrolled down to the word verification and it said: fatter

LOL

Tami said...

Thank you! We are still eating them. lol!

Hey, get that word "fatter" off of my blog! I work hard to remove all of the fat before posting. ROFL!!

Cooking with Cristin said...

those look so good. might help my resses cravings i have often
ive been eating dessert everynight too. i enjoy it with a cup of tea and it relaxes me
i know the week is pretty much over and im late commenting(i try to visit everyone throughout the week while Giada sleeps on me :)
here is a link to my Menu Plan
i am also a new follower and would love a follow back
i subscribed to your emails and im looking forward to trying some of your recipes!
enjoy the rest of your weekend!
From Cristin To Mommy

Theresa said...

Your blog is awesome!!! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE peanut butter balls. I chuckled when I saw your "warning". I'm now your newest follower.

Tami said...

Cristin, Thanks for following me! I'm following you now, too. :)

Thanks for the compliments, Theresa!! I'm off to check out your blog. :)

It's a girl thing... said...

I am going to try these right now lol

I love your blog so much :)

Diana said...

I just discovered your blog - I love it! I'm from Ohio and here these wonderful creations are called "Buckeyes". Another way to make these are just spread in a pan.

Peanut Butter Squares

2 sticks melted margarine
3 C conf. sugar
1-1/4 C graham cracker crumbs
1 C peanut butter
1 - 12 oz bag choc chips - add 1 T margarine to melt w/chips

Mix well 1st 4 ingredients. Spread in 9x13 greased pan, put melted chips on top. Refrigerate about 1 hr, cut in squares. Don't leave longer, they get too hard.

Tami said...

Thank you for all of the wonderful comments. :)

Diana, I'm from Pa. just about right at the Pa./Ohio border. Being a Steelers Fan, I couldn't bring myself to give credit to Ohio and make them look like Buckeyes so I covered them all the way in chocolate. (it's a Browns thing, you know!) ROFL!!!

Never thought of making them in a baking pan. Great idea! Thanks for the recipe!

Anonymous said...

How many does a batch make?? Thanks for the receipt these look great!!

Tami said...

If I remember correctly, around 36. :)

amuzed.mom.me said...

These look delicious and I'm eager to make them! My only question is how many ounces in in your "jar" of peanut butter?

Tami said...

The jar I used was 18 oz.

Thanks for asking about it. I'm going to edit the recipe to say so.

Hope you enjoy them! They don't last long around here!

Michelle said...

I am going to try and make these today using white Chocolate since my husband is not a dark chocolate fan.

Anonymous said...

Have anyone tried with chunky peanut butter? I am trying it right now but its harder to roll? Do I need to add a little more of butter or something?

Unknown said...

Gave this recipe a whirl tonight (first-timer) with somewhat mixed results. I ended up having to increase the amount of confectioner's sugar from 2 cups to 3 1/3 cups before the mixture got "crumbly" and was able to handle it and roll the balls. I also found that I had to freeze them for 10-15 minutes before they were solid enough for a toothpick to stick in solidly.

Although the recipe doesn't call out a volume of melting chocolate to use, I ended up using a 12 ounce bag of Ghiarardelli chocolate melts and had more than enough. Even used some leftover at the end to dip some banana slices. :)

Still, a great and simple recipe! Can't wait to taste them (they're cooling/hardening in the fridge)!

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