Peanut Butter Banana "Ice Cream"

Now that the weather is finally starting to warm up, my cravings for ice cream are getting totally out of control!  Don't judge me, but I might have accidentally eaten it not 1, not 2, but 3 times last week!  I can't help it if it's my favorite dessert and my self control magically vanishes at the mere thought of it!  Yeah, I definitely need to cap this indulgence off at a once-per-week limit, which means I have to be creative and come up with healthier substitutes.  This little gem of a recipe popped into my head yesterday on my drive to the gym and I tested it a few hours later.  It TOTALLY worked.  Hellllloooo Peanut Butter Banana "Ice Cream!"  Where have you been all my life?!

Magic Peanut Butter Cake

You will never believe what I'm about to tell you.  This lovely little cake I have pictured is made of 3 ingredients.  3 super healthy ingredients.  Did I mention it only takes 1 minute to "bake" in the microwave?  I'm naming this my Magic Peanut Butter Cake because, with 9 grams of protein and less than 130 calories, it really is magical.  Finally a healthy dessert that can actually satisfy my sweet tooth!  And it legitimately tastes good.  Trust me: when it comes to sweets, I'm a very judgmental critic!

Peanut Butter Kisses

One of my all-time favorite recipes to bring to parties, especially around the holidays, are peanut butter kiss cookies.  It's a recipe that many people already have and bake, but they're a guaranteed crowd pleaser every single time!  I mean, who doesn't love the peanut butter and chocolate combo?!  This past weekend, I brought them to Howie, Chris and Zach's Ugly Christmas Sweater Party, and was happy to take home a completely empty tin!  That's a success in my book!

Peanut Butter Chip Banana Bars

I'm on a serious mission to find creative ways to use my entire banana graveyard by the time I move out in 3 short weeks. For those of you that don't know what a banana graveyard is, it's the lonely top shelf of my freezer home to half a dozen ripe bananas that are begging to be incorporated into baked goods.  They actually look dead because of the dark brown color they turn when they freeze.  No matter how hard I try to bake banana things, the collection seems to keep growing.  Though I pride myself on my banana bread recipe, I'm bored of baking the same loaf and having it go stale after one day in the summer (thank you Lake Erie humidity!).  I did, however, come up with a new recipe that I'm really excited about: peanut butter chip banana bars.  It's pretty great that I came up with a new way to use my banana graveyard, even more great that they taste delicious, but fantastic that they rely on peanut butter and banana, my favorite flavor combination on earth!!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothies

I had the pleasure of getting mouth surgery yesterday morning, which has resulted in a liquid diet for the next 4-5 days.  It's the worst.  I made a promise to myself that I will try to follow these instructions for at least 2-3 days, but I'm going nuts already considering the fact that dairy upsets my stomach and they said no hot foods.  What happened to soup and oatmeal being my Plan A?!?!  Clearly I had to get creative to avoid not eating altogether, so I created a delicious Plan B.  My peanut butter banana oatmeal smoothies are not only filling, but taste like a dessert!  And did I mention that they're less than 400 calories (thank you almond milk!); this beats my favorite Mitchell's PB Banana Smoothies by a long shot!

Sweets For Your Sweetie

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.  I love the romantic dinners, flowers, and cards...but my favorite part is without a doubt eating as many sweets as my heart desires for the entire day!  My love for this day and all of the sweets that go along with it began when I was younger.  My mom would bake my brother and I our own massive cookie hearts in our favorite type of dough, and it made me look forward to the holiday every year.  Now that I'm older, I like to bake all the people that are special to me something delicious to carry on the tradition for Valentine's Day.  I promise my Italian Buckeyes and Nutella Heart Cookies are better than any storebought chocolates!

Peanut Butter Cookies!

This past Saturday, Cleveland greeted me with snow, wind, sub-zero temperatures, and gray skies yet again!  I feel like I've been snowed in since the holidays!  It didn't help that most of friends weren't around because they were busy doing a design competition.  After catching up on this week's TV shows and homework, I decided to surprise them with some cookies to help them get through the last 24 hours of the competition.  They've been staying up late all week, so I wanted a dessert that gave them a little sugar, a little protein, and a little motivation to pull through.  PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES!  Did I even need to say anything else after the word "peanut butter?"  This recipe has been my favorite cookie to make since I started baking with my mom as a little girl, and I'm fairly positive it's everybody's favorite cookie to eat as well!