Raw Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Happy Monday Bloggie Friends!  How are you today?  How was your weekend?  Mine was great!  Let me count the ways.  Some of the cool things included getting together with fellow blogger Madeline, like I mentioned I would be.  Here's a few pics from our coffee outing.

Skylar with me today and 2 year olds generally last about 3.478 minutes in coffee shops.  Skylar lasted over an hour which was great, but Madeline was awesome with her and humored Skylar by drawing and playing along with Skylar's "artwork". 

She even let Skylar try on her cool yellow shades.

Next time, it will be just the Adult Girls for maybe some shopping time, too.  Yay!  Girl time recharges my batteries, big time.  Madeline is an ultimate sweetheart, totally patient, and I love getting together my new local BFF!  Hugs, Sweetie!

During the rest of the weekend, I whipped up a few creative vegan chocolate treats, and taught yoga, which still has me grinning from ear to ear!  Tell me about how your weekend unfolded and what kinda trouble you got into stayed out of.

Thanks for the great feedback on enjoying my Weekly Highlights & Recap post that I did.  I'm glad you liked everything from Dark Chocolate Fudge Balls

To Kale Salads

To Raw Vegan Apple Crumble

And a big Congrats to the Winner of the $25 EcoStore USA Gift Certificate...Enjoy it, Sweetie!

But it's a new week and time to start fresh, so here's a few things I made this weekend...

Butterfinger Oats
1/3 c dry oats, 2/3 c water (could use almond milk but I didn't have any open), and then added cinnamon, brown sugar, butterscotch chips, and a smashed mini-Butterfinger (we're slowly making our way through the excess Halloween candy I purchased.  At this rate we should have it done by Halloween 2010.)

For one of our din-dins I took some of the never-ending bounty of potatoes that I bought on my TJ's Grocery Haul and cut up some red potatoes + yukon golds, mini-carrots, doused with EVOO, S & P, 1 Tsp Ground Ginger (ginger is a great tenderizer and flavor booster)

Roasted at 400F for about 40 minutes

And served the roasted veggies along side a Hugh Jass Pea kinda Salad of greens, cukes, carrots, tomatoes, peppers with some of my Homemade High Raw Vegan Slaw Dressing

So after all those taters and green goodness, it was time for dessert.  Enter my newest, super easy, 3-ingredient (raw) vegan dessert.  No fancy appliances needed.  A spoon will do.  Curious? 

Averie's (Raw if You Want) 3-Ingredient, 10-Minute Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
1/2 c melted chocolate (i.e. 2 Full-Size Squares of Melted Baker's Brand Chocolate because it's dairy-free, or melt 1/2 c Chocolate Chips, or a Cocoa Powder/Agave/Coconut Oil Mix)

2 Tbsp Peanut Butter
1/2 Tsp Nooch (i.e. Nutritional Yeast)
Yields: 2 Peanut Butter Cups.  Intentionally a very small recipe, feel free to mass-produce.

First, melt your chocolate (Raw Foodies, use whatever ratios of raw cocoa powder, agave, & coconut oil suits you to keep it raw).  I use the 45 seconds in the microwave trick and melted about 1/4 c worth, which is 1 Baker's Chocolate Full-Sized Square. (You'll melt the other square later).

Then, take paper muffin liners and Pour the Melted Chocolate in, just coating the bottom of the liners. 

Mix up the Filling
2 Tbsp PB + 1/2 Tsp Nooch
Optional: Dash of Salt, Dash of Agave, Dash of Vanilla Extract.  This is to your taste and highly subjective, so do as you wish friends, but I think my version is quite Reese's-like.

If you're having a hard time getting your nooch well-incorporated into your PB, zap in the micro for 15 seconds.

I love how the nooch actually gives the PB that barely there, ever-so-slight chunky factor like the filling in Reese's Cups is.

Spoon the Filling into the now-hardened (or somewhat hardened) Chocolate Layer

Pour more Chocolate over the Top.  I melted up 1 more square now. 

Transfer your cups carefully to a plate

Put them in the Fridge to Harden Fully

And look at how chilly & yummy that looks!

Unwrap & Notice the rippled or ruffled Reese's-like edges.

I normally would just make teeth marks, but I used a knife to show you the inner workings of my Vegan PB Cups.

Kinda Highly Addictive.  But the fun stuff usually is.  Feel free to make a larger batch.  There are lots of pics, but the whole thing took less than 10 minutes of active cooking time.  You just have to let them firm up, and I bet that could happen in 15 minutes in the freezer.  So, you're less than a half hour away from homemade vegan PB Cups!!  What are you waiting for?

They are rich, smooth, and even more satisfying because you made them yourself.  And, you can feel awesome knowing there are no yucky ingredients in them.  And did I mention the pretty rippled edges.  Love those.


Yoga Today is Lolasana (Scale Pose)

Question of the Day: To Say Something or Not...
Couple random things.  I see an older man, probably in his 70s, out smoking nearly every morning when I go on a little run around my neighborhood.  I see him flick his cigarette butt with a cigarette that's halfway still burning so the fire-hazard not withstanding, and I'm not judging him for smoking, just the littering.  Do you say something to him, like hey dude stop flickin' butts because your littering is nasty.  Or, ignore because he's likely been doing it for a half century and nothing's going to change him anyway.

And, in Barnes & Noble this weekend I saw a woman literally dragging her 4 year old son by his armpit.  About to dislocated the kid's shoulder.  I will admit, the kid was being a total brat and as a mom, we've all had our moments when we want to do that, but don't.  Ever.  Do you say to her, hey lady, chill out... or just ignore them and their own family showdown.  As a mom, I ignored because this lady was clearly having more of a moment than her son was, but I have to wonder if that's how they act in public, what do they do behind closed doors?

So on matters like these, do you butt in (pun intended), and say something, or do you just mind your business and keep to yourself?  Thoughts please!

Stay Tuned For A Few Cherry Things...