Churro Cheesecake Bombs

It's easy to wake up on Monday morning and think to yourself "wow, I really could have used my free time this past weekend a lot better."  Or feel like you didn't get enough rest in, or that you didn't get enough free-time or me-time. This past weekend was a perfect weekend for me, one full of relaxing, spending time together as a family and watching some sports games that didn't end at all how we had hoped. Oh well.

The hardest part about the weekend for me is trying to keep my almost-2-year-old from destroying the house so we can actually enjoy lounging, instead of sitting there, surrounded by billions of little toys, feeling like we live in a dump... a toy dump. I love my son, I do, but right now he's at the stage where his idea of "playing with toys" is actually just to take a toy, place it in a random spot in the house, then get another toy and place it in the trash, then get another toy and throw it at his sister, and so on. If I find one more puzzle piece in the sink I'm probably going to break.

On Sunday we had planned to watch the Packers vs. Seahawks game, followed by the UFC fight and it was going to be my job to make all the snacks (of course!) I made my Crispy BBQ Wings, Jalapeño Popper dip (coming later this week!) and these amazing Churro Cheesecake Bombs that I'm going to share with you right now!

The first step in making a truly delicious Cheesecake Bomb is by making a truly delicious cheesecake mixture! Then, you take that truly delicious cheesecake mixture and stuff it inside of a triangle of crescent roll dough. Easy peasy, right?

The next step is baking them until they're golden brown...

Like this! Then you roll them in some cinnamon sugar...

And Voilà! You now have yourself a plate of delicious Churro Cheesecake Bombs to serve to your sports-watching crew! How easy was that? Try not to eat them all before you serve them... I know it will be a challenge!

These bombs taste great slightly warm or at room temperature, it just depends on your preference! I haven't tried refrigerating them yet because they never stick around for very long. If you have any that do make it into the fridge, leave me a comment below and tell me how they taste ;)

Churro Cheesecake Bombs:

{Print Recipe}

Ingredients:

• 2 cans crescent roll dough
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place cream cheese, egg, 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla and lemon juice in a stand mixer and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes), making sure to scrape the bowl at least twice (gotta get those cream cheese clumps incorporated!)

Unroll crescent dough and divide into triangles. Place a rounded tablespoon full of the cream cheese mixture on the wide part of the crescent roll, fold over, seal all edges, forming a "ball" shape, then fold the thin end of the crescent dough over the top of your bomb. Place on your baking sheet and repeat with remaining crescent rolls.

Allow bombs to cool slightly, then combine cinnamon and remaining sugar in a shallow dish and roll each bomb in the cinnamon sugar to coat.

Bake in preheated oven for 14-16 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes 16 Bombs.

Linked to:
Flour me with love, skip to my lou, the ny melrose family, buns in my oven, ducks in a row

Apple Crisp Bars made with Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal

“This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Post Pebbles, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #PostWalgreens http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.”

One of my family's favorite parts of Fall is all of the apple recipes floating around online! I love seeing delicious, buttery apple-filled desserts that make your whole house smell amazing. Nothing beats the smell of freshly baked apple pies, crisps and bars! Nothing, I say! Except maybe... no, wait, there's nothing! That's it! 

I recently had the fabulous opportunity to create a recipe using Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal which is currently on sale at Walgreens for only $1.99 a box! Score! They also had Fruity Pebbles, Great Grains and Grape Nuts for the same price, so I'm going to be going back for some of those for some other recipes I have floating around in my head... but that's another post ;). I knew that I wanted to make something apple-y and delicious using the Honey Bunches of Oats because I thought the cereal would add just the right amount of crunch to some heavently Apple Crisp Bars. Annnnnd I was correct! They were meant to be. The cereal adds such a nice crispiness and crunchiness that my family fell head over heals in love with. 

See this crumbly mixture of sweet, crunchy goodness? It tastes even better than it smells... which is very hard to believe.

I'm now going to be looking for any excuse to make this pan of yumminess. It's definitely going in my family's fall favorites recipes!

Apple Crisp Bars made with Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal:

Ingredients:

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar

1-1/2 cups butter. softened

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup all purpose flour

2-1/2 cups Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal

Filling:

4 medium apples, peeled and sliced about 1/2" thick

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons flour

pinch of salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9"x13" baking dish with cooking spray. 

In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, baking soda, flour and honey bunches of oats cereal until crumbly.  Set aside 1 cup of the mixture and place the remaining mixture in the bottom of your baking dish and press down.

In a large bowl, toss sliced apples with lemon juice, then cinnamon, sugar and flour. Mix well. Pour on top of the crumb mixture and sprinkle remaining 1 cup of crumb mixture over the top.

Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until apples are tender and crumb topping is nice and golden brown. Allow to cool before cutting into bars and serving.

Cut into 15 squares.

{Guest Post} Count Chocula Monster Chow with The Homicidal Homemaker

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Halloween! I have a very special Halloween surprise for you -- an amazing guest post from my extremely talented friend Kaci of The Homicidal Homemaker! Make sure to follow Kaci on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to see more of her amazing creations!

Happy Halloween everyone! I am Kaci Hansen, more commonly known as The Homicidal Homemaker - "Where Home Economics Meets Horror!" I have been dubbed as the Martha Stewart of the Macabre, and have been said to have put the cleaver in June Cleaver. ;) Everyday is Halloween over at my blog, and I am super excited to be doing my first guest blog post ever on this special day! A huge thank you to Devi of Diddles and Dumplings for asking me to be a guest blogger for this Halloween! Not only am I a fan of Devi's blog, but she is actually the first and only other blogger I've ever met from the Central Valley! :)

Chocaholics be warned: you will have a love-hate relationship with my Count Chocula Monster Chow. It starts off with Count Chocula cereal, coated in chocolatey-goodness, and is then mixed with even more chocolate. In case you weren't convinced, it certainly will satisfy any chocolate craving you may be having, but I guarantee that you won't stop munching on it!

Just in case you missed my previous posts, I was given the opportunity by General Mills to make some recipes using their Monster Cereals, including the newly-resurrected Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy! I previously posted a super yummy recipe for my Frankenberry Monster Chow! Whether you’re familiar with Chex snack mix as ‘Puppy Chow’ or ‘Muddy Buddies’, this is the same concept…except The Homicidal Homemaker uses the oh-so-delicious chocolatey-ness of Count Chocula cereal!

Like my recipes for my Yummy Mummy Fudge, Count Chocula Chip Cookies, and my Frankenberry Monster Chow, this is a snap to put together, and is super easy! And extremely chocolatey and addictive. And best off all, it's super affordable to put together!

Count Chocula Monster Chow

What You Need:
• 2.5 Cups of Count Chocula Cereal
• 5 oz of chocolate chips
• 6 Tablespoons of powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder

• additional chocolate chips

STEP ONE: Remove marshmallows from cereal, and set aside. Pour cereal pieces into a large Ziplock bag.

STEP TWO: Measure out 1/2 Cup of chocolate chips, and add a few more chocolate chips on top to get approximately 5oz. Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl, in 30-second increments, stirring in between, until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Pour into Ziplock bag, over cereal pieces. Seal bag, and shake to evenly coat the cereal pieces.

STEP THREE: Add powdered sugar and cocoa powder to the Ziplock bag; seal and shake to evenly coat the cereal pieces. After they are fully coated, add reserved marshmallows and extra chocolate chips to the mix.

STEP FOUR: Show your fangs (or put in your plastic ones!), pour into serving bowl, and dig your claws in and enjoy! Have a safe and happy Halloween!