Sunday, March 27, 2011

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Bars

DSCF4266

Whew!  What a couple weeks it has been.  I spent a week in Kansas.  Had a great time hanging with some friends I dearly miss—my Reality Sistas and seeing lots of other friends, too.  Thanks for letting me go, Kev!

DSCF4191-1

Then the day after I got home, after lots of cleaning!, we had company staying with us all this week.  It was really fun.  But I’m tired. 

Thanks to the Berghouts for coming from Kansas to help Kevin get the fish tank up and running.  We are really excited to have it!  Great to see you guys!

So fun to have my niece and her husband and two cute boys here with us, too! (That’s right, I’m a great aunt, who knew—have been for a long time now.) ;)  Thanks for coming, Saharra!  I stink—and only took a few pictures.  Look at this cute little guy---Gunner is about six months old and crawling already.  It was fun to have a little guy in our house (and to give him to his mom when he’d cry. hehe) Chip (our mini Aussie puppy) sure liked him!  Probably because he could run up and lick all over him and Gunner didn’t (couldn’t) do anything to stop him.  (No, Gunner is not really drinking out of a cup, just loved gnawing it.)

DSCF4275

It was fun to have Zane, Gunner’s 7 year old brother here, too.  I didn’t take this one—Saharra does photography.  Here’s Zane.  I’d put one of her pictures of herself and her husband on here, too, but then she’d be annoyed with me. ;)  (So this photo is courtesy of Saharra.)

30121_131200803560585_100000119994834_369085_7539064_n

The boys had a blast!

Saharra even managed to take some pictures of Scottie (in other words—he let her).  He purposely missed school pictures this year.  Great photos, Sahare!

007 003006

So again, it was fun to have company here.  I enjoyed making food that was enjoyed by people (instead of for my boys who generally don’t like anything).  One day last week I made some Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Bars that Amanda at Amanda's Cookin' recently posted.  Besides these turning out perfect and tasting great, these could not have been more simple.  They made for a great treat while our company was here this past week.  You can get the recipe on the link at Amanda’s blog.  My only change to the recipe was in place of the 3/4 cup butter, I used Bestlife Buttery Baking Sticks.  I have used these in a couple of recipes now and really like it.  This alternative to butter has no partially hydrogenated oil, no trans fats and 50% less saturated fat than butter.  Give it a try sometime.  I found it available at Walmart.

DSCF4260

Lining the baking pan with foil makes it so easy to remove the bars and slice them on a cutting board.  I always do that for any kind of bars or brownies.  These baked for 22 minutes and cooled for a couple hours.  They slice perfectly.  The peanut butter added to the bar cookie is great and makes for a great texture to these and what could be better than peanut butter and chocolate.  Give them a try.  Everyone here loved them and I’m sure I’ll be making them again!  Thanks, Amanda!

DSCF4262

11 comments:

Lisa said...

Mmm, these do sound peanut buttery and I love how gooey they look in the middles. By the way, those pictures are so beautiful. Your friend definitely has talent.

spontaneous-euphoria said...

YUM- they look great!

Unknown said...

Sounds just amazing! There's no way I could wait a couple of hours before digging in ...ha :)

The Addicted Baker said...

Mmmmmm! Finger-licking good. You should check out my peanut butter cookies: http://theaddictedbaker.blogspot.com/2011/03/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Natalie said...

pb chocolate anything is always a winning combination!

scrambledhenfruit said...

Give me one of these bars and a cold glass of milk and I'll be happy! :)

Jennie said...

I remember eating these with hot lunch in elementary school, and I have been hankering for them recently. Mmm, mmm, mmm. I'm DEFINITELY going to have to try this recipe!

Caroline said...

These remind me of a treat I know as 'Congo Bars,' though the congo bars don't have peanut butter. They are a staple here, and I'm sure the addition of peanut butter would make everyone go even more wild over them!

Beautiful pictures, what a talented friend!

Feast on the Cheap said...

Oh boy, it's way too close to lunchtime to look at these bars. Yum!

TheJames said...

I know some of those great ladies that you visited in Kansas! How come I haven't met you? We've been in Utah for almost 5 years. Haven't been back, unfortunately.

Katrina said...

Laurie--I even know your name is Laurie, right? I always heard lots about you guys in our five years in Lawrence. Man, I love those people there, especially those ladies! I heard we moved there like a month after you guys left. In fact, one of my roommates at BYU was Jennifer (Bruce's wife). When I told her we were moving to Lawrence, she told me about you guys and your house for sale. We bought a house not too far from where you were, right off Wakarusa, just on the other side of Wakarusa from where Bishop (Steve) Gill was. We moved there June 2005 (around the end of June).

My husband was a professor in the business school in accounting there, but did not get tenure. We were sad to leave. He had been the bishop for just over two years before we left. Jeff Felmlee is the bishop now and GR Gordon Ross is the bishop of the Wakarusa ward. You probably keep in touch with enough people that you already knew that. After we moved there I served in the RS pres. with Julie Cook and Mindy Bash. Love those two. We moved not long after Julie was diagnosed with breast cancer. My husband is now at UVU (and loving being there). We are happy to be back in Utah, but I dearly miss KS. I got to go back for a little mom R&R a few weeks ago while my husband had spring break. So fun to be with those ladies again.

Anyway, you got more than an earful than you expected, huh. How did you find this post/my blog? Are you guys in Utah County? I thought Jen told me you were at Utah State, but that may be wrong. We bought a house in Eagle Mountain. Nice chattin'.

Katrina