Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy

The title of this post is from the Bridge students that I work with this year. It's what they say with their teacher if something sound super easy. =) Love them!!

So a few weekends ago, I threw my parents a surprise birthday party. Besides stressing out, I ended up doing a lot of planning, forgetting, and baking. Brian's girlfriend Michelle and Mom's bff Paige came to the rescue and baked with me the night before from 830 at night to 1 in the morning. After the party was over, these were the most requested recipes. All of them, are "Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy."

No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

This is a Rachael Ray recipe that ended up being a favorite. I tripled this recipe for the party and had some left over filling. I also added some Cool Whip on the top of every cheesecake and left them in the freezer over night (at Paige's house. haha).

Ingredients

• 12 strawberries
• 12 ounces softened cream cheese, 1 1/2 (8-ounce) bricks
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 individual gram cracker crusts, available on baking aisle

Directions

Coarsely chop 6 berries and place in food processor. Add cream cheese, sour cream, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and process until smooth. Using a rubber spatula, fill pie tins. Garnish cheesecakes with slices of remaining berries.

Luscious Slush Punch

This recipe I found on AllRecipes. The link is to the recipe and it makes 2 punch bowls full. But I'll also copy it here for you. Enjoy!!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups white sugar
• 6 cups water
• 2 (3 ounce) packages strawberry flavored gelatin mix
• 1 (46 fluid ounce) can pineapple juice
• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 quart orange juice
• 2 (2 liter) bottles lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage
• 
  
• Directions

1. In a large saucepan, combine sugar, water, and strawberry flavored gelatin. Boil for 3 minutes. Stir in pineapple juice, lemon juice, and orange juice. Divide mixture in half, and freeze in 2 separate containers.
2. When ready to serve, place the frozen contents of one container in a punch bowl, and stir in 1 bottle of lemon-lime soda until slushy.

Peanut-Butterscotch Fondue

This is the dessert I made for Jerome on Valentine's Day. =)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup whole milk
Two 11-ounce bags butterscotch morsels
1 cup smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons boiling water
Thick-cut bacon, cooked and cut into 1-inch pieces, for dipping
Gala apples, cored and sliced, for dipping
Pretzel rods, for dipping
Marshmallows, for dipping

Directions:
1.In a medium saucepan, warm the milk over medium heat. Add the butterscotch morsels and cook, stirring, until smooth, about 10 minutes; remove from heat. Whisk in the peanut butter until smooth. Stir in the boiling water.
2.Serve the fondue warm with the bacon, apples, pretzel rods and marshmallows for dipping.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Crunch

Want something rich and creamy with a little bit of crunch? And totally not good for you but makes you feel better? You have to try this. Rachael Ray is not a big baker so this dessert, like most of hers, is no actual bake time. Drop the diet at the door and eat really small portions of this. It says to cut into 16 pieces but that's for sizes like in the picture. Trust me, it's way too rich to eat that big of a piece. Also, a bigger pan might be a good idea. It would spread the layers out and not make it as thick in the final product. However, the layers are not too fond of being spread out so a 9x13 might be too big. We also use chocolate chips instead of bars.

INGREDIENTS:

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 sticks (8 ounces) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

One 16-ounce jar creamy peanut butter

3 cups crispy rice cereal

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups confectioners' sugar

Stir in your favorite breakfast cereal or even dried fruit or nuts.

DIRECTIONS:

Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan, melt half of the chocolate and 1 tablespoon butter over low heat. Remove from the heat; stir in 1 cup peanut butter, then 2 cups rice cereal. Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan; refrigerate until set, about 15 minutes. Wash out the saucepan.

In the saucepan, combine the remaining 2 sticks butter and the salt; melt over medium heat, stirring. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining peanut butter and the confectioners' sugar. Spread half of the peanut butter mixture over the cereal layer. Top with the remaining 1 cup cereal.

In a small bowl, microwave the remaining chocolate at medium power until melted, 1 1/2 minutes. Stir into the remaining peanut butter mixture. Spread evenly on the cereal-topped peanut butter layer; refrigerate until set, about 45 minutes. Cut into 16 pieces.