Entertaining + Fun: Easter Bunny Chow / Weekly Recap

Hey, Hey, Hey! Happy Saturday to you!!

Since we only have one more day till Easter, I figured I better get some Easter Bunny Chow ready so the Easter Bunny comes to my house and brings me lots of goodies. OK, I’m not talking about candy or colored eggs, but maybe the Easter Bunny can have breakfast ready for me when I get up? Ok, I’ll settle for a cup of coffee, and I mean a good one!! So what does one make in order to lure the Easter Bunny to your home? Well Easter Bunny Chow of course!

I really tried to make the Bunny Chow as healthy as I could, and I don’t think I did to bad! After all the Easter Bunny did tell me last year that he was watching his waistline and wanted me to go a little lighter this year, but not to light after all it is Easter and the Bunny needs energy to go to all the houses to deliver all those Easter baskets. So with that thought in mind, I decided to make, what else a peanut butter treat! After all even the Easter Bunny loves peanut butter! But that’s not all!! The peanut butter is mixed in with sweet white chocolate. Oh baby, that bunny is going to be one happy hopper!!

I couldn’t just give the bunny peanut butter and white chocolate mixture, though it is so good! I never had peanut butter and white chocolate together and let me tell you, it’s dangerous!!! The combination is amazing!! So instead of giving the Easter Bunny this wonderful combination, I used it to cover Puffins. I love Puffins! Have you every had them? It’s a cereal by Barbara Bakery Original Puffins. You can find it in the health food isle. They kind of remind me of Captain Crunch. However Chex cereal will work too!

Once I mixed the Puffins and the peanut butter mixture I added a few Easter Egg shape sprinkles, though they didn’t stick super great, but they are still cute!! You could use smaller sprinkles and that would work too!! Anyway, I added my mixture to a ziplock bag and poured two boxes of Sugar Free Instant Vanilla Pudding over the top and shook my booty until all of the puffins were covered!! I was doing the Bunny Hop as I was shaking!! Ok, I just realized I am soooooooo geeky!! Back to the Bunny Chow, next you lay your chow out on a baking sheet until it dries! Add a few M&M’s and maybe some more sprinkles and you are all good to lure the Easter Bunny to your home!! trust me it will work too! It lured Jenny to my kitchen and she thought I bought it! lol I told her I made it and she was shocked!

So what does Easter Bunny Chow taste like? First, you take a bite and you get the nice crunch with a sweet sugar taste, then the white chocolate hits your tongue and as your just about done chewing your Bunny Chow the peanut butter hits you! It’s quite amazing and quite addicting! I hope I have enough left for the Easter Bunny before I or Jenny eats it all!!

Sweet snack made with peanut butter and white chocolate covered cereal and topped with vanilla pudding.

⅓ cup peanut butter, creamy
¼ cup sprinkles (I used Easter Egg Shape)
2 pkg. Vanilla Instant Pudding, sugar free (1 oz pkgs.)
Optional: Add Easter M&M's

In a bowl add your cereal; set a side.
In a microwave safe bowl add peanut butter and white chocolate chips. Microwave for 30 seconds, mix well; if the mixture is not creamy, place back in the microwave for 10 second intervals, mix until creamy and no lumps remain.
Pour peanut butter mixture over cereal; add sprinkles, and mix until all the cereal is covered in the mixture. Be careful not to crush the cereal.
Place cereal in a large ziplock bag and add both packages of vanilla instant pudding. Seal the bag and shake until all the cereal is covered.
Place cereal on a baking sheet and let is dry. At this time you can mix in M&M's and seal in an air tight container.

I really did try my best to make this as healthy as I could without sacrificing too much flavor. The only thing that is really not healthy is the white chocolate. I decided to use vanilla instant pudding because normally this recipe contains a few or more cups of powdered sugar, which would taste wonderful, but I am really trying to be good and I figured their was enough sugar in the chocolate. The vanilla pudding tastes quite amazing this way. I’m glad I have a new use for it! I went crazy on buying pudding a few months ago and I have a ton of boxes of it!! It is one of those things,w here I want one box and can’t remember if I have any at home, so I buy a few more. Now I’m over stocked! The cereal is really a good choice! It’s crunchy, low calorie, high fiber and pretty decent in protein too!! I actually like to put it in my yogurt too!! You’ll notice it’s on my Trader Joe’s top 10 list on my Trader Joe’s page.

Well that’s it for today’s sweet treat!!!

First I have to show you this weeks before and after of my Roasted Butternut Squash pictures. This picture was taken 1 month after I started blogging in October 2011. I’ve come a long way baby and I”m still learning! Roasted Butternut Squash is one of my all time favorite dishes. It’s sweet and savory because I add a pinch of cayenne pepper in it and it’s one of those dishes that I don’t make nearly enough. When I am craving a snack I like to eat the squash cold! I just love it that way! I still can’t get over the difference in photographs. No wonder no one looked at the recipe, the picture is soooooo embarrassing!!

Remember when I received my little package of Chobani Flips? I had a taste test to which ones I like the best and let me tell you the Coconut one is amazing!!! Dam! The second one is the Key Lime Pie! I love those two the best, blows the other flavors out of the water! If your interested you can go to their website for some coupons! I have to laugh, I printed the coupons and used them at Target and it says you can’t use in California! They worked anyway!!

Shape Magazine: 15 small diet changes for weight loss. I follow a lot of these, especially number one! I drink a ton of water and in the morning before coffee, I have hot water with lemon! It’s perfect!

HUFF Post San Francisco – World Naked Bike Ride 2013 – Yes naked! There are naked pictures here, so please if you don’t want to see some not so pretty naked people or a fanny, then don’t look at the pictures! Can you imagine riding a bike with no clothes on, sitting in a bike seat? No thank you!!

Recipe Girl – How to be a Food Blogger – This is an awesome blog post for bloggers. It gives 150 useful sites for bloggers. I book marked it for future use!

HUFF Post Healthy Living – Oh man, you may think about Easter Candy! Click on the little Targest on popular candy and you’ll be shocked to what it’s made of. In a Reese’s they use the preservative TBHQ (tertiary butyl hydroquinone) is a derivative of petroleum that’s found in cosmetics, wood varnish and this candy. Wonderful! Read the Cadbury Cream Eggs, lets just say it has to do with Beavers! Gross!

Remember last week when I posted the top frozen Mac and Cheese taste test from HUFF Taste? Well I wanted to try numbers 1 and 2 on the list, which were Trader Joe’s Reduced Guilt Mac and Cheese and Trader Joe’s Mac and Cheese.

To make the Mac and Cheese it was pretty easy, 20 minutes in the oven. I was comparing the nutritional facts and at first I thought there wasn’t a difference until I realized the regular Mac and Cheese is two servings. The reduced guilt one, wasn’t to bad, but more calories that I would normally eat in a side dish, but I was good on my eating all day, so I could afford a few extra calories and besides it’s been about 3 years since I had Mac and Cheese.

So how did they taste? Well my Husband and tasted both of them and my Husband liked regular one better! The regular Mac and Cheese was very creamy, almost Alfredo like and tasted homemade. My Husband loved it and ate both servings. As for the Reduced Guilt Mac and Cheese, it was really good. It didn’t have as much cheese, but it tasted like real cheese! Both didn’t taste like they were frozen at all. Matter in fact my Husband and I were pretty impressed with both of them. My Husband thought he could add chicken to his and make it a Chicken Alfredo dish. He said he would eat it again. I would eat the Reduced Guilt one again, but I am not a big Mac and Cheese person, but when the craving hits, I’ll buy it!

Forgive the pictures! I messed up on my camera settings and I’m trying to fix it. The first picture is the Reduced Guilt and the second one on the right is the full fat.

Trader Joe's Mac and Cheese cooked — Now for this weeks weekly recap:

Sunday: Coconut M&M’s Cookies #SundaySupper– I made two batches of these and took one to work. I had like 60 cookies and they were all gone by mid morning. They were a huge hit at work! I like them and glad they are all gone! I have a major thing for coconut and M&M’s and together, oh man, it’s good! I loved them frozen and I kept eating them! Bad, bad, bad!! But so good!!

Monday: Carrot and Pineapple Smoothie – This smoothie is healthy, refreshing and very good! I love the combination of carrot and pineapple. It makes a sweet combination and no sugar was needed in this smoothie!

Tuesday: Tropical Shrimp Salad – I love this salad! It really reminds me of the tropics! A good addition to the salad would have been some shredded coconut. Maybe next time!

Wednesday: Naked Juice Smoothies – This was the first time I ever tried Naked Juice and I must say it was really good! My Husband loved the Strawberry and Banana. When I go to Target today, I’m going to check and see if they carry them. I would love to try another flavor.

Thursday: My 27 Favorite Easter Recipes – I like doing these kind of posts because sometimes I forget what I have. Since I blog, I try to make different recipes for you and sometimes I only make something once or twice, so I’m glad to do this post. I totally forgot about the Angel Foodcake Coconut Cupcakes!

Friday: Mini Chocolate Bundt Angel Food Cake – I guest posted over at Noshing with the Nolands and made these cute little chocolate angel food cakes. You can top them with whatever you like, that’s what I like about individual servings! They would be perfect to serve for brunch or an Easter dinner dessert!

Have a wonderful weekend and a great Easter, if your celebrating! I’ll be traveling next week, so please forgive me if I don’t get to respond to you right away, but I do want you to know that I do read all of your comments! Thank you for that!! I also wanted to let you know that I did line-up a bunch of yummy recipes for you! Which means, I have to write those posts this weekend! So I”m off to post #2!

Enjoy!

Toodles,

Jennifer

P.S. This weeks craving is Deviled Eggs! I only have these once a year and that is at Easter! I don’t know why I do that? They are good all year round! Plus this post has how to boil the perfect egg!!