It’s Day 2 of Peanut Week, who’s excited??  Hopefully these Honey Roasted Peanut Marshmallow Bars will make you even more excited!

Salted nut rolls have always been a favorite candy of mine.  After all, isn’t a salted nut roll the original sweet and salty snack??  Since my husband was diagnosed with Type I diabetes, we have gone through more honey roasted peanuts in my house than I have had in my entire lifetime!  I buy giant jars of them at Costco and he will have a small dish of them for dessert or as a pre-dinner snack.  Even the honey roasted peanuts are a great low-carb snack option.  Since I began bringing massive loads of these perfectly addicting sweet and salty peanuts into my home, I have been dying to find a recipe to use them in.  Enter Honey Roasted Peanut Marshmallow Bars!

The flavors of these bars will remind you of eating a salted nut roll but you don’t even have to mess with a candy thermometer or making a nougat for this recipe.  Marshmallows lend that same gooey sweetness to these bars.  Also, these Honey Roasted Marshmallow Bars satisfy my texture craving for a perfect crunchy yet chewy snack.

These bars are quire sweet and rich so I recommend cutting the 8-inch square pan that you make them in into 20 pieces.  It would also be super cute presentation to wrap these Honey Roasted Peanut Marshmallow Bars individually in wax paper like you might find at a candy store.

A few tips for this recipe:

• Spray your parchment paper very liberally with nonstick cooking spray.  Melted marshmallows may be one of the stickiest substances on the planet!
• Spray the measuring cups that you use to measure the peanut butter and corn syrup with nonstick cooking spray to make cleanup easier.
• You could certainly use plain roasted peanuts or any other nut that you enjoy in this recipe.

DID YOU KNOW?  Peanuts and peanut butter can help control blood sugar.  If you peanuts or peanut butter as part of a high carbohydrate meal, the healthy oils and proteins in peanuts can decrease blood sugar spikes and help to keep blood sugars stable throughout the entire day.

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Last weekend I was fortunate to travel to Napa, California courtesy of The Peanut Institute.  The Peanut Institute “is a non-profit organization that supports nutrition research and develops educational programs to encourage healthful lifestyles that include peanuts and peanut products.”  The trip was incredible and I learned wonderful facts about the nutritional benefits of peanuts, got to spend time with one of my great friends Emily,

and we even got to cook at the Culinary Institute of America!  Check that one off my bucket list!

The trip inspired me in so many ways.  When I returned home, I was excited to share some fantastic peanutty recipes with you.  So sweet teeth, I am declaring it Peanut Week!  I will be sharing one fact that I learned about peanuts with each of these satisfying recipes.

What better way to kick of Peanut Week than with these Flourless Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies?

These Flourless Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies are so light and soft, you would never guess that a key ingredient like flour is missing!  With only six ingredients, these cookies are a great gluten-free treat option and you will be shocked how only SIX ingredients can create a cookie that tastes so delicious.

I was so happy when I calculated the nutrition facts for these Flourless Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies and found out that each cookie only has 13 grams of carbs!  That is pretty remarkable for a cookie that has chopped up candy bars in it!

DID YOU KNOW??  Eating 1 ounce of peanuts daily can cut your risk of heart disease in half.  The oil in peanuts is mostly monounsaturated which offers the same health benefits as other healthy fats such as olive oil.

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It never fails that around 1-2 pm, I hit a wall and fall into an afternoon slump.  I blame feeling full from lunch and especially if I am in a warm room, my eyes just get heavy and I become more lethargic.  I often use an afternoon snack or beverage as a pick-me-up to combat the feeling of wanting to do nothing but nap.

These Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Power Bars have many good-for-you ingredients and will give you an energy boost if you feel the grogginess that I described in the early afternoon.  Peanuts and peanut butter provide protein to keep you feeling full and satiated for hours.  A good dose of whole grains like whole wheat flour, rolled oats and wheat germ help to get in your servings of healthy carbs for the day.  And to give you something to look forward to, these bars are packed with chocolate chips and even drizzled with some melty chocolate for a little antioxidant boost.

So give yourself an afternoon snack to look forward to that will help to keep you focused throughout the day and make a batch of these Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Power Bars.

mix together peanut butter and brown sugar

add eggs, oil and vanilla and mix

mix in flour, baking soda and cinnamon

mix in oats and wheat germ

mix in peanuts and chocolate chips

spread into pan and bake

cool, drizzle with chocolate, cut and serve

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I have been so excited to tell you that I am contributing some of my dessert recipes to Best Friends For Frosting!  Best Friends For Frosting is a site totally devoted to everything dessert!  You will find recipes, interviews with bakery owners and other food bloggers, food styling tips and great ideas for party themes.

My first recipe that I have contributed to the site is for these festive Almond Raspberry Holiday Macarons.  I know that macarons have a reputation of being fussy and difficult to make, but the recipe that I have been using recently is simplified and has given me success each time that I have used it.

I kept the macaron shells the traditional almond flavor, but the buttercream is bursting with raspberry flavor.  For the detailed recipe to make these adorable cookies yourself, head over to Best Friends For Frosting.

And the holiday baking giveaway is still on!  Click here to enter!

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I wasn’t sure if I wanted to participate in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap this year.  December is such a busy time of year and I just didn’t know if I wanted to add one more thing to my “to-do” list.  The deciding factor for me came when I realized that the donation that each blogger makes to participate in the exchange benefits Cookies for Kids with Cancer.  This non-profit organization was started by parents of a sick child who had the hopes of raising money to support research for new therapies to treat pediatric cancer.  The first bake sale that was held, raised over $400,000 through the sale of 96,000 cookies!  That is so amazing and inspiring to hear.  So, not only do our, the food bloggers, donations go to this wonderful cause, but the kitchen gadgets brand OXO is matching us dollar for dollar!  To learn more about Cookies for Kids with Cancer and how you can make a difference click here.

Of course, once I was signed up, I couldn’t wait to find a festive recipe to share and I looked forward to receiving other cookies from around the country.  I love the look of these White Chocolate-Dipped Red Velvet Shortbread cookies and I could not resist decorating them with some crushed pistachios so that they embodied all of the traditional Christmas colors.

The cookie itself is quite mild with a slight cocoa flavor.  However, I love the richness that the white chocolate brings.  These cookies are very sturdy and so I also chose them because they would ship very well.

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