Happy Friday! Do you ever do something that may seem really small to others, but is a huge and exciting deal for you? Well I’ve been making a LOT of teeny tiny changes lately (hello new e-mail!) that I am completely thrilled about, including this series, Catch It In Connecticut — keep scrolling to get the scoop!
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
**UPDATE (January 2015): I recently made this again, and have adjusted the ingredients & measurements below**
If I had to pick my favorite genre of food, it’d be Mexican…hands down! Unfortunately, it’s not exactly the healthiest of options. Tonight I made one of my typical “cooking for one” go-to meals…which I feel is a tad bit Mexican-ish LOL.
I usually make a Veggie patty or Lean Cuisine spring rolls with black beans and a vegetable. Last minute, I decided to switch things up a bit, and the results were nothing short of amazing. Check it out 🙂
I steamed some fresh broccoli and cooked up my Lean Cuisine Garlic Chicken Spring Rolls. 1 serving is 3 rolls, but I only eat 1 1/2, and usually keep the other half for lunch.
I adore rice, if I could eat a giant bowl of pilaf for dinner every night, I would. I cannot give it up completely so I’ve switched to whole grain brown rice…which is just as tasty.
I went to go make my black beans when I remembered a Refried Beans recipe that Miss Jenny AKA @TofuSwag had recently posted. The lovely Cait Plus Ate made the dish this past weekend, and had simply raved about it in a post this morning! I scurried through our cabinets and what do you know…I actually had all of the ingredients! It was fate 🙂
Cooking up some black beans…pre-mashed:
These smelled so yummy! I love refried beans, but I’ve never actually made them, I was surprised by how quick and easy it was!
And dinner is served! Generous portion of fresh broccoli, scoop of amazing homemade refried beans (so much flavor!), scoop of whole grain rice pilaf topped with 1 1/2 chopped lean cuisine spring rolls 🙂
When I know that I’m making some extra food I like to package up a to-go container for lunch the next day.
Even though this was a fairly typical dinner for me, I loved being able to switch it up a bit! There’s nothing better than finding yummy new recipes from some of my favorite bloggers that I end up genuinely liking! Keep ’em coming everyone!! 😉
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OH! Can’t end a post without a shot of my nails! I’ve been a little out of control with my manicures the past 3 days…
Sunday morning I painted them “You’re Such a Sweet-Tart” from Gelish’s Candyland collection…
The color wasn’t horrible, but it reminded me of the slime on Nickelodeon and I couldn’t image staring at this color for 2 weeks LOL.
Sunday night I painted them with Gelish “Rendezvous” topped with a coat of Wet N’ Wild glitter…
Tonight I was so over that color too, so I painted them with Gelish Light Elegant. My friend Kyra had texted me a picture of the polish yesterday and I had to pick it up!
This is such a simple, but gorgeous color that I KNOW I will be able to stand it for a couple of weeks. Lord knows my nails need a break!
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