30 Recipes For The Peanut Butter Lovers

March 1, 2013 By Tonia 13 Comments

Here are 30 peanut butter recipes because March 1st is National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day! Woohoo! It is the start of National Peanut Month so the celebration can continue with peanut butter cookies, bars and desserts all month long!

We go though a lot of peanut butter in my house! A couple of my family members are not big meat eaters so they often rely on peanut butter as their main source of protein. Not only that but we really do love it! We have it on a spoon for a snack, as part of meals and I use it for baking as well. We always have crunchy and creamy peanut butter on hand since different family members prefer different varieties. Today is all about the combination of peanut butter, sugar and the celebration of National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day!

[Read more...]

Filed Under: dessert, Recipe, Recipes Tagged With: Baking, chocolate, Dessert, Peanut Butter, Recipe, Round Up

Basic Chili & Cinnamon Sugar Cornbread

February 29, 2012 By Tonia 11 Comments

The stormy winter weather we are having in Minnesota called for chili and cornbread! This was my very first time making chili, if you can believe it! I’ve ordered chili at restaurants and enjoyed it at my friend’s and families houses but never made it. One of my best friends has the most delicious recipe for spicy cornbread that she makes with chili. It is not spicy as in spicy hot but spicy as in cinnamon and sugar!

Since I try to watch my sugar intake I altered the recipe to use Truvia in place of some of the sugar but you can use all brown sugar if desired.

Place flour, brown sugar, Truvia (or brown sugar), shortening, cornmeal, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl.

Cut in shortening until the mixture is in small crumbles.

Add eggs and sour milk.

Pour into a greased 11×7 pan and sprinkle with cinnamon and Truvia (or granulated sugar). Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes.

Cinnamon Sugar Cornbread

adapted from my friend’s recipe

1 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 1/2 Tbsp Truvia (or use 1/2 cup of brown sugar)
1/3 cup shortening
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup sour milk (1/2 cup milk & 1 Tbsp vinegar)
1 egg
1 egg white
Cinnamon & Sugar for sprinkling on top

Put milk and vinegar in a bowl and set aside to sour. Place flour, brown sugar, Truvia (or additional brown sugar), shortening, cornmeal, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Cut in shortening until the mixture is in small crumbles. Add eggs and sour milk. Pour into a greased 11×7 pan and sprinkle with cinnamon and Truvia (or granulated sugar). Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes. (May take longer if using all brown sugar)

In case anyone is interested in how I made my very simple chili:

Basic Chili
Adapted from my mom’s recipe

1 lb hamburger
Brown hamburger with a little dried onion, sprinkle of Worcester sauce, a dash of garlic, seasoned salt and pepper.

2 cans chili beans in mild sauce
1 can tomato soup
1 can water
Pour the chili beans, tomato soup and water into a pot. Add browned hamburger and warm over medium heat, stirring often until the chili is hot. I let mine simmer for about 1 hour stirring occasionally, until we were ready for dinner.

I’m Sharing At Some Of These Awesome Parties

Due to stolen content, I have found it necessary to only show a snippet of my blog posts in my feed. Thank you for understanding that I want to keep the content I work hard to create on my website where it is originally published: thegunnysack.com

Filed Under: Mid Week Munchies, Recipe, Recipes

How To Make Colored Sugar Cookies For Valentine’s Day

January 25, 2012 By Tonia 9 Comments

I had 2 boxes of sugar cookie dough mix leftover and wanted to make some more Valentine’s cookie with it. So, I decided to make some colored sugar and use on theses cookies. The baker’s twine I used to make them look super cute is from Pick Your Plum. Have you ever heard of Pick Your Plum? It is a fun site that sells 1 crafty item per day, at a discounted price until they sell out. I have a button on my sidebar that changes each day to show what is available that day so check it out and score some awesome items! Anyway, on to the recipe…

To make the colored sugar, I placed 1 cup of white granulated sugar in a jar and put in several drops of food coloring. Then, I put the lid on the jar and shook it like crazy until the color was distributed. I kept adding food coloring until I got a color I liked. The reddish color took way more food coloring that the pink so to help dry it out, I spread it on a piece of foil for about an hour and then put it back into the jar.

To make the cookies, I followed the directions on the box and then rolled small balls of dough and rolled the balls in the colored sugar. I baked them at 375 degrees for about 5 minutes.

You can’t see the light pink sugar as well as the darker sugar but it added a little blush to the cookies and some shimmer. I made a couple of cookie bundles by stacking cookies on a circle of brown paper and tying the stacks with baker’s twine.

Super simple cookies that look adorable in a jar or in a cookie stack.

Showing off this tutorial at some of these sites.

Filed Under: Holiday, Holiday Recipe, Recipes, Valentine's Day, Valentines Cookie

Easy Appetizer ~ Cowboy Caviar with Avocados

January 20, 2012 By Tonia 10 Comments

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Avocados from Mexico for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, I was visiting with the receptionist at our dentist’s office while my daughter was getting some work done on her teeth. We were talking about our plans for Thanksgiving. She said she was going home to Texas to spend the holiday with her family. As we were visiting, she told me that she was bringing Cowboy Caviar to share at her family’s Thanksgiving dinner. I had never heard of Cowboy Caviar so I asked her what it was and how you make it. She described it to me and then said that there were lots of recipes online. She suggested looking them up and then picking the parts that I liked and making my own. So, finally in the middle of January, that is what I did.

I love avocados and cilantro so those 2 ingredients HAD to be included. I also used black beans, blackeye peas, tomatoes, onion and Italian dress. I forgot to add the corn, garlic powder and lime juice to this picture.

Cowboy Caviar

by The Gunny Sack
1 can black beans – drained
1 can blackeye peas – drained
1 can corn – drained
1 can diced tomatoes with garlic & onion – drained
1 large avocado – diced
1/2 red onion – chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro – chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
3/4 cup Italian dressing
Juice from 1/2 of a lime
Do the draining, chopping and dicing. Then, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge until ready to serve. Allow the flavors to blend for about 1 hour before serving with tortilla chips.

Do you love Avocados from Mexico? Then you should check out I love avocados on Facebook.

I was able to download a beautiful avocado picture and I set it as my desktop wallpaper! Want to share your love of avocados with recipes and stories? You can tweet them out using #iloveavocados and follow @guacgrl.