No Bake Heaven

OK- I'm a sucker for chocolate cookies and bars. Honestly, cookies are my very favorite dessert. Right after ice cream. But ice cream is in a class all of its own and should always be understood, when speaking to me or to anyone from whom I am biologically descended, to be THE dessert of choice. But after ice cream, when we come back down to the mortal plane, are cookies. Homemade cookies- they must be homemade. Oh I'll snack on the occasional Oreo, Pecan Sandie, or the odd cookie made by Elves, but honestly, homemade is where I embarrass myself. Early in our marriage but far enough in for him to know my love of cookies, Big 'Un was totally astounded that I did not eat one single Chips Ahoy! from the bag he had brought home from the store. He loves those nasty things and thought he was going to have to hide them but, no danger there. I have no time in my day for Chips Ahoy! and most other cookies of that mass-produced ilk.

But these ....  oh ho ho, these babies are a little bit of no-bake heaven. Similar to the standard no-bakes (cocoa, peanut butter, milk, oats, etc), these sweeties come in bar form. I got this particular recipe from allrecipes but I've seen them around town in other places. Anyway, let's get crackin' so our lips can get smackin'

You'll need:

3/4 cup butter (allrecipes calls for 1 cup but I just can't do it.)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar- I like the dark kind

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups quick cook oats

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter- chunky or smooth but I like the chunky

Butter or spray an 8 x 8 dish.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir in the brown sugar, vanilla, and oats. Cook for 3 or 4 additional minutes. Keep the temp on very low so you don't have any scorching. Press half of the oats mixture into the prepared dish.

In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the chocolate chips and peanut butter, stirring every 30 seconds, until both are melted and smooth. In my microwave, this took a total of 1 minute 30 seconds. Pour the chocolate mixture over the crust. Save "some" to spoon over the top, if you would like.

Sprinkle the remaining oats mixture over the chocolate and press gently to form a top crust. Now drizzle the reserved chocolate over the top.

Refrigerate for 3 hours, or as log as you can take it, before cutting into smallish squares ('cause yes, a little goes a long way).

Smack lips, lick fingers. Yum.

And just to share, the entire time I was trying to take pictures of the finished cookies, this is what I had to work around ...

... because she knew that as soon as I was done, she was scoring some No-Bake Heaven and apparently didn't want to have to flick her tongue out too far.

So hey, it's been fun today. I know it doesn't seem like it but I do eat healthy food. I mean, ice cream is packed with calcium!

Thanks for fluttering by today and I'll see ya again.