Trick or Treat! Peanut and Pumpkin Butter Cups

So in honor of the rescheduling of Halloween because of Sandy, I decided to make Peanut Butter cups, and since I've been on my pumpkin kick I through in some pumpkin ones, too!
The recipe is super simple. I altered the original recipe it a little to make it somewhat healthier and fit the ingredients I had in my room.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:Peanut Butter Cups:

• 1/2 cup (125 grams) creamy peanut butter

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

• Approx. 1/3 cup (55 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar (I put in the half a cup the original recipe called for, but thought it was too sweet and had to counter it with more PB and cocoa powder, so maybe start with less and add to taste. If it's sweet enough, but not thick enough, add cocoa powder)

Combine the PB ingredients by microwaving a bit to help the PB and coconut oil mix better. I did mine for 30 seconds 2 or 3 times.

Pumkin Butter Cups:

• Use the same pumpkin butter I've been using all week :) (You might want to sub powdered sugar for the agave so it's a little thicker, but I think it will work with the agave too. Stevia should work as well)

Chocolate Coating:

• Approximately 18ish ounces of semisweet chocolate chips (I had no way to measure ounces from my giant costco bag of chocolate chips)

• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil

If you don't like dark chocolate, you might want to sub out half or all of the chocolate with milk chocolate. I LOVE dark chocolate plus it's healthier for you, so I used only semisweet (yes I know semisweet isn't truly "dark", but for tis purpose it counts)

Instructions:

I didn't have a mini muffin pan, so I made GIANT PB cups in a cupcake pan. I melted the chocolate mixture in the microwave, poured some into the bottom of the cupcake liners, put a spoonful of the PB mixture or Pumpkin butter on top...

...and then top it off with more chocolate (enough so that the filling is covered). You can flatten out the top of the cup but holding the edge of the liner and shimmying it back and forth a bit. 

Then put it in the freezer or the fridge for a bit to cool, and there you go! They'll take less than half an hour to harden in the freezer.
Mine were too frozen when I pulled them out, so I'm not sure how long they actually take.I decided my cups had too much chocolate to PB ratio, so you might want to make sure either your chocolate layers are fairly thin and/or you add a very large spoonful of PB.

These were a hit! My friend Abdul said they were the best thing I've made all year! I responded that they're also the least healthy thing I've made all year, but hey, sometimes it's good to treat yourself! It's still a million times better for you than all the deserts at the dining hall.

Here's the original recipe (in case you were wondering)

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Cups:

1/2 cup (125 grams) creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (55 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar

Chocolate Coating:

9 ounces (255 grams) semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

9 ounces (255 grams) milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon (10 grams) shortening

Instructions:

Peanut Butter Cups: Line 36 miniature muffin cups with paper liners.

Place the peanut butter, unsalted butter, and salt in a microwaveable bowl, and heat in the microwave for about one minute or just until soft, but not melted (check and stir the ingredients every 20 seconds). Stir in the confectioners sugar.

Melt the chocolates and shortening in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water.

Drop a teaspoon of the melted chocolate into each of the paper lined miniature muffin cups. Top with a scant teaspoon of peanut butter mixture. Then top with another teaspoon of melted chocolate. Refrigerate until set. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin Schmere

So I bought a thing of cashew nut butter from Fairway a while back, and I decided to mix my pumpkin butter into it. It was amazing!! I literally couldn't stop exclaiming "This is soo good!" But I couldn't share my excitement with anyone because none of friends like pumpkin apparently. Now I'm not one to buy into the whole vegan "cashews taste like cheese" thing, because cheese is magical and if it's not cheese usually it doesn't actually tastes like cheese. But this stuff actually almost tasted like pumpkin cream cheese! It was amazing, and simple! just the cashew butter and pumpkin butter mixed together. You could also use almond, peanut or any nut butter. Obviously the flavor would be different, but it'd probably still be delicious.

I ate mine with matzo and pretzel crisps, but it would go well with lots of things, maybe graham crackers, a bagel, or apples! I don't know. Get creative! Let me know what your favorit pumpkin treat is, or how you decide to use your pumpkin butter!

Pumpkin Lovin

So I'm kind of obsessed with pumpkin. I get so excited when pumpkin comes back to Starbucks. I literally walk into the store exclaiming, "Pumpkins back?! I'm so excited!!"

So in light of pumpkin season I bought a can of pumpkin and decided to make pumpkin butter.

This "recipe" is super simple. All I did was take my can of pumpkin and add cinnamon  nutmeg, allspice and ginger (aka pumpkin pie spice), agave, and vanilla. Just stir it up and keeping adding stuff til you like the taste. 

And enjoy....

I can just eat it with a fork, but I also have other things I'm planning to try...

- Pumpkin microwave muffcake (aka a muffin in mug, or microwave muffin, but I don't really think it tastes like a muffin, so I decided to give it a new name)

- Pumpkin chia seed pudding

- Pumpkin spice late

- Pumpkin cereal (I made this last year and was obsessed)

- Pumpkin cashew butter dip

Any other ideas?

Blogglovin

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I love Blogglovin! It makes it so easy to follow blogs! I get an email from them daily with the posts from the blogs I've followed, and it's set up really nicely with a picture, the title of the post, the blog it was posted in and a little blurb about the post.
Now you can follow me on Blogglovin!

Campus Vegan Experiment Day 4 & 5

Sorry I didn't post this earlier. It's been like a week since I was a vegan. I've been going crazy with my waitressing job and not having time to do anything.
So I went home for my last days as a vegan, so they don't really contribute to the experiment, but here it is anyway:

More soy, fruit, and peanut butter for breakfast, but that day I had rice crispy's and cinnamon raisin toast

Chia seeds with passion fruit juice and water. Obviously not found in the dining hall, but it's great power food

Then I went home and my dad's girlfriend... oh excuse me, his fiance (they just got engaged :)), made me breaded eggplant with tomatoes and spinach...

And acorn squash with coconut oil, and agave I think

In the morning an almond milk latte from my dad's fancy espresso machine...

and these amazing chocolate banana Peanut Butter Pancakes! MB is amazing!

For lunch she made this squash and spinach puff pastry which was so delicious and I was so surprised it didn't have butter!

Anyway my last couple days didn't really further the experiment, but I'm seriously reconsidering starting it back up because I feel so much better when I'm not eating all of the crappy food on campus. I'll post more about what I learned from the experiment soon!

Campus vegan experiment day 3

Here's what I ate today...
Pumpkin bagel with PB

Oatmeal and PB (and sweetened a little, I used stevia) and fruit

Some of this microwave apple cobbler thing I made (recipe to come)

Hummus and tabbouleh wrap from cafe diem

And my go to after work meal, rice beans and guacamole.
Then I made more of that cobbler for everyone and ate lots of that. It's pretty darn delicious! And my friend Katie who's allergic to nuts and raw fruit among other things, was able to eat it.
PS I'm posting this on the blogger ap and it doesn't give you much control with the pictures, so sorry they're in reverse order.

Campus Vegan Experiment

I am not a vegan because I don't have the will-power to do that permanently give up cheese, but I fully believe that if make sure you have a balanced diet, veganism allows your body to run so much smoother. I have done cleanses were I was vegan for extended amounts of time and I had so much more energy. Anyway, although I myself am not a vegan I believe that it should be possible to be a healthy vegan on campus without making all your own meals and still have some variety.
so i decided to do an experiment. Become a vegan on campus for a week and see what options the dining locations provide.
So I'm now onto day 3, but here's what I ate days 1 & 2 and I'll post day 3 tonight.
Day 1

Breakfast: oatmeal with syrup, fruit of the day/ honeydew, coffee with chocolate soy 

Lunch: salad with veggies chickpeas and oil and vinegar, vegetable rissotto (which i want to double check that it was really vegan because it didn't seem like it), pineapple. and french fries (I shouldn't have had these but the computer asked me if I wanted them)

Dinner: Flour tortillas all night during work, and chips guacamole and black beans to take home (I'm a server at On The Border)

Day 2:
Accidentally slept late, so just a raw revolution bar for breakfast

Lunch part 1: tabula, veggies and hummus, and this curry rice with asparagus

I didn't like the tabula, so...

Lunch part 2: Vegetable fried rice with brocoli, bean sprouts, water chesnuts, and bamboo strips (I didn't like the bamboo strips, but the rest was really good)

"Desert": Banana and apple with peanut butter