MamaStephF's Blog

What a busy weekend I just had; my oldest son graduated from high school, and all the things that go along with that kept us running from here to there on Friday and Saturday.  What a blessing to be his mom and see him growing into such a great young man.   I am so proud of him!

Justin is one of the reasons that I have spent so much time over the years learning to cook! When I got married I was 23, and had a few recipes that I knew how to make well, but as boys kept joining our family, I knew I was going to have to spend more time in the kitchen expanding my repertoire.  I have loved almost every minute of it.  Disasters excluded.  ;)

I needed an easy recipe for my segment on KLTV this morning after such a busy weekend. That made me start thinking about all of you working moms and grandmoms out there who would like to bake for the kids, but who are so busy (and tired!) that you can’t make it happen.  I found this recipe on one of my  latest & favorite blog discoveries, Southern Plate.  She came up with this recipe for peanut butter bars that require no baking at all; it can all be done in the microwave! I loved it because of that, and because of how much I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate.  Don’t you?  These taste like a certain candy of peanut butter/chocolate fame, minus a bit of the greasiness, in my opinion. They’re wonderful.

And did I mention easy?  

They are so easy, in fact, that after you make them, you’ll have so much extra time that you’ll be able to enter my drawing to win this adorable set of ceramic measuring cups for your kitchen! They’re summer-y and cute as a ladybug on a petunia petal!  ;)

The sizes of the measuring cups are 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup, and 1/4 cup.  They look like bright, shiny slices of summery watermelon.  I’d love to give them to you!

There are a few ways to enter the drawing:

1.  Go to In the Kitchen with Mama Steph on Facebook and click “like” at the top of the page. If you have already done that, you can just leave me a comment there on the page. It’ll count!

2.  Go to In the Kitchen with Mama Steph on KLTV7.com.   Click on the current day’s video segment and leave a comment in the form at the bottom.  (Each day that you do this, through Thursday, counts as another entry; one per day only.)

(Contest open to residents of the 48 contiguous United States only. Enter through Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 12 midnight CST.)

That’s it! See how easy? And I saved you all the time to do it by sharing this easy, scrumptious recipe with you.  Try it out!

Today’s video on KLTV’s Good Morning East Texas: No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

(Via southernplate.com)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups peanut butter  (I used smooth)
• 2- 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Place all ingredients except the chocolate chips in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave until butter and peanut butter are melted, one to two minutes (time will vary by microwave).

Remove from microwave and use a large spoon to stir all of the ingredients together until they form a ball of dough that leaves the side of the bowl. Pat into a 9×13 pan.

Pour chocolate chips into another microwave safe bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring after each, until completely melted. Spoon over top of peanut butter mixture and spread evenly.

Allow to cool completely at room temperature until chocolate hardens again or place in the refrigerator for faster hardening. Cut into squares and serve.  Enjoy!

(p.s. I thought crumbling pretzels into the top of the soft chocolate would be good, too. I look forward to trying that out soon.)

I hope you’ll try these out soon, and that you will enter to win my first giveaway! Good luck!