National Peanut Butter Cookie Day

Another wonderful holiday follows quickly after National Iced Tea Day: it's National Peanut Butter Cookie Day! Well not today, but it was yesterday. In honor of this most important holiday, I knew I HAD to celebrate by making peanut butter cookies. Unfortunately, I recently ran out of milk and eggs. The obvious alternative? No-bakes! You may feel the need to remind me that no-bakes still DO require milk, but wait and see my strange alternative below!

No Bake Cookies
(From my winter guard's fundraiser cookbook.)
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup milk
(Or you can be a milk-less sillyhead like me and use 1/4 cup dry coffee creamer, 1/4 cup cream cheese, & 1/8 cup water!)
1/2 cup butter
4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
(I used smooth, all-natural peanut butter which left delightful peanut butter chunks throughout!)
3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions
1. Mix sugar and cocoa in a mixing bowl. Then, in a medium saucepan, melt butter. Once the butter has been melted, combine sugar, milk (or whatever), butter, and cocoa in the saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for 1.5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla first. Then mix in peanut butter and oats.

2. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.

Look at those peanut butter chunks! Om nom!

I don't keep wax paper around...yet, so I sprayed some cutting boards with non-stick cooking spray and cooled the cookies on them.

I was pleasantly surprised that these turned out so phenomenally well, considering my strange milk substitutions. I'm convinced they're better than the first time I made them the normal way. I ended up with about 30 delicious little cookies, half of which I hope are being consumed by my coworkers as I'm writing this!

It's hard to outshine a food item that gets its own holiday, but the Asian chicken wraps that I made for dinner SURE DO!

Asian Chicken Wraps
(From Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of 30 Minute Meals)
Ingredients
1  2- to 2.25 lb. deli-roasted chicken
8  8- to 10-inch flour tortillas
1/2  cup bottled hoisin sauce
1/4  cup finely chopped peanuts
1/4  cup finely chopped green onions
1/2  cup shredded daikon, well drained
3  Tbsp soy sauce
3  Tbsp Chinese black vinegar or rice vinegar (I used rice vinegar.)
1  Tbsp water
1  tsp chili oil or toasted sesame oil (I chose the chili oil option.)

Daikon, chopped peanuts, and chopped green onions.

I had never purchased or prepared a daikon before. It's an Asian radish that should be in the international produce section of your supermarket, and it should be peeled before cooking. If you're wary of trying this, I believe carrots or cabbage would make good substitutes in this recipe.


Instructions
1. Remove skin from chicken and discard. Remove chicken from bones and shred chicken (you should have about 4 cups); set aside.

I had chicken breasts in the freezer, so I thawed them and popped them in the oven on a roasting pan at 375° for about 25 minutes. I then shredded them in the food processor which made the chicken really easy to roll up in the tortilla.

2. Heat tortilla for 20 seconds, 2 at a time on a paper towel in the microwave. Spread one side of each tortilla with some of the hoisin sauce; sprinkle with peanuts and green onions. Top with shredded chicken and shredded daikon.

3. Roll up tortillas; halve crosswise.

4. In a small bowl combine soy sauce, vinegar, the water, and oil. Serve as a dipping sauce with chicken roll-ups.

These wraps with the dipping sauce were SO amazing; I even enjoyed trying the new-to-me daikon! Hubby and I both love Asian food, so I let him know that I'll be making these again for him when he comes home in a couple of weeks. The dipping sauce would be delicious to make and keep in your fridge for any time you enjoy Asian food.

I made coleslaw along with the wraps, and since I only enjoy about half of the coleslaws I ever try, I wasn't too enthusiastic about this recipe. I'll post it just in case you happen to love coleslaw and want a new recipe for a pretty basic slaw.

Dutch Treat Coleslaw
(From the BH&G 30 minute meals cookbook.)
Ingredients
1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
2 Tbsp water
1/4 cup salad oil (I used olive oil.)
1 tsp celery seeds (Found in the spice aisle of the grocery store.)
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup dairy sour cream (I used onion sour cream dip left over from the nommy Veggie Mash.)
8 cups shredded cabbage with carrot (coleslaw mix)
1 small green sweet pepper, chopped

Instructions
1. For dressing, in a small saucepan combine sugar, vinegar, and the water; heat and stir until sugar dissolves.

2. In a blender combine sugar mixture, oil, celery seeds, salt, and black pepper; cover and blend until well mixed. Add sour cream; cover and blend just until combined.

3. In a large bowl combine coleslaw mix and sweet pepper.

4. Add dressing. Toss to combine. Serve immediately.

Produces 8 to 10 servings. I halved this recipe and still ended up with more coleslaw than I'd like to consume by myself.