Monday, April 28, 2014

{Recipe Recap} Banana Pudding Cheesecake Bars

I promise you, I haven’t given up baking or these Monday spoonful of sugar posts.  It’s just that blogging has moved to the back burner (haha, no pun intended) since going back to work.  I just don’t have the time I once did thanks to an earlier bedtime, not that that matters much when it comes to my level of fatigue.  I feel like I will never ever feel rested again.  And I wasn’t a great sleeper before having Connor so it’s not like I’m used to a solid 8 or more hours of sleep a night.  I used to consider 6.5 – 7 hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep a good night.  See, I don’t ask for much.  ::Sigh::  One day, we’ll get this new normal figured out.

But enough about NOT blogging; let’s be happy there IS a post this Monday and be even happier that I have a great recipe to share, one I encourage you guys to bookmark and make ASAP.

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Last week when we were coming back to Raleigh from our weekend in Charlotte and SC, the McHusband’s car had a fuel system-related problem that caused the car to stop going.  That’s putting it very simply.  Luckily, it was a beautiful day and we were only 30 minutes of home when we got stranded on the side of the road.  Our wonderful neighbor, Sherri, was kind enough to come get Connor and me while the McHusband rode back in the tow truck. 

Sherri’s birthday was Saturday, and I knew I had to do a little something for her to show her how much we appreciated her help and her in general.  She is a great neighbor and you won’t find a nicer woman. 

I asked her daughter what treats she might like. Sara said she likes typical Southern desserts and anything peanut butter so I decided to go with something banana pudding-esque

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I liked that these bars used Golden Oreos for the crust; you can’t go wrong with an Oreo crust no matter the color of the cookie.

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The McHusband commented on the crust, saying he really liked it.  I appreciated that it didn’t fall apart so the cookie-to-butter ratio was spot on.  (Considering the name of the blog these came from is Crazy for Crust, I’m thinking I shouldn’t be so surprised that the crust turned out so delicious.)

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I added some Extra Creamy Cool Whip to the top, then finished the bars off with a Nilla Wafer.  The recipe didn’t call for that little garnish, but it’s just not right to have banana pudding without Nilla Wafers.

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Neither the McHusband nor I are cheesecake lovers – likers, sure, but there are other desserts we’d rather have – but these bars won us over.  They are sweeter than your typical cheesecake and in fact would’ve had a touch less “bite” to them if I’d used riper bananas.  Yep, for once, I didn’t have spotted bananas on my counter.

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These were easy to make and I think they are fairly impressive because, really, when ISN’T cheesecake impressive?  Put these on your list of to-makes this summer.

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Hope this helps get your week off to a great start!

{Recipe adapted from here}

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