For the peanut butter lovers...

It's that time again... the baking of goodies for Jeff to bring in to his coworkers for Wednesday Treat Day. Like last week, I ended up choosing a bar cookie. This one, despite the name, is a little too rich to eat at breakfast.

The recipe's name, Breakfast Crunch Bars, is not suggesting to eat them at breakfast, rather it is more of a description of one ingredient used. Breakfast comes from the use of a morning cereal - Rice Krispies. If you are a fan of peanut butter, I highly recommend this recipe as it has 1 1/2 cups throughout! The cookie starts out as a buttery base with a rich peanut butter flavor. Dark chocolate and peanut butter are melted together in one bowl and Butterscotch chips with more peanut butter are melted in another. Rice Krispies are mixed into both and then each is spread onto half of the large base.

The bars do take awhile to set up, but can be cleanly cut into squares once ready. The Rice Krispies stay very crunchy and I like how each side has it's own intense flavor. Next time I might divide the chocolate/butterscotch mixture into stripes so you get a little of each in the squares. If you don't have Rice Krispies around, these would be just as good with crushed cornflakes!

A couple dishes for dinner tonight. We started out with a take on creamed spinach. Individual Spinach-Asiago Gratins have a creamy inside which contrasts well against a crunchy panko crust. This was a first for us tonight (creamed spinach that is) and it took a few bites to get used to the texture. I'm not sure if I would have liked it as much without the panko crust on top though. The asiago cheese punched up the flavor just enough even though only an ounce is used. Overall this was quite good once we got used to the texture!

I also made Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Dried Fruit which was served over Whole Wheat couscous since it was pretty saucy. The original recipe called for a pre-packaged 7 ounce mixture of fruit bits, but I just chopped up what I had on hand. I used dried apples, cherries, pineapple, apricots and golden raisins. Once the chops are cooked, shallots are added and then chicken broth and the dried fruit. It is left to simmer, covered, for a couple of minutes so the fruit can absorb some of the liquid and plump up. The sweetness from the fruit went quite well with the tender and juicy chops. This is such a fast dish to prepare, so make sure you have everything ready to go and it can be made in just minutes!

Recipes
Breakfast Crunch Bars
Individual Spinach-Asiago Gratins
Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Dried Fruit