I don’t know about y’all, but I think cookies are pretty darn yummy. My kids love them, my husband eats them for breakfast, and I like to eat the cookie dough before it makes it to the oven. Don’t tell anyone I said that last part though, okay?

These cookies aren’t as good for eating raw because of all the oats, but once they are baked up they are just delicious. They have a more “grown up” taste…not too sickly sweet like a lot of cookies can be. That being said, my kids were happy to eat a handful of cookies each in one sitting. I didn’t mind too much because these really are chock full of good things. Sure, there’s sugar and butter and a sprinkling of chocolate chips, but there is also oats, peanuts, whole wheat flour, and (Have you had your) Wheaties (today?). Healthy cookies! Hallelujah!

You see how my little cookie dough balls are all pretty uniform in size? Well, that’s because I use a cookie scoop and let me be honest for one second here: The cookie scoop is one of my most favorite gadgets in the kitchen. True story.

When I was younger my mama used to tell me (repeatedly) to make sure the cookies were all the same size. I hated that rule, because sometimes you just want a couple of extra large cookies mixed in there for you and your little brother to fight over. Also, it’s kinda hard to get all that dough into the same sized ball! My mama wasn’t having it, though. I thought she was just mean, so when I first baked cookies on my own I made them all sorts of different sizes. I was rebelling. I was going to TEACH HER A LESSON.

Turns out my mama knew what she was talking about and I was left with a bunch of undercooked and overcooked cookies.

You don’t even want to know the things I shouted when I pulled those cookies out of the oven.

Sorry I’ve been MIA for the last couple of weeks. We close on our new house this Friday, so things may be a little slower around here than usual for the next week or two. I promise to be back with lots of recipes just as soon as things settle down, though. Oh, and I just bought a convection oven for the new house. Just had to share with people that might be as excited about that as I am. Most of the people that do not live inside my computer have just been looking at me like I’m nuts and asking what a confectionery oven is.

Ranger Cookies

• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups rolled oats (I used old fashioned, but quick oats work well, too)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups Wheaties cereal
• 1 cup salted peanuts
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, oats, baking powder, and baking soda. When well combined, mix in the Wheaties, peanuts, and chocolate chips.

Place rounded teaspoonfuls of dough (or be like me and use a cookie scoop!) on an ungreased cookie sheet. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart. Flatten each cookie slightly with a glass bottom dipped in sugar.

Bake 10-12 minutes, cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute and then remove to cooling rack. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Is it too soon for another Mexican-ish recipe? Y’all seemed to love the Taco Pie, so I have high hopes that you’ll enjoy this recipe just as much. I sure did.

I am a huge fan of the cheese enchiladas from our local Mexican restaurant and believe me, I have tried my best to recreate them at home. I just can’t ever get them right, though. The cheese, the sauce, the consistency of it all just never seems to work out the way I imagine it too.

I still haven’t mastered that recipe, but I don’t really care anymore. Now I have these cream cheese chicken enchiladas and they are, dare I say it, even better. They are so creamy with just the perfect amount of spice and the most genius addition I can think of: corn. Yep, corn. In an enchilada.

The corn just gives these this perfect little unexpected sweet crunch. I love it. I bet you will too.

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas
Recipe slightly adapted from Taste and Tell

• 5 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup light sour cream
• 10 ounces enchilada sauce (canned is just fine)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese, divided
• 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed (canned corn works just fine, but drain it first)
• 4 oz. diced green chiles (I used the tiny can you get by the taco sauce)
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and pepper
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 8 8-inch flour tortillas

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 9×13 dish with cooking spray.

In the bowl of your mixer cream together the cream cheese, sour cream, and 1/2 of the enchilada sauce. Stir in 1/2 cup of each type of cheese.

In a second bowl toss together the chicken, corn, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper, green chiles, and half of the scallions. Add the chicken mixture to the cheese mixture and combine well.

Spread about half of the remaining enchilada sauce in the bottom of the baking dish.

Spoon the filling into each tortilla, roll the tortilla up, and place in the baking dish with the seam down. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the filled tortillas and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle with the remaining scallions and serve.

Things seem to be moving at warp speed around here lately. We bought a new house (cue the applause) and are having inspections and packing boxes and designing rooms and wandering when our money tree is going to start growing. I’ve been busy, y’all. I don’t have a recipe for you today (tomorrow…pinky promise!), but I do have a review up for Juicy Juice. Included in the review are adorable pictures of my beautiful children and a giveaway for a $100 Visa gift card. Wanna see my babies and maybe win 100 bucks? Just click HERE to read my review!

Cheesecake. Cheeeeeeeesecake. Cheeeeeeeeeeeesecaaaaaaaaake.

What? I like cheesecake, okay? I like to say it, I like to bake it, I like to smell it, I like to eat it.

Cheesecake. It is good.

My dream cheesecake has a chocolate crust and raspberry topping. Unfortunately, raspberries are fruit and do you know what my husband thinks about fruit? Bad things, that’s what. The man will eat a banana every now and again, but that is the only fruit he likes. He’s so weird. I’m not sure I can stay married to a man that doesn’t enjoy a good berry every now and again.

Enter these cheesecake bites. I swirled some fresh raspberry puree into my portion of cheesecake bites and I swirled in a bit of Nutella for my husband. We both cried tears of joy and decided that maybe our marriage would survive after all. I love a happy ending, don’t you?

These cheesecake bites are so fun. They’re pretty simple too and bake up much faster than a full sized cheesecake. It’s  also a lot easier to sneak one of these in your mouth while hiding behind the refrigerator door so that your kids don’t ask if they can have dessert for breakfast too! Not that I would ever do that or anything.

Cheesecake Bites
slightly adapted from Annie’s Eats (whose blog I ADORE

For the crust:

• 2 cups Oreo crumbs (just crush the cookies, filling and all, in a food processor or blender)
• 4 tbsp butter, melted

For the topping:

• 6 oz fresh raspberries
• 2 tbsp sugar
• Nutella, chocolate, caramel topping (only if you want a variety of toppings, optional)

For the filling:

• 2 lbs cream cheese (4 8oz packages), at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Enlist your children to line the muffin pans with paper liners. Combine the crust ingredients in a small bowl. Stir together with a fork until the Oreo crumbs are moist. Spoon 1 tbsp of the crust into each paper liner. Press flat with the back of a spoon. Bake for 5 minutes to set the crust. Transfer to a cooling rack.

To make the topping, add the raspberries and sugar to a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Press through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Set aside.

To make the filling, add the cream cheese to the bowl of your mixer. Beat the cream cheese until fluffy on medium speed. Beat in the sugar until the mixture is smooth. Mix in the salt and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time beating until each is fully incorporated.

To assemble, add 3 tablespoons of filling to each cupcake liner/crust. Dot a 1/2 teaspoon of whichever filling you are using (I vote for raspberry!) on to the batter 3 times. You should have 3 separate dots of filling, 1/2 teaspoon each. Use a toothpick to lightly swirl the filling in to the batter creating a pretty swirl. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes.

Bake until the filling is set, about 22 minutes, rotating the pans half way through. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill at least 4 hours before serving.

Yield: between 24 and 30 cupcakes – I had enough filling for 30 cupcakes, but only enough crust for 24. That being said, I went heavy with the crust because I like lots!

Alright, alright. I can hear you all rolling your eyes and looking at that picture saying “Oooh, Karly can open up a tube of crescent rolls and bake them! She’s magical!” Quit with the sarcasm, people.

Those crescent rolls up there are special. I really am magical! It’s true. You see, I took a boring (but delicious) tube of refrigerated crescent rolls and I opened it up. It was hard, lemme tell ya. Sometimes the tubes don’t pop the way they are supposed to! It’s horrible! And turrible. Just turrible. (Also, yes, I meant “terrible” but my husband says it with a “u” and I kinda like it.)

After I had those crescent rolls open do you know what I had to do? I had to unroll them! Oh, the work. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it!

Then I did something wild and crazy. Also, magical. Very magical, indeed.

I placed two squares of Hershey’s milk chocolate right in the center of each little crescent roll triangle. Then I rolled it all up, popped it in the oven, and sat back and congratulated myself on the magic that I had just created.

Seriously, y’all, the chocolate just transforms inside the crescent roll into something amazing. Chocolate is good, but chocolate baked in a crescent roll is super-fantastic. It’s almost like the frosting you lick off a donut. What? You don’t lick the frosting off your donuts? The crescent rolls really aren’t very sweet so they play against that yummy chocolate just perfectly.

Whether you make these for a super simple breakfast or totally easy after school snack, you are going to go nuts for these things. Absolutely nuts. In a good way, I hope.

Chocolate Crescents

• 1 tube crescent rolls (I prefer Pillsbury)
• 2 bars Hershey’s milk chocolate candy (you’ll have some left over for snacking on)

Pre-heat your oven per the directions on the tube of dough. Unroll each dough and place on the baking sheet. Place 2 small squares of chocolate in the center of each triangle of dough. Roll dough up in a crescent shape over the chocolate being careful to seal the edges so the chocolate doesn’t leak out. Bake as instructed on the crescent rolls packaging. Devour while warm with a glass of cold milk.