all-natural chocolate + salted peanut butter cups (packed with protein!)

These. are. delish! No, really! They taste like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups minus all of the odd "natural flavoring" taste (read: artificial flavors created by scientists in a lab).

But wait.

There's an added bonus to this delicious, all-natural package. Yes, thats' right: protein! Anyways.. enough talking, on to our treats!

"Grease" your pan. I use a mini cupcake pan, but you could also use this super cute silicone mini peanut butter cup mold. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine:

1/2 cup all natural peanut butter (i like Mara Natha)
1/3 cup chocolate protein powder
1/4 cup plain all natural greek yogurt
1 tsp organic vanilla extract
a squeeze of honey to sweeten

Mix with spatula until combined.

Spoon mixture into pan, taking extra care to flatten on the top & trim neatly around the edges. (Ok, maybe this part isn't that important, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist! ha)

Now, this next step is optional. I like the extra bite that sea salt adds, so I add a couple cranks to the top.  

Put tray into freezer for 20-30 mins until PB hardens up.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper and put it into your freezer (a soon to be home for your chocolate-ified cups).

About 5 minutes before I'm going to take the tray of PB cups out, I'll start melting my chocolate (Enjoy Life's mini chocolate chips). I use a "double boiler" -- well, no, not really a double boiler, but a pot with an inch of water on medium-high heat, and then sit a metal bowl on top of the pot. Then I stir. Stir, stir, stir. Once the chocolate is melted, you're ready to coat  your beautiful little PB cups.

Take the PB cups out of the freezer, and one at a time, remove them from the mold and cover with chocolate. The way I found to work best was to use one of those little corn "skewers" to hold the PB cup and an icing knife to coat (ha ha ha corn skewers.. how nerdy, right?! oh well, whatever works! ;)
As each cup gets coated, put them onto the tray that's chilling in the freezer until set.

Once they've hardened, store them in an airtight container or freezer bag & empty your mail box because you're about to get a whole lot of fan mail! (from friends & fam who are lucky enough to enjoy these little gems, of course! ;)