Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownie Bars - YUM!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownie Bars

 

You get a double dose of delicious with these double-layered brownies!

Yield: 16-24 bars

Ingredients

For the brownies

• ¾ cup butter
• 6 oz dark chocolate, chopped
• 1½ cups sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar, packed
• 1½ tsp vanilla
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

For the peanut butter cheesecake

• 8 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened
• ¼ cup butter, softened
• 1 egg
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9x13-inch baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the butter and chocolate for the brownies. Microwave on high for 60 seconds. Stir. Continue to microwave in 15-second intervals, stirring after each, until both the chocolate and the butter are melted.
3. Whisk the sugars into the chocolate mixture. Whisk in the vanilla and eggs until well-combined. Stir in the flour until it is just incorporated.
4. Pour the brownie batter into the prepared pan and spread it out evenly with an offset spatula. Sprinkle it with the chocolate chips. Set aside while you prepare the peanut butter cheesecake.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the egg, sugar, salt, and vanilla on high for 2 minutes. Mix in the peanut butter on high for 2 minutes. Pour the cream cheese layer over the brownie layer, spreading it evenly and smoothly until it covers the whole pan.
6. Bake for 38-42 minutes or until the top is golden and the center is set but still a bit loose, as it will cook more as it cools.
7. Allow to cool for at least one hour and then cover and refrigerate for at least three hours or overnight. Cut into squares and serve.

Notes

Slightly adapted from Peanut Butter Comfort: Recipes for Breakfasts, Brownies, Cakes, Cookies, Candies, and Frozen Treats Featuring America's Favorite Spread

Taken from http://joanne-eatswellwithothers.com/2014/01/peanut-butter-cheesecake-brownie-bars.html#_a5y_p=3163147

The Adaptive Experience

There are always a good assortment of things going on in Provo and the surrounding town, but this one caught my eye and its Free! Below is a copy of the description of the even from Provo Recreation.

This is a FREE event held at the 

Provo Recreation Center

Friday, February 27 from 6-10PM.

We're happy to announce our second annual Adaptive Experience event! We welcome people of all ages and ability levels to come and experience unique recreational activities, from wheelchair basketball and goalball (a sport played without vision), to a unique chocolate-tasting experience and sensory booths, there is something for everyone. Make sure to come early to sign-up for a time slot to participate in one of these activities. Other options include demonstrations of adaptive youth and adult yoga, tai chi, youth tumbling, face painting, art projects, community vendors, prizes and more. We'll end the night with an inspirational speech by Utah Rush's wheelchair basketball coach, and then our city team with take on his team for an exhibition game you don't want to miss! Thank you for supporting us in bringing adaptive programs to Provo City.

Meet Caitie Stewart

Meet Caitie Stewart! 

Caitie has been in our ward about 1.5 years. She graduated from BYU and has been a pediatric nurse at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City for 2 years.

She recently had her sweet baby Trey in September. She LOVES bein' a mama but is also working part-time. Her husband is finishing up his Master's in Accounting this April and plans to work for Deloitte in Salt Lake City afterwards.

Caitie and her husband met in their BYU single's ward while living in the Elms in 2010. They were married June 17, 2011. A fun fact about Caitie and her husband is they were sealed by her husband's grandpa. 

Caitie loves any kind of exercise, but especially running. She loves to train for half-marathons. She also loves reading, crafting, shopping of all kinds, road biking, hiking, tennis, camping, and basically anything outdoors. She is a big fan of any kind of chocolate, and likes spicy Mexican food. Another fun fact about Caitie is she worked at Red Robin all throughout college as a server. She was the red robin mascot on several occasions. Her favorite times as a mascot were at the Little League World Series in Salt Lake City. She raced other mascots around the bases during the 7th inning stretches. Caitie loves Harry Potter and always will. She's currently rereading all of them. She loves to try out anything on the best seller list. She loves girly chick flicks and the Hunger Games. She can't get enough of the Goldbergs, Modern Family, or Friends, and laughes when she admits she's a devoted Bachelor watcher...much to her husband's dismay. ;)  

She probably love Holidays more than 90% of the population does, and she loves her Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel :) 

Learn more about Caitie on her blog http://natecaitiestewart.blogspot.com

Easiest Cake Mix Cookies in the World!

This is seriously the easiest desert to make and tastes amazing.  All you need is:

• 1 cake mix (it doesn't matter what kind)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup oil

Mix all ingredients until moist then roll into balls. Place on greased cookie sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes!

Feel free to add nuts or chocolate chips! If the mixture feels too dry you can add another egg or a bit more oil. It's hard to go wrong with this recipe!

Relief Society Lesson 2/8/2015 "Pray Always"

Many of us have a daily routine. Our activities include eating, sleeping, showering, cleaning, cooking, and other various things. Does you daily routine include prayer?

How essential is it that we make prayer part of our daily routine?

In any relationship, communication is crucial. Can you imagine your marriage if you only talked when something was wrong or troubling you? Relationships do not survive healthily without communication and our relationship with our Heavenly Father is no different. We need to keep a transparent relationship with our Heavenly Father. It is important to be communicating with Him when things are both good and bad.

Have you had a friend who only talks to you when they want or need something from you? It can be frustrating and difficult to deal with. Don't be that person to your Heavenly Father. This being said, if we are not the best at daily prayer this does not by any means that we cannot pray when things are rough and when we need help. Heavenly Father loves us! He wants to bring us peace and happiness to all areas of our life.

Reasons to Make Prayer a Priority
1. Jesus Christ Commanded us to Pray Always.
There are many scripture references to the importance of prayer. Such as Matt 6:13, Luke 18:1, and Matt 26:41. Prayer is designed to help us with temptations and fight worldly evils. It is a source of comfort and strength from our Heavenly Father.

2. Blessings
Prayer brings us blessings! Whether someone you know is sick or you need help studying for a test, prayer can only be beneficial.

3. Improve the Relationship with Heavenly Father

Picture the painting of Jesus at the door with no knob. How open is your door today? Prayer can open that door more, if we do not pray that door can't open. Our Father is there for us if we only let him in. No man can do his best without prayer

4. Faith
Heavenly Father wants to give us peace and comfort but we must have faith in his timing.


Lets say that you never work out. If you try to start working out every day you may last a while but chances are you will eventually fail your goal and become discouraged. Set realistic goals. Start with working out 3 times a week, then start working out 4, then 5, and so forth. If you find that your frequency of prayer had decreased apply this method.

Meet Liz Harmon!

Meet Liz Harmon!

Liz has been in the ward since February 2014. Right now she gets to stay home with her little baby, and is loving it!

She met her husband in their BYU singles ward.  He served his mission in Louisville, KY, which is where Liz is from.  When he heard that she was from there, he said he just had to get to know her! They were married in the Timpanogos Temple on July 16, 2011.

Liz absolutely loves reading.  She is also writing a book just for fun, and it's going great!  She loves to be active--softball, basketball, and ice skating are some of her favorite active things to do. She loves to play the piano and can't wait to get a house of her own to put a piano in because she misses having one so much!
Liz absolutely loves blueberries and all of the super hero movies that have been coming out lately--Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, etc..  Her favorite books will always be the Harry Potter series. She has watched a lot of TV shows!  Liz has a chronic illness and has had to be in bed for most of the past 3 and a half years so she says she's watched nearly every TV show on Netflix about 5 times each. Some of her favorite are The Office, Parks and Recreation, Malcolm in the Middle, Once Upon a Time, Revenge, Burn Notice, Arrow, Chuck, Downton Abbey, Scrubs, Royal Pains, Psych, Monk, The Blacklist, Call the Midwife, My Name is Earl, Gilmore Girls, Hart of Dixie,Bones, Arrested Development, Eureka, The Originals, The X-Files, Better off Ted, Alphas, Heroes, Bob's Burgers, and so much more!

Liz has shared that she has a chronic auto-immune illness called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  There's no known cause and no known cure, so it has been a rough ride, but she's slowly learning about it and how it affects her body. Now that she doesn't have a rough pregnancy to deal with, she's slowly starting to be able to feel better and do more.  She says to feel free to ask about her illness if you want, She is completely fine talking about it :)

To learn more about Liz follow her blog! whenthepiggiescomehome.wordpress.com

Relief Society Lesson 2/1/2015

Many of us, if not all of us, have questions about the Temple. This week we learned about where we can go to find the answers to our questions. They taught that as we search for these answers, we should look with spiritual eyes, and a prayerful heart.

We are so blessed to have so many resources we can turn to and can help answer our questions. One resource we were encouraged to go to was lds.org. On lds.org one will find conference talks, scriptures, manuals, and other things that can be a great guide in answering our questions. Below are a list and explanation of some of the resources, and we encourage you to continue to explore lds.org and see what is available.

Search Bar

The search bar is a great tool, and it is found on the lds.org’s home page. You can input almost any topic and have a number of results come up. Topics like repentance, baptism can be searched, along with other topics like the Garments, and baptism for the dead could be searched as well. This is a great starting point, and it will give you many results to choose from.

Teachings

Teachings is a tab found on the lds.org’s homepage. There you can find teachings from the first presidency, prophets and apostles, general conference, gospel topics, and broadcasts. It’s a great place to search if you want to hear what the leaders of the Church have said on a topic. Also it’s a great place to get help for your next talk.

Gospel Topics

Gospel topics is found under the Teachings tab. Gospel topics is one of the best resources. There you can find information on almost any topic. Topics are organized alphabetically, and presented in essay format. There you can find topics like word of wisdom, media, temples, garments, and mores. I have looked here many times and it is really helpful.

Handbook 2

Handbook 2 can be found on lds.org and on your gospel library. This is a great source for the saints. It discusses callings and duties in the church. If you have questions about how to perform your calling and other things, come here. In class we searched how to properly care for our garments, and it told us in a clear and understandable manner.

Scriptures

The scriptures are the standard works, Bible, Book of Mormon, D&C, Pearl of Great Price. The questions we have are spiritual questions and the standard works can provide spiritual answers. The scriptures are the Lord’s way of talking to his children.

Resources

Resources is a tab on lds.org’s home screen. There you can find things for callings, for the family, temples, family history, and more.

Study helps

Study helps are the pages found in between the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and can be found on lds.org as well. Here is the topical guide, Bible dictionary, and maps. This is also a good place to start if you are trying to search topics in the scriptures, or understand certain terms found in the scriptures.

Again we all have questions about the Gospel, and most of us have questions about things concerning the temple. Prayerfully search for answers, go to these sources, trust in our Heavenly Father, and look with spiritual eyes. Some of our answers will come right away, and some will take time, but they will come.