Thank you(s) are in order

Unbelievably in March I won THREE different giveaway!  I probably should have played the lotto. 

The first giveaway I won was Grace's Barney Butter.  Unlike many I'm not a fan of peanut butter and will shy away from it unless paired with chocolate, so I was super psyched to be selected as one of the Barney Butter winners on  A Southern Grace. 

Barney Butter is an almond butter.  It is healthy and yummy alternative to peanut butter.  To read more about the health benefits of it click here. 

 

As soon as my jar of Barney Butter arrived I quickly grabbed a spoon, broke the seal, and dug into the jar of crunchy almond butter.  I admit to preferring almond butter over peanut butter when straight from the jar but I'm still unconvinced that I like it with chocolate over peanut butter. 

The following night Babygirl and I slathered some of the almond butter on to graham crackers and topped it all off with a dollop of marshmallow fluff!   Oh, man, talk about good! We wolfed those down as we played cards.  The other dessert I made was one I saw on Sydney's blog, The Crepes of Wrath.  I made some changes to the recipe and have noted them in red.  The bars were made for Babygirl's art teacher's birthday. She said her art teacher shared them with everyone and that there were no complaints.  :-)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
from Velvet Lava

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (1/2 cup, 1 stick)
1 cup crunchy peanut butter (1/2 cup almond butter)
3 cups powdered sugar (1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I used 18whole graham crackers to make the crumbs)  (9whole graham cracker sheets)
1 2/3 cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips (1 cup semi-sweet)

1. Line and grease a 9×13 (7"x11") inch pan with aluminum foil. In a food processor, grind up your graham crackers (unless you have store-bought crumbs).
2. Add the butter, peanut butter, and sugar to your crumbs and process until a ball forms (you can also beat everything together in your mixer if your processor/blender/whatever can’t do it).
3. Press the mixture into the pan. I found that using my hands worked best.
4. Over a double-boiler, or carefully in the microwave or in a small sauce pan over the stove, melt the chocolate chips, stirring often to prevent burning. Spread the melted chocolate over peanut butter mixture.
5. Chill in refrigerator for about an hour. (When I pulled my bars out of the fridge the chocolate looked like it had bloomed and had dots when it came to room temp. You can see them in the photos.) Allow to come to room temperature before cutting into squares. Store in the refrigerator, or better yet, the freezer! Makes 20-24 bars.(I cut mine smallish so I got about that many.)

I would make them again but I'm not certain I'd use the almond butter.  I think I'd like to try them with peanut butter.

The second giveaway I won was over at  Bunny's Warm Oven.  The  name that was selected would win a $20 Macys gift card which happened to be me!  I haven't used it yet. I'm saving it for something special!

The last  giveaway I won was on A Duck in Her Pond. Though it was totally awesome that I won the other two giveaways this one was special.  I won a short story/book written especially for me by Duckie!  She has been working on it and sent me a rough draft the other day.  I'm so excited and can not wait to see and read the finished book. 

Thanks, Grace, Bunny, and Duckie for the chance to win such cool prizes!  For a chance to win a couple of (I hope) cool prizes please click here and leave me your opinion! 

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