Peanut Butter Banana S'mores a la Mode

What do you get when you cross a banana with Hershey's chocolate with marshmallows with peanut butter with vanilla ice cream with Graham crackers? You got it, a melt-in-your-mouth, too-good-for-the-tummy, gain a thousand calories, love-every-minute-of-it dessert. Inspired by a recent grilled banana s'mores pin and tempted by the leftover camping s'mores ingredients in my pantry, I turned on my inner Betty Crocker and whipped up my own spin on the classic s'mores.

Ingredients

• Banana(s)
• Peanut butter
• Hershey's chocolate or chocolate chips
• Marshmallows
• Graham crackers (crushed)
• Vanilla Ice cream 

Version 1

For my first effort, I made a dish that closely resembled the grilled banana s'mores I saw on Pinterest.

1. Set oven to broil
2. Set banana on an oven-safe dish (support as needed with foil)
3. Cut banana down the middle lengthwise (try to not break in half)

What's Happening at the House

It has been a while since I've posted a house update, so I thought I'd take some time to share what's been going on. Since I knew March was going to be such a busy month for us, I anticipated well beforehand that we'd be spending our time looking for furniture for our house, getting the bedrooms set up, and working on our yard. While the bedrooms are still not as put together as I'd like them to be, we have made tremendous progress, and we can actually have people come over without having to clarify why our house looks like (a) a construction zone or (b) a storage unit.

Bedrooms and Furniture

I had no idea how difficult it would be to pick out furniture. While we are far from having a perfectly furnished home, I am excited to finally see our furniture coming together, piece by piece. Our first target room was our master bedroom.

We found mattresses at the Sears Presidents' Day sale, a king bed at World Market (an exceptional steal by the way), and our quilt at Anthropologie. When we were able to put it all together and hang our first piece of art, I finally felt like I was at home.

PYRC #8: Creamy Grilled Chicken Piccata

Can you say yum yum yum yum yum? This Pinterest recipe was a definite score for me and currently stands at the top of my Pinterest recipe list. I have no doubt that it will remain a top contender throughout my Pinterest Yummy Recipe Challenge (PYRC). I could have never guessed how delicious this pasta and chicken would be, but considering that it originated from The Pioneer Woman cooking show, I really shouldn't have been surprised.

So what exactly did we have this weekend? Creamy Grilled Chicken Piccata.

PYRC #7: Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

Ok, so this Pinterest recipe seems a bit too easy BUT it is on my Yummy board so whether now or later, one day it was going to have to get checked off my list. It just so happened that I had four tomatoes in the fridge that desperately needed to be used, so when I saw that I had all the ingredients to make these baked parmesan tomatoes, I knew the timing was perfect.

PYRC #6: Roasted Red Salsa & Avocado Fries with Cilantro Lemon Dipping Sauce

Because our house is “under construction,” I’ve been refraining from having friends over, but since it’s been almost four months since we’ve moved in, I finally gave in a couple of weekends ago, and we had a cookout. In order to embrace the currently non-remodeled look of our home, I decided to welcome my friends with a message.

I then proceeded to let my friends write all over the walls with permanent markers and paint pens. Considering the wallpaper is getting ripped off or covered over, it really mattered none whatsoever.

Anyway, Jeff and I decided we were going to have a fajita cookout, and since we were having fajitas, I decided to pick out a couple of complimentary Pinterest recipes: roasted red salsa and avocado fries with cilantro lemon dipping sauce. These two items were perfect for the menu: chips and salsa, guacamole, avocado fries, beef fajitas (marinated by Jeff), Mexican cream corn, black beans and refried beans. Yum yum yum!

Salsa Roja (Roasted Red Salsa)

Chicago Day 4: Farewell to the City

Finally, I've made it to day 4, our final day of the Chicago trip. Since we booked a late flight home that night, it enabled us an entire extra day to sight see.

After checking out of the hotel, we took a stroll down the Magnificent Mile en route to Navy Pier.

Chicago Day 3: St. Patrick's Day

I've always heard Chicago had some of the best St. Patty's festivities in the nation, so that fact this year's festivities (which always take place on a Saturday) actually fell on the day of St. Patrick's day (and Caitlin's birthday) made the the timing of our trip perfect.

While we did not necessarily rise and shine at the crack of dawn, many of the town's party-goers did. Bennigans was already pretty wild by the time we passed it at 10 a.m. - games, drinks, ice block shots, and lots of people.