Little Bit of Sweetness

I went back to work yesterday after a much needed mental health break. Testing season puts a large burden upon teachers and students, so being a Reading Specialist I'm left overwhelmed by the importance the school board places on these standardized tests and heartbroken to see the terrified faces on test day. As an educator, I'm grateful to work in public schools, it's a privilege, but as a parent, I'm relieved we decided private school is what's best for our family and I'll never have to look into the face of a 4, 8, 11 or 12-year-old and see them worried about something I find overemphasized and often arbitrary in its results. That talk is for another day. The important point here is that after a week of popping up to pack lunches and loving it, I struggled this morning. I wondered if I could get away with water, an orange and a hardboiled egg as lunch.

I knew the answer was no, so I did the right thing and composed sandwiches of roasted chicken, balsamic syrup, mozzarella, tomato, lettuce and red onion on ciabatta bread. I left the chicken off of mine, since I gave up meat long ago, but it was still so good. I did keep the orange and the water but added some slices of yellow pepper for color, kidding, I added them because they were on hand, nutritious and a quick slice. Still, I wasn't satisfied, there wasn't anything sweet and everyone needs a little kiss of sweetness in the middle of their day, so it was Martha Stewart to the rescue (as always). Sunday, I found a yummy yummy recipe, in the April 2011 issue of Everyday Food, for Fudgy Rocky Road Bars.

The recipe isn't on the site yet, but I'll link to it when it arrives. I didn't stop at one batch and I didn't do it the same way the second time. The first time I made the recipe as printed but for the second batch, I substituted cashews for the almonds and caramel for the marshmallow crème., my version is below. Delicious and simple, what's not to love, luckily there were just enough pieces left for all the lunches and one for me to eat while I drove to work. I'll make another batch tonight, not sure if I'll change it up or stay true to the original.

8 graham crackers

1 ½ cups of cashews, toasted and roughly chopped

1 cup of caramel

1 bag (12 ounces) of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 can (14 ounces) condensed milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line bottom of a 9-by-13-inch pan with graham crackers, breaking to fit, if necessary. Bake until crackers are lightly toasted, about 8 minutes. Sprinkle with cashews and dollop with caramel.
2. Set a heatproof bowl over but not in a pot of simmering water, combine chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chocolate melts and mixture is thick and smooth. Pour chocolate mixture over caramel and cashews; working quickly swirl together chocolate mixture and caramel using a thin knife.
3. Refrigerate until set, about an hour or so then cut into squares, about 18

Have a great day.