I know this isn’t the first peanut butter post we’ve blogged, but can you ever get too much of the good stuff that gets stuck to the roof of your mouth? Pour yourself an ice cold glass of milk because you’re going to need it to wash down every one of these nutty recipes.

Peanut butter isn’t just for crackers and sandwiches these days. UrbCindy’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Popsicles just might be the thing you crave if warm summer weather’s stickin’ around your neck of the woods.

I also like how mytastytreasures creatively uses peanut butter to make frosting for her Chocolate Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting. Think of a favorite chocolate candy bar, but in cake form. Yummm!

If you came here for a classic recipe with a twist, this is it: Elle’s Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies. Time to refill that glass of milk, you’ll want to dunk these! The combination of sweet and savory always makes my mouth water. Take a look, she actually adds pretzel pieces to the dough!

Want to know something? I prepared that dish in under half an hour! If you missed yesterday’s post, where I discussed Dr_Mom’s Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemons, then it’s a good thing you stopped by today. Everything I said about the recipe yesterday still holds true today: the aroma of this dish is heavenly!

If you don’t have time to stand in front of the stove all evening, think about preparing the sauce in advance then cooking the chicken in the crock pot with the sauce a little later. I was curious to see how the dish would come out if I baked it. So that’s exactly what I did. I snapped the photo before popping the cast iron pan in the oven, then I covered it with foil and baked it at 350 for about an hour and 15 minutes.

What else did I do differently? Not much, because this recipe works as is. I did add a little bit of honey and also thickened the sauce by reducing it and adding a bit of potato flour. The end result? A slightly sweet and savory dish with so much flavor, you can serve it over a bed of plain white rice and still feel like you’re enjoying a fancy meal… without the headache of having to prepare a complicated recipe. Simple and delicious!

Planning a birthday party this weekend? Good news, little kids and big kids love cupcakes, especially when they’re made with a creative twist. What else do we love about cupcakes? They usually come with more frosting than a piece of cake :).

Makingbananapancakes serves up a creative batch of cupcakes with her Blueberry and Strawberry Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting. Fresh fruit tops off a light cake made with apple sauce, only a quarter cup of butter go into these berry lean cupcakes :).

The overripe brown bananas on your countertop will be making their way into the mixing bowl instead of the trash can when you hear about MyTastyTreasures Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon frosting. The bananas not only add great flavor, but they make these cupcakes extra moist.

You might’ve tried a banana cupcake before, but I bet you’ve never heard of porcalina’s French Toast and Bacon Cupcakes. Breakfast isn’t complete without maple syrup and these breakfast-inspired cupcakes aren’t complete until they’re frosted with homemade maple buttercream! Make these a part of your balanced breakfast or serve them at your next party, either way, they’ll be the dessert that everyone remembers.

It’s easy to chop up a few carrots and sautee them in butter, but I can’t say it’ll be easy to get everyone in the family to eat their veggies when dinner rolls around. Sure there are ways to sneak them in here and there, but what if we just found a new way to serve ‘em up. Instead of being the side we avoid and eat last, why can’t veggies be as exciting as the entree (or even the entree itself)?

Peach 106’s Minestrone Soup with Winter Vegetables is a recipe that’s always in season because it’s so versatile. What’s great about this soup is that you can remove the meat (pancetta) and still have a filling, flavorful meal. Of course, being the meat-eater I am, I’d add the pancetta and maybe even a little ham (yum!).

Bodanzarama shows us that we can have a filling burger without her ground beef if we make her Sprouting Chickpea Patties. Paul123 also has a great recipe for Homemade Veggie Patties — just look at how thick and juicy they are!

If you need to find a way to get the kids to eat their veggies, because they just don’t like anything green on their plates :), hide the veggies in something they love to eat! LobsterandFishsticks’ Zucchini Lasagna is lean and green! The green veggies, like spinach and zucchini, are hidden beneath delicious layers of pasta covered in sauce, cheese, and cottage cheese. This is family-friendly recipe and, I have to say, I really like the idea of using cottage cheese. If you’re sneaking in the veggies, why not sneak in the cottage cheese too :)?

I’ll be the first to admit that I love vegetables. Meals aren’t complete without them. But I also have something else to admit, they’re not always tasty when served plain. Sure you can pick up a fruit, like an apple and savor its natural sweetness. Sometimes you can do this with a few veggies, like carrots and celery… but have you ever scooped up a handful of brussels sprouts and popped them into your mouth like a bag of Skittles?

Nope, I’ve never done that. In fact, the last time I had brussels sprouts was about 15 years ago! I was scarred by the little green veggies, probably because they were served plain, without even a sprinkle of salt. Padma’s recipe for Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry is far from boring, though. What caught my attention was how colorful her veggie dish came out, seasoned with a peanut garlic spice mix and roasted red pepper, among other flavorful ingredients.

So if you’re thinking about introducing the family to a new veggie, such as brussels sprouts, make sure you follow in Padma’s footsteps; make a dish that’s deliciously appealing and aromatic. It wasn’t until just a year ago that Padma, from Padma’s Kitchen, introduced her family to brussels sprouts, and now they’re a family favorite — looking at her recipe, I can see why :)!

Grilled cheese’s aren’t the only gooey warm sandwiches you can enjoy on a cold day with your favorite cup of soup. Cheese has it’s place in a sandwich, but it doesn’t always have to take center-stage ;), especially when ingredients like turkey and BACON are also in that sandwich.

Simply Yummy Goodness isn’t just the name of Katy’s blog, it’s also what you’ll say when you take a bite of her mom’s Turkey Devonshire Sandwich. After enjoying the sandwich while on vacation at an Inn about 20 years ago, Katy’s mom decided to recreate it at home. If they’ve been making it for 20 years, there’s no denying it’s worth trying at least once :).

Katy’s family loves to eat this around the holidays, she says it’s their tradition to enjoy a Turkey Devonshire dinner after Christmas tree shopping. You can count on turkey, bacon, tomatoes and melted cheese to warm you up after a cold day spent outdoors. Meals like this make me wish Christmas was every day! But Katy’s recipe is also great for busy working families. Just stick a turkey breast (or even chicken) in the slow cooker and, at the end of the day, you can prepare this tasty open-faced sandwich in minutes.

What kind of birthday gift do you get for the friend who puts you up to a pretty big challenge? Like telling you to take a gelato recipe and turn it into another kind of dessert, something made with crushed cookies and a chocolate drizzle! No, we’re not talking about a homemade cone served up with two scoops of ice cream… we’re talking about a homemade Ginger Ice Cream Pie.

It’s the ultimate birthday present for that friend who also happens to be a pie aficionado. Charmian’s Ginger Ice Cream Pie has everything you’d expect to find in an ice cream dessert, and more. Fresh ginger and crystallized ginger both show up in the homemade ice cream that sits on top of a spicy brown sugar ginger cookie crust. And ice cream isn’t complete without a drizzle of chocolate syrup, or a semi-sweet chocolate drizzle in Charmian’s case.

There are ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cakes, but the first ice cream pie we came across was on Charmian’s blog, Christie’s Corner. If you want to see a few more photos of a pie you’ll actually want to eat right out of the freezer, be sure to drop by and say hello to Charmian. If there’s a dessert out there you’d like to see transformed into some sort of pie, she’s the one to contact :)!

When we think salad, why do images of leafy greens and croutons come to mind? What about pasta salads? Sure, there’s the ‘carb’ issue, but they’re still tasty. How about bean salads? Great! Tons of protein and they don’t get the recognition they deserve. But we’ve left out a category. How about the chorizo salads? Yes! Who knew that the hearty spicy sausage we usually see around breakfast time could make its way into a dinner salad?

Every where you go, you’ll find salads on the menu; even fast food joints are offering them! But you’ll only find this Warm Chorizo and Chickepea Salad on Andrea’s blog, Yes I Want to See the Dessert Menu. With her recipe, we can no longer say ‘there’s nothing to eat’ the next time we open the fridge and see a lonely sausage link staring at us! And what about those veggies that are on the verge of going bad, throw them into the salad too!

That’s basically what Andrea did when she thought-up her Warm Chorizo Chickpea Salad recipe. Inspired by a can of chickpeas and a few veggies, Andrea made a fresh salad that’ll definitely have you saying ‘chorizo’ the next time you want to make something lean but not too light. This is a salad that will actually fill you up :)!

This week’s Tutorial Tuesday guest is Stephanie, also known as Chef Tess Bakeresse. She’s got a batch of bear buns that are adorable and tasty; check out her in-depth tutorial. Before we begin the guest post, I want to tell you how Stephanie responded when I asked her what she wanted to share with you all this week…this is what she had to say:

I think the main thing I have to add regarding the buns is that after all these years of making bear buns, they never fail to make a few people who are normally very much “sticks in the mud” smile! That has been one of my main aims in life, making people smile. Hopefully some of your readers will find them a wonderful project and a great tradition. That is what baking has become in my home. It is a tradition started by my grandmother, carried on by my mother, and continued with my children.

These cute buns certainly brought a smile to my face when I first eyed them on her blog! Let’s just say they really are the perfect treat for kiddos and the young at heart! Let’s read her post…

My Bear Buns Are Cute. Really Cute.

I’m not obscene. This is about as close to anything off color as I will get. Blame my mom. She started this. When I was growing up, every year she would make these for Valentines day and give them away to friends and family. Only she would ask, “Do you want butter or jam on your bear buns?” I guess the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree. Thank goodness! I wouldn’t have it any other way! I made these today to take to my kids at school and surprise them at lunch. Hopefully I won’t get sent to the Principal’s office.

Does anyone else want cute bear buns too? Start with the basic bread recipe. I happened to use the Overnight Started Bread for this one. Once the dough has gone through all the mixing and raising, and is ready to shape into loaves or rolls, get your buns together by first working out the dough.

I used half for a regular loaf of bread, and the other half for rolls. I only made six. So, with the dough, I divided it into 3 balls. 2 I divided into 3 each so I got six rolls. Does that make sense. I wasn’t very good at math.

Roll the six balls into buns and place on a stoneware pan, lightly covered with cornmeal.

The remaining ball, I divided in half. One half I used for 12 ears. Look how random this picture is of little dough blobs on my counter. Very sheik. I know.

Those 12 little blobs became bear ears. Like rabbit feet. Lucky.

The other six, became the snout. Snooty dough balls.

Then I added raisins for eyes and a nose.

I lightly mist them with water and allow them to raise. It took a little over an hour before I could really poke their eyes out…or IN… I should say.

It’s a wonder they can even see with those little raisin eyes anyway. What am I saying? I think I have been spending way too much random mommy time!

I then mist them again with a little more water.
Hose them down so they don’t misbehave. Crazy Kung Fu bears.
Sprinkle them with a little more cornmeal and some poppy seeds…

Ohhh my gosh! Sooo cute!
Cute. Cute. Cute. I admit it. I am now part of the subculture of cute stay at home mom’s who does a food blog…with cute stuff. Oh cute. If I didn’t think I would puke from my own cuteness, I’d say cute again. AArrrrgh! I’ve done it now!

How can I help it?!
Oh yeah, bake 350 degrees 30-35 minutes. When cool pose them with a fluffy white stuffed animal…like a toy panda (because that is what the cute subculture of insane mom food bloggers would do).

I think they taste cute too.

I have a confession to make, whenever I type the word pumpkin, I always find myself typing pumpking. In fact, I did it just now, as I was typing in the name of today’s featured recipe! I won’t go into detail about my obsession with pumpkin, but it would probably be accurate to say that my typo is a big give-away! I can’t think of a better way to use pumpkin than in Sara’s Pumpkin White Chocolate Cheesecake with Pecan-Gingersnap Crust!

If the title hasn’t lured you in, then the photo well; who can resist? Pecan pie definitely has its place on the dessert table, but maybe not when this cheesecake is right next to it. Caramelized pecans finish off layers of sweet whipped cream and a creamy pumpkin cheesecake filling, both sitting atop a pie crust that’s delicious on its own. So what’s this crust all about? More pecans and gingersnaps!

If you want to impress; if you can’t decide between pumpkin and pecan pie, cheesecake, or gingersnaps, then roll out the red carpet for Sara’s Pumpking Cheesecake. Check out the rave reviews this cheesecake received on Sara’s blog, Our Best Bites!