Reese's Peanut Butter Bars

Who hasn't wanted to make a pan full of bars that taste just like Reese's cups?!

Hello hello and happy May. I have this easy 5-ingredient recipe to share today that tastes just like a Reese's cup. And it makes a lot of bars that taste just like a Reese's cup, so it's honestly fantastic. It can be cut into whatever size you'd like, so this would be really fun for a party or get-together.

Churro Bars

Delicious bars with loads of cinnamon sugar that taste just like a churro!

I have yet to have an actual churro but I have many churro-flavored treats or things that resemble churros in some way - there's a Cinnamon Toast Crunch churro cereal that is so good! I love dessert bars and these are great. Lots of cinnamon sugar goodness!

M&M Brownies

Classic fudgy brownies with M&Ms and chocolate chips mixed in for extra chocolateness!

This recipe is a very classic brownie recipe with chocolate chips and M&Ms added to it. They are fudgy and perfect with a glass of milk. Can't say much more about it - a solid recipe that is definitely going to be a go-to for me!

Stars and Stripes Cookie Bars

Homemade cookie bars with red, white, and blue sprinkles and a fun herringbone effect on the frosting!

I always forget to make themed holiday treats unless it's one of three holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. But last year, I did remember to make a red, white, and blue treat for the 4th of July AND I have one planned for this year too. I don't really go ham on most holidays which is why I never really post any holiday recipes, but it is fun and brings me back to my childhood where I was always in the kitchen helping my mom or grandma make something fun for any holiday. I love cookie bars and there are a ton of quick ones that use box or pouch mix, but it was super fun to make a homemade version. You could also absolutely add star shape sprinkles on top since you have the stripes. Realistically, you could just switch up the sprinkles and the gel frosting colors and make this go for any holiday!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies

Super soft peanut butter bars with chocolate chips, a chocolate ganache, and peanut butter drizzle

When I was in middle school, there was a little bar treat that was an option for dessert in the cafeteria every day. You got two of them and they were just a regular chocolate chip blondie of some sort. They were super soft and moist. I didn't often get lunch money and if I did, I may not have gotten enough to buy a full lunch. I would buy these chocolate chip blondies and that would be my lunch or I'd split my friend's lunch and we'd each get a bar for dessert. These peanut butter chocolate chip blondies are the closest in texture that I have ever come across in a recipe and it was absolutely unintentional. I had no clue that's what I was getting with this dessert. It was pure nostalgia!

Grinch Sugar Cookie Bars

Your heart will grow three sizes when you make these super easy bars and get to enjoy them over the holidays!

If you notice, this recipe is also in absolutely horrendous lighting...in a foil pan. It was also made last Christmas when we were in an airbnb that was not as stocked for holiday meals as was advertised. Unfortunately, I did not bring my food coloring with me and was unable to find a good Grinch green on the fly a few days before Christmas at a big box store.

However, the takeaway here is that this is a super easy recipe that can be thrown together super quickly and if you can find some chonky heart sprinkles - even better! Just a very classic sugar cookie bar! :)

Banana Pudding Cheesecake Blondies

One of the best crusts on a dessert I've ever eaten and topped with a fluffy smooth no-bake cheesecake, these Blondies will rock your socks off!

I absolutely love this recipe because of the crust - and you will not often hear that from me. I don't care for pie much because the crust is meh. But this crust...guys. It's very reminiscent of banana bread. I mean I would make just the crust and eat it alone. I did like the banana pudding flavored no-bake cheesecake layer too though. It's altogether such a great recipe. Easily a favorite.

M&M Blonde Brownies

The perfect snack when you want something sweet but not overly chocolatey, if that's a thing!

Okay, so I don't know why I didn't realize it before but the name for the dessert blondies comes from combining blonde and brownies. Not sure how on earth I missed that! I just accepted blondies as the name for bars that were not brownies without thinking about it being a combination of words. I love blondies (and brownies alike) and I really enjoy M&Ms as an addition to them. I feel like all my favorites are ones with M&Ms in them. This is a very basic, classic recipe and super easy to make. It's great when you have a craving for something sweet.

Chocolate Mousse Brownies

These rich dark chocolate brownies are topped with the most decadent mousse ever!

I am picky with homemade brownies and cannot figure out if I like dense or cakey brownies, but I do know that I like a center brownie - no edges for me. I was intrigued by these brownies because of the mousse topping. What better way to enjoy a dark chocolate brownie than MOUSSE ON TOP?! The brownies and the mousse both have a little espresso powder in them which really brings out the chocolate flavors. The mousse is so fluffy and delectable

Mint Oreo Brookies #FantasticalFoodFight

Welcome to another Food Fight! Fantastical Food Fight is a group of food bloggers who will get a theme or ingredient each month and make some sort of variation for it. It could be traditional or nontraditional and can be found in a cookbook, on a blog, or be a blogger's own creation! For more details, check out this page.

This month's Fantastical Food Fight theme is MINT CHOCOLATE. With March almost upon us, I figured mint chocolate would be the perfect theme for the month where St. Patrick's Day is celebrated and green food rules! I personally have not had a lot of mint chocolate in a while because I was told not to eat peppermint or chocolate when I had my second SVT episode (I blogged about my journey on my personal blog, if you're interested, but basically it's an arrhythmia where your heart beats super fast. My record is slightly over 250 bpm). However, it's been almost a year since my surgery to correct it, so I am pretty sure I'm allowed to eat whatever now. No restrictions on life. These brookies were the perfect way to enjoy one of my favorite flavor combinations again.

I have to admit that I am not actually too big a fan of Oreos, but I do like treats with Oreos in them. Cookies and cream is actually probably my favorite ice cream flavor now as an adult and any kind of cookies and cream dessert is going to be a favorite of mine for sure. These brownies are oh so fudgy and the bits of mint Oreos were so so so perfect in them. I am so excited to see what other fantastically delicious mint chocolate recipes are shared today. I'm ready for more treats like this! In moderation, of course :)

Cranberry Bliss Bars

These copycat Cranberry Bliss Bars are the perfect winter treat with a chewy sugar cookie base with cranberries and white chocolate topped with cream cheese frosting!

Every year, I look forward to getting the seasonal Cranberry Bliss Bars at Starbucks. We have a little Starbucks in our grocery store and it's a nice little treat to get one while grocery shopping. The cookie part is chewy, the frosting is creamy, the cranberries are tart, and then there's the white chocolate. They are rich little bars, but so delicious. A must for the winter season, if you ask me. The original has orange zest in it, but my oldest is allergic to oranges (and possibly pineapple - we're waiting on his results for that and he is devastated that he may not be able to eat Hawaiian pizza anymore), so I just subbed in a little lemon zest. It's still got that bright acidic zing needed to offset the rest of the recipe.

Maple Walnut Blondies

The perfect fall treat with oatmeal, walnuts, and loads of maple flavor!

Confession time: I don't really like maple flavored anything. I prefer the fake maple syrup for breakfast foods. The smell of maple, to me, is gross and I hate how sticky it is. However, I am married to someone who loves maple entirely too much. He made a homebrew with maple (it was an oatmeal porter) and enjoys literally all the maple things. I made this recipe for him (and the kids). I did try one to see if maybe it would be yummy because I love blondies and I like all the elements of these blondies except the maple. Unfortunately, these were not for me. I couldn't finish one bite. So why on earth would I post a recipe I didn't like? My family devoured them. I have talked briefly about how Nick is doing a keto diet. He is fairly strict about carbs and he decided to have a cheat day and ate three of them. So if that is any indication, from someone who loves maple, that these maple walnut blondies are amazing, I don't know what is!

Easy M&M Cookie Bars

These bars are the perfect treat for any time of year, but especially back to school!

Back to school time just makes me think of M&M cookies and I don't know why. That I can recall, we didn't have M&M cookies for after school snacks or anything. But I'm not going to question it. I love making sweet treats for my kids for after school snacks on occasion. I made these last year and they loved them! It's such a great recipe - not too much skill needed to make it :)

Peanut Butter S'mores Crunch Bars

What do you get when you cross s'mores with Rice Krispie treats and Reese's? Heaven!!

So this dessert is what happens when you combine s'mores with Rice Krispie Treats and Reese's cups and it is wonderful. There is so much crunch to it and it's also delicious. If you haven't tried a s'mores with a Reese's cup instead of a Hershey's bar, I highly recommend it! It's my favorite way to eat s'mores. All the elements together work so well and it's really such an easy dessert to make. You don't have to be ridiculously skilled at making desserts to make this. You layer most of the ingredients and the other half is just melting a chocolate mixture in the microwave and stirring peanut butter and Rice Krispies into it. So anyone can make this. If you have kids (or have friends with kids or you're an aunt/uncle/cousin etc to kids), this would be a great recipe to make with kids of any age.

Cherry Cobbler Bars #FantasticalFoodFight

Welcome to another Food Fight! Fantastical Food Fight is a group of food bloggers who will get a theme or ingredient each month and make some sort of variation for it. It could be traditional or nontraditional and can be found in a cookbook, on a blog, or be a blogger's own creation! For more details, check out this page.

Welcome back to another round of Fantastical Food Fight. Today's theme is CHERRY COBBLER because today is National Cherry Cobbler Day! Unlike last month where the BLT had to be a sandwich, today's recipes don't have to be a traditional cobbler. In fact, the Food Fighters could do muffins, oatmeal, pizza, etc.; it just had to be reminiscent of cherry cobbler. I chose to make Cherry Cobbler Bars and it was actually our dessert for Mother's Day that also fell on my husband's birthday.

On Sunday, I was kind of running around my kitchen like a chicken with its head cut off. I made maple bars for Nick's birthday breakfast because I've been promising them for forever and kept not making them. Then I got dinner into the crockpot. Then I started on this dessert. In the midst of it all, I forgot that I had purchased cherry pie filling instead of making my own like the original recipe called for. So I started making the pie filling! LOL. I got down to the last part of it: add 2 cups pitted sour cherries. Whoops. I purposefully didn't make it because I really didn't want to bother with cherries. Can you buy them pre-pitted? Is that a thing? I'm not sure, but I will say that it was super easy to make the filling up until I got to the part where I didn't have cherries to put into it. I'm definitely going to have to use it to make different fruit fillings!

These bars were very easy to make (even with my filling mishap) and they were wonderful. The dough part is more biscuity than I expected, but not a dry, hard biscuit. I made my glaze with almond extract because I wanted it to stay white and my vanilla extract is brown. I personally think the almond glaze worked really well with the cherries and cobbler portions of the bars. Overall, this was the perfect sweet but not too sweet dessert for our Mother's Day meal!

Gingerbread Cookie Bars

Chewy spiced gingerbread cookies in bar form topped with cream cheese frosting - perfect for the winter months!

Gingerbread is quintessential for Christmas and I don't make anything gingerbread...ever. What's wrong with me? So last year, I decided to change that and I picked something gingerbread from my Pinterest boards. I picked out a beautiful first gingerbread dessert recipe and would love to have them again soon. The base is chewy and spiced and wonderful. The frosting is creamy and finger-licking good. The combination of the two is magical and seriously perfect for Christmas. I topped mine with a little homemade gingerbread spice mix.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars #Choctoberfest

This perfect pairing of two classic desserts in bar form is unbelievably tasty!

I had these yummy bars on my list to make for weekends upon weekends and kept not making them. I do this a lot with breakfast and dessert recipes. I finally got around to making them and I, of course, kick myself for not making them sooner. They are pretty easy and don't take much effort at all. There's a ton of them and they are magical. The chocolate chip cookie portion is exactly what I like my chocolate chip cookies to taste like - chewy, chocolatey, and with a hint of salt. The cheesecake is all that is classic cheesecake flavor. The two together are literally heavenly.

Once again, I'm blown away by how a set of simple recipes combined into one make such an amazing dessert. Be sure to stop by the other recipes below that are part of the #Choctoberfest event. Because chocolate!! :)

Peanut Butter Fudge Brownies

Grab a glass of milk - you're gonna need it with these decadent brownies!

These babies...let me just tell you about these babies...they are brownies - which by themselves are good, but these brownies are different. They are topped with a peanut butter "filling" and then a chocolate ganache. I definitely recommend having a big glass of milk nearby because you will definitely definitely need it. They are the perfect comfort food if you ask me - and I could have totally used one after the stressful week leading up to my sister-in-law's wedding. I don't know how wedding planners do it, but jeez Louise!! ;)

Pumpkin Bars

It is not traditional "pumpkin season" right now, but you know what...I'm NOT okay with that. Pumpkin, for me, is a year round thing. This recipe is a very popular one - you've probably seen it on a million food blogs or one of your family members has probably made it for years. It's as common as pumpkin pie. But even if they are common/popular, I did make them and wanted to share them because that's what I do!

If you haven't seen these or made them, then you're in for a treat! These tasty little squares are pumpkiny, moist and loaded with a cream cheese frosting :)

Espresso Pecan Brownies

So every once in a while, I will get a mad, insatiable craving for one of two homemade treats: fudgy brownies OR chewy chocolate chip cookies. The struggle is real, guys. So what's a girl to do, but make the chocolate sinful temptation!! The particular day that I made these brownies, I had really wanted some coffee flavoring and nuts in them. I typically like nuts in brownies and chocolate chip cookies and I had some pecans on hand, so that was definitely going in there! When I am craving a dessert, I try to use a recipe that I haven't tried - so I adapted Sally's recipe for chewy, fudgy brownies into the espresso pecan brownies that I was wanting. :) And yes, these beauties did sate my craving!