Easy/No-bake Whipped Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients

½ C peanut butter

½ C cream cheese, softened/room temp

1 C powdered sugar

1 C heavy whipping cream*

1 tsp vanilla

pinch salt

1 9-inch pie crust: graham cracker or chocolate cookie crust

Optional toppings (or mix-ins): Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, mini chocolate chips, chopped peanuts, chocolate fudge sauce...

* You can substitute 8 oz frozen whipped topping to save time (sacrificing real cream), but since it is presweetened, reduce the powdered sugar to ½ cup.

Directions

Combine peanut butter, cream cheese and ½ cup powdered sugar, mixing until very smooth.

In a separate bowl, whip heavy cream to firm peaks with remaining powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Fold in peanut butter mixture.

If desired, spread some chopped Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (or other mix-ins) on the bottom of the crust or gently stir into peanut butter filling. Pour peanut butter filling into crust, spreading gently to an even thickness. If desired, sprinkle with extra toppings and/or drizzle with chocolate fudge sauce.

Keep refrigerated.

Vadouvan Chicken Salad (Sandwich)

Vadouvan is a French spice mix similar to curry. Vadouvan is a bit milder and since I'm a wimp when it comes to hot spice I tend to prefer vadouvan. You could substitute curry in this recipe and be just fine; either spice is not overpowering with everything else in the mix. I like this in a sandwich, but it'd be fine on a bed of greens as a salad on its own.

Ingredients

1½ lb chicken breast, cooked, diced

1 apple, peeled, cored, diced

3 green onions, chopped

½ C peanuts* chopped

½ C dried cranberries (or golden raisins)

2/3 C grapes (green or red), quartered

¾ C mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip, etc.)

1 tsp vadouvan

¾ tsp salt

* I use peanuts because I have a tree nut allergy. Cashews or pecans would be more common here.

Directions

Season teh chicken breast with salt & pepper, cook, cool and dice. While it's cooling, do all the other dicing, chopping and quartering. TIP: Next time I make mine, I'll dice things smaller; I imagined if would be nice to bite into good chunks, but they just kept falling out of my sandwich! 

In a medium bowl, tossed chicken, apple, onion, peanuts, cranberries and grapes. 

In a small bowl, stir vadouvan and salt into mayonnaise; then, fold into chicken mixture. Season with extra salt if needed.  ...or more vadouvan if the flavor is milder than you'd like.

P.S. This picture isn't an original of mine. I'll try to remember to TAKE one next time I mix up a batch of this!

Monte Cristo Crepes

This is more of a reminder than an actual recipe. The inspiration came from Food Network Magazine (October 2015...I was recylcing old magazines at school). You can find their recipe here. I just made crêpes from my go-to crêpe recipe, and layered and folded in ham, turkey and swiss cheese. Swiss is traditional, though the Food Network recipe calls for muenster, and any melt-y cheese could work. I covered them, so they wouldn't dry out, and popped them in the oven (350°) just long enough to melt the cheese. The dipping sauce is a mix of raspberry jam and dijon mustard. I dusted mine with powdered sugar which is often included with a Monte Cristo. Serving it with a green salad kept it from being too overly indulgent.

Ingredients

crêpes

thin sliced ham

thin sliced turkey

thin sliced swiss

seedless raspberry jam

dijon mustard

powdered sugar