It's a good thing this isn't a health food blog!

 Because I wouldn't have been able to post these AMAZING brownies.  We had some company coming over Labor day so I asked the kids what treats we should make.  They all said we should try something new.  I have a list of new recipes I'd like to try and the kids picked these brownies out.  I have to say it was a winner! Good enough that I had to share with all of you.  These would be the perfect snack for the kids as they get off the bus.  Oh how I'm ready for back to school. I know many of my readers have sent their kids off to school already but here in Minnesota we always start after Labor day.  And this year it's not until Thursday!  Lucky for me I have enough time to whip up another batch of these bars before then!

Peanut butter layer brownies
1- 9x13 pan brownies baked- go ahead use your own mix or a box!
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1.5 cups of your favorite add in (mini Reese's pieces, M&M's, mini chocolate chips, crushed cookies ect)

First bake up your pan of brownies and let them completely cool.  That seems pretty easy right?!

Next place your softened butter and peanut butter in a bowl and mix.  You can do this by hand too, I just toss it in my handy mixer. 

 Toss in your sugars and mix for a minute or two until it's fluffy.  

Then it's time to add the milk and vanilla.   

 Once those are creamed together, it's time to add in your flour and mix.  It should be nice and thick now like cookie dough. Go ahead and give it a try!  YUM right?!  Oh and this is safe to eat just like this since there is no raw eggs.  Yes I'm thinking of making this as a mommy treat too when the kids go to school sans brownies!  Perhaps even freeze them in little balls and leave in the freezer for when I need something sweet.

Once all of that is mixed up it's time to add in the goodies, about a cup to cup and a half of them! I choose these fun mini Reese's pieces in cute fall colors. I love fall and I'm ready for it to be here! Mix what ever add in you choose with the rest of the peanut butter dough. 

Then take the dough and press it on top of the brownies.  Give it a good pat down to make sure the 2 layers will stick together.  No need to bake, just slice them up.  Don't they look good?  They will amaze you.  Oh and yes they are quite rich. I cut a few bars this size below and I had to go back and make them smaller yet. Even Little Miss Bacon who is all sweet tooth said they were too big and sweet for her at first!  Enjoy your bars, let me know if you made them for after school snack and how it went!

Can't get online, better bake some bars

It feels good to be back online!  The other day our power cord died for our computer! It wasn't quite unexpected since we've had to wiggle it around for the past few weeks to get it to show up as plugged in.  But I didn't plan for it to completely stop working like it did, and being unprepared I didn't have a back up plug either.  After calling around to different places I found they are not cheap to replace at about $70!  Thankfully I did more digging before sending Mr. Bacon off to buy a new one.  Turns out after a quick search from my phone on amazon, I found one for under $15.  A couple clicks and it was on it's way.  Of course it didn't arrive when they said it would, but an extra day delay and a $55 savings wasn't too bad for my pocketbook.

But what to do when you have a few extra days to be unplugged?  Since the weather was beautiful in Minnesota the kids and I decided to bake.  One of our favorite activities.  We baked up some of Mr. Bacon's favorites, sinckerdoodles.  And for dinner we decided to make pizza puffs, which are often requested around here!  But I wanted something else, with chocolate.

I dug around the cupboard and noticed I already had everything for making bars.  What kind? They are called 'Can't leave alone bars', or 'better than xxx bars'.   But one name was too big of a name for the kids to say and the other not appropriate so we renamed them Miracle bars. Why? Because it's a miracle if there are any left at the end of the day when after you made them! Yes they are that good!

Want to know how to bake up your own?

Miracle bars

What you need:
Box of white cake mix (ignore the instructions on the back)
1 cup chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated!)
1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)

2 eggs
1/3 cup oil

In mixing bowl place cake mix, eggs and oil.  Mix until dough forms

In microwave safe bowl place sweet milk, butter and chocolate chips. Microwave until the chocolate chips are melted. For me that was about a minute.  Mix well to combine everything.

Now it's time to assemble the bars.  Take 2/3 of the dough and press it into the bottom of a well greased 9x13 pan.  I like to get my hands a bit wet with water, not quite damp but not so the water is running off them either.  Wet hands will allow you to press the dough into the pan and not have it stick to you. Some people flour their hands, that's too much mess for me! Once the dough is in the bottom, pour your chocolate mixture over it. 

Next with wet hands again, pinch off a ball of dough from what is remaining in the bowl.  There is no exact amount, I'd say less than golf ball size.  Take the ball and press it flat between your hands.  Take the dough and then lay it on top of the chocolate.  Don't worry if it looks odd shaped, rips or tears while you place it on. I promise it will still taste great!  If you want to be really creative you can roll out this dough and use cookie cutters to make shapes to lay on the chocolate too!  Continue to do this until all the dough is used up. 

  

Bake them in a 350* oven for 20-25 minutes until the tops turn golden brown.  Let cool completely before cutting.  Yes that is the gooey chocolate I was talking about! ENJOY!

"Mom, can I have a snack?"

How often do you hear that?! What does your snack shelf look like? One thing you won't find in our shopping cart on grocery day is a lot of processed and prepackaged snacks. Nope, there's no chips, no prepackaged or bakery cookies, candies, or fruit snacks (ok usually it's rare when we do buy these things, but I admit we all get a 'treat' once in a while). Around our house, our snacks are pretty simple or homemade. Today we made peanut butter crispy bars. And they were a huge hit!

We had all the ingredients on hand which made it a bit easier to make ( I will admit, this is one of our more spendy snacks if I had to go buy all these items at once but they taste so YUMMY, the kids have fun helping out and they're still cheaper then buying something similar already made at the store!). This is all we needed. And the kids had fun helping out making them too.

Peanut butter Krispy bars:
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup light corn syrup
1 cup PB
6 cups rice crispy type cereal (or special K or cherrios also work)
1 cup chocolate chips
1 Cup butterscotch chips

Melt sugar and corn syrup in kettle on stove, just until dissolved, take off heat and mix in 1 cup peanut butter. Pour over cereal and mix. Press into a greased 9x13 pan. When Cooled, melt both chips in microwave safe container until melted, spread over top of bars like frosting. Once cool- ENJOY!

Want a treat that's just as yummy but a bit cheaper? How about just some plan rice crispy bars?! For about $2 you can make a whole pan of bars yourself, you'd spend almost twice that buying a little box of 6 pre-wrapped one's in the store.

Rice crispy bar treats

6 cups rice crispy type cereal
1 bag of marshmallows (large or small work)
1/2 stick butter

Melt butter and marshmallows in microwave safe bowl for about 1-2 min until butter is melted, Mix together. Pour over cereal and mix completely. Press into greased 9x13 pan and let cool. Enjoy!

These are great in the summer because I don't have to heat up my oven to make them, helping it stay cooler inside!

But it's not every day we bake some kind of yummy treat. Other snacks in our house include pudding and Jello, but not those store bought, pre-made kind that cost about a buck a 4-pack (you're thinking, but it's ONLY a dollar- it still adds up!) For about .50 a I can buy a box of Jello or pudding mix. And last year I invested in some small containers that work out perfect for the right size snack. These are tupperware snack containers, I bought a big lot (20 of them!) off ebay for a great price. Well worth it, my kids use these all the time.

One box of pudding mix makes up 5 little containers like these. Best thing is the pudding is made with milk, so I know my kids are also getting some much needed calcium too!

Here is a list of some of the other things we have on hand for snack time:

• Fruit or veggies
  
• dry cereal- cherrios are a huge hit with Little Miss Bacon and Little boy Bacon
• Animal crackers
  
• homemade cookies-I get about 3-4 dozen from a batch for less than the bakery price of 12!
• Yogurt
• homemade popsicles (from juice, kool-aid, yogurt or pudding)
• homemade trail mix: peanuts, raisins, a handful of chocolate chips or m&m's. Don't have a nut eater or have small kids, make a trail mix out of cereal instead of the nuts
• crackers
• home made chex mix
  

This is just a short list of some of the snacks we have. By making our own at home instead of buying store bought items, we keep to our budget and save money.