cream cheese pancakes

i think we (michael and i) can officially call ourselves pancake fanatics. we used to have pancakes pretty much every saturday and sunday morning, unless we went out to brunch, and i love finding new ways to make them different. now that i've been having some weird food cravings/aversions, we haven't had pancakes as much, but since i'm officially at the end of my first trimester, i'm happy to work them back into my diet!

awhile back, i tried the quinoa pancakes recipe you can find here. i also like to mix in bananas, chocolate chips, cinnamon, etc. to make the usual pancakes a little more special.

about a month or so ago, i tried something very different: cream cheese pancakes. (original recipe here)

there are 4 very simple ingredients to make 8 pancakes:

-4 oz cream cheese

-4 eggs

-2 packets splenda (or sweetener of your choice)

-1 tsp cinnamon

put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. let the batter sit for a few minutes until the bubbles settle down, then fry on a griddle as usual.

not surprisingly for me, i took a "before" shot and was so excited to eat that i didn't take an "after". to be fair, i started the batter and michael cooked the pancakes while i was upstairs scrambling to get ready for church. sooo i missed a few photo ops. :)

anyway, here's what they look like, courtesy of ibreatheimhungry.com:

next time you're in the mood for a different kind of pancake, give these a try! so easy and fast (and gluten and carb free, might i add)!

no-bake peanut butter cups

we thankfully had a long weekend due to president's day so not only did we get to play in the snow; i also had plenty of time for a new baking project!

here's a little proof of the snow. we never get this much real snow without all of the ice and freezing rain that usually comes with it around here.

snow day!

 yesterday i made a pinterest recipe that i've been wanting to try for awhile: no bake peanut butter cups! they turned out really well and were super easy to make.

crunchy no-bake peanut butter cups:
[recipe makes 24 cups]

3/4 cup butter
2 1/4 cup peanut butter
2 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup milk
sea salt

step 1: line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. [i would recommend using a mini muffin pan unless you like really rich desserts. i used a regular muffin tin and, while i love chocolate and peanut butter, it was a pretty big serving!

step 2: my grocery store didn't have graham cracker crumbs, so i bought regular graham crackers and crushed them until fine in my food processor.

bottom layer ingredients

step 3: melt butter and peanut butter together for about 45 seconds in the microwave. stir until smooth.

step 4: add graham cracker crumbs and sugar and mix until combined.

step 5: distribute mixture evenly among muffin cups. put in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes to allow bottom layer to set.

step 6: combine chocolate and milk and heat in 25 second intervals until chocolate is melted. stir until smooth.

step 7: distribute chocolate evenly among the muffin cups, pouring over each peanut butter layer.

step 8: sprinkle with sea salt and put back in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

before fridge

final product!