Baked Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I came across these pictures I took last year and realized I never posted the recipe! We love pancakes. We love cinnamon rolls. This gives you the best of both PLUS there's no standing over the stove top flipping pancakes and being the last person to sit down and enjoy them. I love that this make a giant pan of pancakes and everyone can sit down together and eat at the same time.  I just had to share this recipe now because these baked pancakes make a great Christmas morning treat.

Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

Here is my current go-to recipe for cut-out sugar cookies. I'm a big fan of sugar cookies. Big fan. And I used to think baking cut-out sugar cookies was hard work and not worth all the mess. (Maybe it's because I always turn to this Dropped Cracked Sugar Cookie recipe when I need a fix asap)
But this recipe is not at all difficult and it's only as messy as you (or your little helpers) make it. ;)
Don't limit yourself to baking them only during the holidays! Trust me. After you make them once you'll be sure to make them again and again!

{Crock} Pot Roast

Who doesn't love a good and easy pot roast? I think it has to be one of my favorite comfort foods.
My family loves our tried and true pot roast recipe but figured it wouldn't hurt to try another recipe or two. Varying recipes for Mississippi Pot Roast had overtaken my pinterest and facebook feeds quite a few times before I decided that I must try it and see just what everyone is raving about.  The Mississippi Pot Roast recipe typically calls for 5 ingredients: roast, ranch dressing mix, Au Jus mix, pepperoncini peppers, and butter. When it came time to throw everything in my crock pot I realized I only had 3 of the 5 ingredients. So I improvised and the outcome was still fabulous. I guess I still need to follow that "famous" recipe exactly so I can join the masses in raving about it. But for now I'll leave you with my improvised recipe that had the little mouths in my house asking for seconds!

Homemade Stuffed Crust Pizza

We love pizza around here and this is my go-to pizza dough recipe when I don't have time to wait around for dough to rise or pizza to be delivered! It comes together in minutes and we can seriously have a fresh home-made pizza within 30 minutes! Like most of the recipes I share, this is an easy recipe to change up according to your tastes. Hope you'll try it out soon and see for yourself! 

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes

My mother-in-law made these little cupcakes for a bridal shower recently and I was excited that she had enough to share with me. I added them to the many sweets we baked for my sister's senior recital reception (lots of recipes coming this way!)

These cupcakes are perfect. Not too pumpkin-y and not too spicy. They're perfect with a little dollop of cream cheese frosting on top but they're also very satisfying on their own. Even people who aren't fans of pumpkin admit to loving these cupcakes. Give them a try!

Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese

This is my Aunt Lynnette's recipe and I've loved it for as long as I can remember. I've always been pretty picky about my mac n' cheese. I'm all about real cheddar, real butter, and real rich flavors. My littles like to eat the blue box macaroni on occasion. Bleh. Not me. 

Anyway. This is a recipe any mac n' cheese lover will enjoy. It's super simple and easy to dress up or down according to your own preferences. 

Creamy Mexican Chicken Dip

Ingredients:
2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup (I used homemade, see notes)
1 cup shredded cheese
1 10-oz can of diced tomatoes and green chiles (Rotel)
chopped or shredded chicken

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Stir all ingredients together in 2-quart baking dish.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Serve hot over rice or with tortilla chips.

Notes

• It's not very often that I have any cans of condensed soups on hand so I typically just whip some up as needed. On this particular day I had recently skimmed over this recipe and went from there. I ended up with about 4 cups of the homemade cream of chicken. Here is another good source for cream of soup recipes.

• I used a heaping cup of shredded cheddar cheese but another great option would be the zesty mexican cheese. You can always add a little zest of your own by tossing a few pinches of taco seasoning in with the cheese.

• For the chicken I just grabbed a large chicken breast from the freezer, thawed it, seasoned it with homemade taco seasoning, baked it and chopped it up. This dip is a great way to use up your leftover meats. Any shredded chicken or pork, even cooked ground beef or Italian sausage would be great!
• Oh, and if you make this dip and find a way to photograph it to make it look at all appetizing...hook me up with a better photo, would ya? Just trust me when I tell you that this really does taste better than it looks! ;)  ENJOY!

Peanut Butter Granola

Here is one our favorite go-to snack recipes. It's simple to make, easy to jazz up, and a great healthy (depending on your add-ins ;) ) snack to have any time of the day or night. 

I hope you and yours will enjoy it as well!