Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Cookies

     I know I have said this before, but my husband loves peanut butter…and so do I.  When I went to Earth Fare about a month ago, they were having a $5 food revolution.  For those of you who do not know, a $5 food revolution is when Earth Fare has five items in their store that are a dollar each.  Two of those items were organic peanut butter and organic grape jelly.  I couldn’t resist myself, so I bought both.  I contemplated making Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter & Jelly bars, but decided that they contained too much butter, too much sugar, and too much flour.  I also wanted to make something that I could sample.  This made me think of the peanut butter cookies I made for the pie crust of J.T.’s Peanut Butter Birthday Pie.  Those cookies were good, but oh so sweet.  For my Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich cookies, I cut the amount of sugar in half.  I completely omitted the granulated white sugar, and instead used honey.  What a good decision this happened to be.  The cookies came out moist and creamy and the sweetness of the jelly makes the cookies sweet enough.  Taking a bite of these sandwich cookies takes me back to the elementary school lunch room, when my mom would pack me a PB&J.  These cookies happen to be the dessert version of my favorite childhood lunch. 

Ingredients

·         1 cup creamy peanut butter

·         ½ cup pure clover honey

·         1 teaspoon baking powder

·         1 egg

·         grape jelly

Directions

1.      Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2.      With a handheld mixer, beat together the peanut butter and honey until smooth.  Add the baking powder and beat until just combined.  Lastly, beat in the egg until the batter is smooth and creamy.  Using a cookie scoop, drop dough on to prepared baking sheet (about 20 cookies).  Use a spoon to gently flatten each cookie dough ball.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes.   Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and cool for at least 10 minutes (this gives them time to harden). 

3.      Once the cookies are completely cool, spread about a teaspoon of grape jelly on one cookie and top with another cookie.  Repeat the process until you run out of cookies.  I somehow ended up with an odd number of cookies.  Of course, I had to eat that one lonesome cookie in order to have an even number of sandwich cookies J

Peanut Squash Soup

     Once a year, J.T. must attend a Northridge High school football game.  For the last three years, I have had the privilege of being his date J.  J.T.’s middle school kids are given the opportunity to play with the high school band at the last home football game of the year.  In previous years, J.T. and I have gone out to eat after the game.  I am not sure why I remember all this, but two years ago we ate at a Mexican restaurant and one year ago we ate at Wendy’s (chili and baked potatoes for both of us).  This year we decided we would eat at home – Peanut Squash soup and whole grain popovers to be exact.  Lately, every time J.T. and I have eaten out, it has been a disappointment.  The quality of the food is not what it should be and is not worth our money.  Yes, we still eat at Zoe’s Kitchen on Wednesday, but even the quality of their food could be improved upon.  The only restaurant in Tuscaloosa worth every penny is Epiphany Café.  J.T. and I had our rehearsal dinner at Epiphany’s and the food is always outstanding! Back to the soup – I made this soup and the popovers in less than an hour the morning of the Northridge game.  All we had to do was reheat and eat.  The meal is also great because it is budget friendly.  The peanut butter serves as the protein in this meal – no meat required.  This soup has a sweet and spicy flavor.  If you would like to cut down on the amount of heat, decrease or omit the cayenne pepper and crushed red pepper flakes.

Recipe adapted from 100 Days of Real Food

Ingredients

·         2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

·         2 pounds butternut squash, cubed into big chunks

·         1 large onion, diced

·         6 garlic cloves, chopped

·         1 teaspoon cumin

·         1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

·         ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

·         4 cups vegetable stock

·         ¾ cup smooth peanut butter

·         2 tablespoons tomato paste

·         ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Directions

1.      Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the squash, onion, garlic, cumin, kosher salt, and cayenne pepper.  Sauté until the onion becomes translucent, about 7 minutes. 

2.      Stir in the vegetable stock, peanut butter, tomato paste, and red pepper flakes.   Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the butternut squash breaks in half when pierced with a fork.  Serves 5 to 6. 

Note:  I made this using my own homemade vegetable stock.  If you are using store bought vegetable stock, you may need to decrease the amount of kosher salt.