Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

You might have noticed that I don’t post a lot of recipes here. That’s because it makes me a little uneasy to do so. Recipes are the intellectual property of someone after all, and it doesn’t seem right to post them without giving credit to their creator. But I see this happening a LOT on frugal blogs. I mean come on, it defies belief that people are coming up with these amazing, delicious, creative recipes all on their own. I think they are getting them from someone else, and not admitting it.

Ok, maybe I’m wrong about that (but I don’t think so). But today I can proudly say that I came up with something all on my own. I thought it up this morning while trying to come up with something yummy for my hubby’s lunch.

And now I will share it with you. True, it was inspired by my desire to lessen my dependence on convenience foods, so it mimics a favorite convenience food. So maybe that’s sneaky? Since I put my own creative spin on it, I think I’m good. Here it is for what it’s worth:

1.Take snack-crackers left over from the Christmas party (An Aside: are crackers a convenience food? Since it is possible to make crackers, I say Yes. But these are left-overs, so I have to use them up. And what about peanut-butter?. Oh, lordy, it’s a slippery slope).

2. Slather one with peanut butter, and then top with another cracker.

3. But wait! - before you put that second topper cracker on, sprinkle some red pepper flakes on top of the peanut butter to make them hot and spicy. I did this for my hubby because he really likes spicy Thai food.

4. Here’s the really fun part: Make a bunch of plain, peanut-butter only “sandwiches”, with a few of the spicy ones sprinkled throughout. Then don’t tell your hubby you did this. Surprise!

Hee hee that’s funny.

After I did this, it occurred to me that this type of snack is just perfect for sharing with co-workers. And while it’s definitely ok (and a housewife’s sacred duty) to punk your hubby every once in a while, unsuspecting strangers are an entirely different matter. So I went ahead and told him there was a spicy surprise in amongst its more bland fellows.

So off to work he goes with a delicious snack, accompanied by my clear conscience. I hope he likes them.

P.S. Update: I wrote this post a few days ago, and am just getting around to publishing it today. My husband said that he and his friends couldn’t figure out which snack was the hottie! Guess I didn’t put enough red pepper flakes.

Yay! More slow-cooker fun: last night for dinner I made orange chicken (from a Year of Slow-Cooking) and orange pudding cake (from the Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes) for dinner. As you probably guessed, I had some orange juice I needed to use up. Both were yummy.