Peanut Butter Meltaway Eggs

I made this recipe long before I started blogging and taking pictures of food. If you like peanut butter meltaways, these eggs are SO good! This recipe makes a lot of eggs but it can easily be cut in half.

Peanut Butter Meltaway Eggs

If you like peanut butter and chocolate you will want
to make a bunch of these meltaway eggs. They melt in your
mouth when you bite into them. For another taste treat,
try popping them into the freezer for a few minutes.
Yummy!

You need:

1 ½ lbs. white chocolate
2 oz. vegetable oil
1 lb. peanut butter
1 lb milk chocolate candy melts
plastic egg candy mold or
small, clean, plastic Easter eggs
drying rack or tin foil
fork or skewer for dipping eggs
candy sprinkles

Melt white chocolate in microwave, stopping every 30 seconds to stir. Stir in peanut butter until well mixed. Add oil and stir well for 2-3 minutes.

Pour peanut butter mixture into candy molds or fill each half of the plastic eggs. Set molds in freezer for 10 minutes or until mix is frozen solid.

Melt milk chocolate in the microwave. Using a fork or a skewer, dip the eggs into the chocolate then lay on a drying rack or tin foil to air dry. Sprinkle with candies while chocolate is still wet so that the candies will adhere to the egg.

Serve at room temperature for softer eggs. Can also be served frozen.


Optional: Peanut Butter Meltaway Bon Bons

To serve these delicious treats at times other than Easter, you can easily make them into bon bons.

Once you have mixed the peanut butter, chocolate and oil mixed together from the above recipe, pour the entire mixture into an 8x8 glass dish. Refrigerate until the mixture is solid—could take 2-3 hrs. Use a small ice cream scoop or melon ball scoop to scoop out the peanut butter mixture into ball shapes. Dip balls into melted milk chocolate and allow to dry on a baking rack. Sprinkle with candies if desired.

Crockpot Chicken Italiano

What a whirlwind weekend we've had! We've been looking for a house to move to that is bigger than our little apartment. On a whim, on Friday, we took a drive through a neighborhood that we hadn't considered before. We ended up finding a nice house. It's an old house with lots of charm. The owners have taken really good care of the house and have made the necessary updates along the way. We will be in a neighborhood with good schools - in fact, my son is so excited because their middle school is new! We are tired, but it looks like things might just have worked out for us. Time to pack and get ready to move! We are moving at the end of this month.

We had a lot of running around to do today so I threw dinner into the crockpot at 2:00 this afternoon. It's nice to know that at the end of a busy day that you have a hearty meal to sit down to.

I made my version of Crockpot Chicken Italiano:

1 - 8 oz package of sliced mushrooms
1 lg. can of italian tomatoes with Italian seasonings
3 TBSP minced garlic
1 lg. can of plum tomatoes
1 can of Rotel tomatoes, medium spice OR you can use spicy if you like it hot
3-4 frozen chicken breasts
1 can of corn, drained
2 cans of green beans, drained

Into a 5 qt. crockpot , stir together the first 5 ingredients. Drop in frozen chicken breast and stir well to cover the chicken. Cover with the lid and cook for 3 1/2 hrs. on high.

At this time stir in corn and green beans. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes to 1 hr. - depending on the size of the chicken breasts. The ones that I used weren't that big and were fully cooked at 4 hrs.

Once the chicken is fully cooked, remove the breasts to a plate and shred the meat using two forks. Stir the shredded chicken back into the crockpot.

This can be served alone, with fresh Parmesan cheese shredded on top, or over pasta or rice.


For dessert there's chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. lol! We're having brownies (mix) and chocolate ice cream.

Thrifty Thursday Tip: Drink More Water!

No, I don't mean drink more of the so-called fancy, shmansy bottled water! (which is usually not that fancy after all) I mean plain ol' tap water. That's right...stick a glass under the kitchen faucet and turn on the water. Now, if you just can't stand the taste of the tap water in your house, buy a water filter for the faucet. In the long run, you will be saving a lot more money than if you were to keep buying bottled water and you will keep the plastic bottles out of the landfills.

Now, I will admit it...I don't drink nearly as much water as I should. I drink 3 or 4 -8 oz. glasses a day. I'm aiming for more yet again.

Besides saving money, drinking water is great for your health.

Here are 10 reasons why you should drink more water:

• Get Healthy Skin
• Flush Toxins
• Reduce Your Risk Of Heart Attack
• Cushion And Lube Your Joints And Muscles
• Get Energized And Be Alert
• Stay Regular
• Reduce Your Risk Of Disease And Infection
• Regulate Your Body Temperature
• Burn More Fat And Build More Muscle
• Get Well

To keep yourself motivated, go out and make 2 purchases -

1. a sporty or unusual, well-made water bottle. Look for one that is made out of a material that won't break if it is dropped or knocked over. Big or small, bright colored or weird shaped...whatever catches your eye and makes you want to carry it.

2. a fun glass or cup for each season or holiday - hit the dollar stores, Target or Walmart to look for their selection of fun summer drink ware. Buy something that's a little zany, something that makes you smile when you look at it. You are more apt to use it this way! Make a promise to yourself to only drink water out of it. It's much more fun to drink water out of a hot pink flamingo cup than it is to drink out of a plain old boring white plastic cup.

Here is a handy gadget to help you remember how much water you've had to drink. It's more clever than my hairbands-around-the-water bottle-system that I use now--albeit, not as thrifty! **I wrapped 10 hairbands around my (free) water bottle. I start off in the morning with all of the hairbands at the top of the bottle. Every time I drink 1 cup of water, I move a band to the bottom of the bottom.

If you don't like the taste of plain water, add a couple of slices of fresh lemon or orange to the glass. MMM!! Make pretty ice cubes by adding fresh raspberries or blueberries to the tray before filling it.

Won't you join me in a tall glass of water now?


Look here to see more Thrifty Thursday tips at Amanda's Cookin.

Dinner Menu for the week of March 29 - April 4

I managed to get this week's menu written down on paper early last week... even though it's more than halfway through the week now before I managed to get it posted here.

Sunday - breakfast for dinner: pancakes and turkey bacon
Monday - rigatoni and hot sausage sauce
Tuesday - open faced hot turkey sandwiches & pierogies
Wednesday - crockpot chicken cacciatore over rice
Thursday - *new recipe - Greek chicken* & pasta salad
Friday - Kids cook - club sandwiches & tater tots, pickled beets & corn
Saturday - My hubby's BD - his choice

Cookie Carnival - Inside Out Carrot Cake Cookies

I couldn't decide whether or not I was going to bake this month's cookie selection because I was afraid that I would be the only one in my family who would eat them. I've stared at the recipe the entire month and finally today I decided to make them. I'm really glad that I did.

Even though my cookies seemed to have flattened out more than the others I've seen, they were still really good. My husband started eating them while they were still cooling on the racks.


I had to stop him from eating some of them so that I could try them with the cream cheese filling.


Which version did we like better - the plain carrot cake cookies or carrot cake cookies with cream cheese and honey filling?

The verdict:
My husband and I both liked the plain cookies much better. Neither of us were crazy about the cream cheese filling. We both thought that the cookies were plenty sweet enough without it.

I'm really not sure what caused my cookies to flatten out so much. The only change that I made was to sub more raisins for the nuts. Oh well, at the rate he is eating them, they won't last long anyway!

You can view the recipe for the March Cookie Carnival here.

If you would like to join us in the Cookie Carnival, you can sign up here.

I'm looking forward to seeing what April brings! :)