Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Frozen Pie

Before I start, let me say this: my children are very angry with all of you.

I put the poll up on the blog and they just KNEW you would choose cookies and cream. Each day they checked the blog excited to see their favorite race to the finish line. And each day it was with a mixed sense of excitement and desperation that they checked the blog to see Reese Cup overtake C&C as your selection.

Alas, it was not meant to be. They would like to say the following to you:

“We are not happy. That is all.”

Moving right along…

I, on the other hand, was ecstatic! You all know my love affair with peanut butter. So much do I love the stuff that I am on partial restriction from it. But for you, I will make the sacrifice, take one for the team…ah…who are we kidding! I’m as ready to dig in as you are!

(side note: please excuse the fuzzy picture. My digital cam is sick. I took it with my phone and…well, I’m not the best photog anyway so this did not make it better! You get the gist though right?)

Reese Cup Protein Frozen pie

Ingredients

Crust:

2 ½ c. Fiber One original cereal

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tbsp no-calorie sweetener

4 tbsp. light butter spread (we use Blue Bonnet Light…and before you say “ack?!?!?” consider that you are sharing the love—and calories—with other people)

Filling:

1 box sugar-free fat free chocolate fudge pudding mix

½ c. PB2 (if you don’t have or use PB2 you can use the same amount of creamy peanut butter but adjust your calories accordingly)

12 oz. unflavored 0% Greek yogurt

1/2 c. skim milk

3 scoops chocolate protein powder (or, if you really want to get fancy, go for chocolate peanut butter protein powder)

1/2 cup fat free whipped topping

Optional Topping:

1 package of Atkins chocolate peanut butter cups, chopped (or, in the absence of those you can use sugar-free chocolate peanut butter cups)

Directions:
First, prepare the pie crust by crushing the Fiber One cereal in a food processor or blender (although we strongly recommend a food processor). If you don’t have a food processor, my favorite method is to put it in a large freezer bag and go over it a few times with a rolling pin or whack it with a meat mallet (this works well if you are cooking while pissed off).

Once you’ve got your crumbs, add sweetener and cocoa powder and blend thoroughly before adding butter spread and mixing with your fingers. A loose, crumbly mixture should result. Press this into a pie plate and bake it for 15 minutes at 350. Then transfer to a cooling rack to cool thoroughly.

In a bowl, combine the protein powder and milk and whisk until smooth. If necessary add more milk, one tablespoon at a time, to achieve a smooth, thick paste. If there are some lumps leftover this is ok.

Add the Greek yogurt, pudding mix, sweetener, and PB2 and beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes (or you can whisk it until everything is well mixed).

Add whipped topping and fold with a spatula (do NOT use a hand mixer and be gentle!) until completely incorporated. Your mixture will be thick since there isn’t a whole lot of liquid. If it is too thick to spread, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it is “stir-able” but it should ideally be fairly thick.

Spoon mixture (which will be thick) into cooled pie crust. The best method I found is to put it in one big lump in the middle of your crust and gently coax it outward with a baking spatula.

The name of this pie is something of a misnomer. You can certainly freeze it (and I do) but that’s not necessary if you like a softer pie. It is rather puddingy when you use the fridge, but the addition of the yogurt thickens the filling consierably so a few hours in the fridge works just as well.

Before serving add chopped peanut butter cups. Refrigerate (or freeze for longer storage) unused portions and let stand about 20 minutes before serving.

Now we cut ours into 16 slices (just because….um…we do…). For this pie that’s a good thing because it is RICH. For those that use Daily Plate or Live Strong, here is the entry for this pie which you can easily plug into your daily plan! (for those that don’t use it…check out the stats anyway…they’re pretty damn good!)

How big you slice yours? That’s between you and God.

Edited to add: for those who are purists or just don’t happen to have PB2 on hand, you can certainly use the same amount of creamy peanut butter. This will alter the calories, fat and protein content considerably, though, so run your own stats!