Peanut Butter Overnight Oats

I love overnight oats. It’s a quick meal that you can throw together the day before and have something delicious and hearty to wake up to in the morning with no work. This recipe uses peanut butter, which gives it an extra dose of protein to help keep you full until lunchtime. Feel free to use whatever kind of nut butter you like.

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 1 Tablespoon peanut butter (or other nut butter)
• 1 ½ teaspoons honey (or sweetener of choice)
• ⅛ teaspoon salt (optional)
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla (also optional)
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 Tablespoons quick oats
• 3 Tablespoons old fashioned oats or other rolled cereal
• ⅓ - ⅔ cups milk (any kind of milk will work) 

You might have noticed there seems to be a theme to this recipe. Basically, it’s really flexible. I’m going to show you what I used, but feel free to adjust it to your liking. First up, put the peanut butter, cinnamon, salt, and honey into a container with a lid. As I said before, feel free to use any kind of nut butter you like. I used crunchy peanut butter to add a little bit of well… crunch. You can also use agave or stevia for the sweetener, if you prefer it. I just love peanut butter and honey together, though.

Last goes the vanilla. I’ve said it’s optional, but I highly recommend it.

Stir that all together. I always use natural peanut butter which is much runnier than conventional. If you’re using one that’s thicker, you might need to microwave it for a few seconds to make it easier to stir everything together.

For the cereal, I like to use a combination of quick oats and this 5 grain rolled hot cereal. For me, it creates the perfect texture.

Whatever kind of rolled cereal you choose to use, add a total of 6 Tablespoons of it.

Stir until it’s nicely coated with the peanut butter mixture.  

Next up is the milk. I’m lactose intolerant, so my favorites are either Organic Valley, lactose free skim milk, or rice milk. If you like one of the other countless milks, any of them will work just fine. As for the amount, if you like your cereal drier go with the lesser amount and if you like it wetter, go with more. I like mine on the wet side so I added a little over ½ cup. Whatever you choose, pour it over the cereal mixture.

Stir that together.

To give you a frame of reference, I had about ½ inch of milk over the top of the oats. Put the lid on and place the container in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, it will still be in layers a bit. Don’t panic.

Just give it a quick stir, and it will be fabulous! Seriously, you’ll be surprised how delicious something that simple can be. And if you don’t typically like hot cereal or oatmeal, you should give this a try. It’s a whole different experience.

What’s your favorite weekday breakfast?

Extra Special K Bars

Growing up we had bars similar to these but they were made with Rice Krispies and they were called Scotcheroos. Well, a local bakery sells Special K bars, which, as the name implies, are made with Special K Cereal. Apparently, in some parts of the country, that’s how they’re always made. Who knew? Both varieties are basically a chewy, crispy, peanut butter bar, topped with chocolate, butterscotch topping. For me, that’s where they have always come up a bit short. Butterscotch chips have a very strong, artificial flavor and smell about them. So much so, that Hubby hates it when I buy one from the bakery because my whole kitchen will smell like them. Well, I have discovered a delicious alternative, and as usual, the homemade version beats out any I’ve had before.

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 6 cups Special K Cereal
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup syrup
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cups milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup Ghirardelli Caramel chips 

I realize the ingredient “syrup” sounds a bit vague. The thing is, I don’t use corn syrup. Ordinarily, I use brown rice syrup, but when I was at Target picking up ingredients, they didn’t have that, but did have Sugar in the Raw Cane Syrup. I’ve never seen that before, so I thought I’d give it a try. It worked wonderfully and tastes way better than corn syrup. That being said, if the only thing you can find is corn syrup, it will work.

First up, measure your cereal into a really big bowl and set it aside. (keep in mind, you’ll need plenty of room for stirring)

Next, put the sugar, syrup, and butter into a pan over medium low heat.

Here’s the secret to bars that are deliciously soft and chewy... don’t overcook the syrup. When I was researching recipes, the most common question I came across was, “Why are my bars always hard?” I’ve seen some recipes that say to boil the mixture for 3-5 minutes… nope. That’s just asking for bars you’ll break your teeth on. Basically, you want the sugar to be dissolved, and it’s ok if it just barely starts to bubble. If you're having trouble getting all of the sugar to dissolve without it boiling, add 1-2 tablespoons of water. That way you can cook it longer and/or bring it to a boil without overcooking it. 

Turn off the heat and add the peanut butter. Mine was a new bottle that hadn’t yet been refrigerated so it was of pouring consistency, which made for easy measuring, but not a very pretty picture.

Add the vanilla and stir until everything is incorporated.

Pour that over your waiting cereal.

Stir to coat all of the cereal. Keeping it all in the bowl, rather than all over the bar and floor, will be the hardest part. Just be patient and eventually it will all cooperate.

Glop it into a parchment lined 9x13 pan. Yes, glop is the appropriate term for that.

Press it into the pan, slowly working it toward the edges. If it’s cool enough, you can use your hands. Otherwise, a spatula will work fine, it will just take a little longer.

Now, onto the topping. Remember how I said I don’t care for butterscotch chips? Well, it turns out, Ghirardelli has started making caramel flavored chips, and they are delicious!

Place 1 cup of those and 1 ½ cups of milk chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl.

Nuke 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir… until it’s all melted and smooth.

Pour that over the bars. (Is it just me, or is there something seriously delectable about flowing chocolate?)

Spread that over the top, getting all the way to the corners. Then, another hard part, walk away and leave it to cool and set up. It will probably need a good 3 hours. You can speed it up by putting it in the fridge, but they’re better served at room temperature.

When they’re ready, go ahead and cut them into whatever size bars you want. I recommend small because I guarantee you’ll be coming back for a second, regardless of the size. As you can see, cutting is not my strong suit. Having two different sizes was done purposely because I needed some big ones for pictures, but not having one straight line in the bunch, well, that’s just how my brain works. I guess I’ll have to blame it on cooking while intoxicated again.

Regardless, they taste amazing! They are perfectly chewy, peanut buttery, and sweet, with a subtle underlying caramel flavor. And best of all, no artificial, butterscotch weirdness.

What’s your favorite childhood treat?

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