I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is only a week away! It seems like Halloween was just yesterday. Time is going by way too quickly – luckily, this is my favorite time of year and I cannot wait to indulge in all of the holiday traditions, recipes, movies, decorations & nail polishes 😉

Thanksgiving will be spent in New Jersey this year. My Aunt does an amazing job cooking for our large family. She takes so much pride in her recipes, place settings, centerpieces…literally everything! It makes the holiday extra special. I recently got our adorable invitation:

I LOVE that all of us “kids” are responsible for dessert…honestly, it’s really the only thing that I’m good at making anyways. I immediately knew what I wanted to bake this year & I thought that I would share the recipe here.

First off, have you ever seen a photo of something super delicious posted on Facebook with the complete recipe in the caption? Usually it’s been shared and “liked” by thousands of people. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but my friends & Aunts seem share them all of the time! There is never a link to a website or anything, it’s just all of the ingredients & instructions right there. Anyways, I like to screen shot & rename the files so I can make them at a later date.

About a year ago, I found a Peanut Butter cheesecake recipe and couldn’t wait to make it!

I whipped it up for my sisters birthday this past April, and loved it!

As a (borderline dangerous) chocolate/peanut butter lover – it was probably the most delicious dessert I’ve ever had – really, I still have dreams about it! It takes a bit of time to make and is very rich – not something you’d want to serve on the regular – so I decided that this Thanksgiving would be the perfect time to give it another go! (Plus, I know that everyone will have Apple/Pumpkin on the brain – so I figured I’d hit them with something different)!

I’m not going to make you take a screen shot of my blog, so I’ve typed up the recipe below (with a few alterations/changes that I recommend)! I hope you give it a try! Let me know how you like it 🙂

Frozen Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 1/2 cups rice crispy cereal

1 (8ounce) package cream cheese – softened

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup frozen whipped topping – thawed (I used cool whip)

2 tablespoons hot fudge sauce for decor

2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter for decor

Mini peanut butter cups for decor

Directions:

1) In a medium, microwave safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate chips in microwave for about 1 minute (or until melted). Stir together until combined. Add rice crispy cereal and stir well to coat.

2) Press coated cereal into the bottom and up the sides of a 9″ spring form pan (I used an aluminum pie dish  which worked fine). Place crust in the freezer to chill while you make the filling (about 10 minutes)

3) In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add the sweetened condensed milk and 3/4 cup of peanut butter – mix until thoroughly combined.

4) Add the vanilla and lemon juice to filling. Mix until combined.

5) Gently fold in the whipped topping. Once folded – pour the filling into the prepared pie crust

6) Heat the 2 tbsp’s of  fudge and peanut butter in two separate small bowls in the microwave for 20-30 seconds . Drizzle each over filling. (I used the Breyers Hot Fudge Topping that you microwave in its package & squeeze, but the peanut butter I spread with a fork)

7) Freeze for 4-6 hours or until pie is firm (I HIGHLY recommend freezing for longer – like, overnight. I made it about 8 hours before serving the first time & it was still far too mushy – however, the leftovers the next day were perfect!) Remove the cheesecake from the freezer for about 10 minutes before serving to make cutting easier.

8) Garnish with mini peanut butter cups. (I loved this part 🙂 )

ENJOY! XO