Butterfinger Butterscotch Cookies

Soft oat cookies with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and bits of Butterfinger candy bars.

I know it's a whole thing of people thinking they are getting a chocolate chip cookie and it's oatmeal raisin and they hate it, but I am not one of those people. Well, maybe. I definitely love chocolate chip cookies, but I also love oatmeal raisin too. Now these cookies are like a beautiful mixture of the two plus butterscotch chips and Butterfinger candy bits. What's not to love about that? It reminds me a lot of cowboy cookies or everything but the kitchen sink cookies. With a little patience with the freezing time, you get wonderful cookies!

Peach Crumble Waffles

Dessert for breakfast with fluffy waffles, peach pie topping, and a cinnamon oat crumble.

Over the years, I've made many different kinds of waffles - some of them were ones that I would all of a sudden be craving but had never had before. That is how these Peach Crumble Waffles were born. I was like, I want streusel on a waffle. I think I originally had set out to make blackberry crumble waffles but could not find any blackberry pie filling. I still would love to make it eventually. Basically, you could do any flavor of pie filling you can find: apple, cherry, blueberry, etc. Nick loves peaches though, so this ended up being a really good alternative to blackberries.

Peanut Butter & Banana Oatmeal

Start off the morning with an easy oatmeal recipe with the classic combo of peanut butter and bananas.

I think it's really funny that I can eat sliced bananas with other food but not a whole banana by itself. It's the weirdest thing, but anyways I have been craving peanut butter all the time for the past couple years. I want all the peanut butter treats and snacks. I was excited for this breakfast because I love oatmeal and love the idea of "churching" up plain ol' oats with things you probably have in your pantry. It was quick and fantastic and it makes 4 servings, so if you want, you can store it in the fridge for another couple days worth of breakfast!

Apple Pie Oatmeal

If you have 5 minutes to spare, this fall breakfast will start your day off on the right foot!

I feel like I've posted a lot of oatmeal lately but I definitely don't get sick of it myself. Especially with all these really easygoing variations. I love love apple cinnamon oatmeal and that's basically what this is but it's not a prepackaged microwave packet. It's freshly made and it's fantastic. I'm not much for apple pie, but I love this apple pie oatmeal. It has the right amount of sweetness. I love using green apples for their crisp tartness. And you cannot get more fall than with cinnamon!

Blueberry Cheesecake Oatmeal

This oatmeal is sweetened with honey and who doesn't want a little hint of cheesecake in the morning?!

I have always loved oatmeal but I go through spurts where it's all I want for breakfast and snack...every single day. When I was in the hospital after having my third child, I was given plain oatmeal for breakfast one morning with no sugar packets or anything. I was also given strawberry yogurt, so I decided to mix the two together and see what happened and it was SO good. Maybe it was because I was starving, but it quickly became my go-to meal. I got oatmeal-ed out eventually and took some time off eating it. When I started back up, I tried to find some new recipes to try and out and this is one of my top favorites. There is honey for a little sweetness and cinnamon too. The cream cheese is sweetened and is the perfect combination and definitely gives it that cheesecake flavor. It's just a few more steps than making regular oatmeal via the package instructions and really really makes all the difference.

Homemade Blueberry Lemon Danishes

These homemade danishes use Bisquick mix and have a delicious filling, crumble, and glaze!

I have seen a lot of easy recipes for danishes utilizing refrigerated crescent rolls but when I wanted to try something a little different, I was drawn to this recipe from Inside BruCrew Life. This recipe uses Bisquick to make the base of the danishes and they are so lovely. The base is the perfect amount of soft and crunch. I love the crumble and the glaze. But really it is the combination of blueberry and lemon that really makes these little breakfast pastries so wonderful.

Toasted Oatmeal with Strawberry Chia Jam

This breakfast is fruity, nutty, and 100% wonderful.

I am so excited to share this recipe today because it's one that kinda blew my mind. I love oatmeal and I love mixing in fruit ingredients into oatmeal whether it's fresh fruit, yogurt, etc. This was my first time mixing in jam and it was homemade (really easy to do). The toasted oatmeal was amazing and coconut everything was a nice touch.

PB&J Overnight Oats #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 OVERNIGHT OATS. January is National Oatmeal Month and I thought that overnight oats would be a wonderful theme for the first Food Fight of 2019. Many folks are trying to eat a little healthier or start healthy habits in the new year, so I thought sharing these great breakfast recipes that are make ahead would be perfect for January!

The recipe I decided to go with is one that was on my to-make list for such a long time. I knew that I wanted to do the peanut butter and jelly flavor combination (it was one out of seven or eight recipes, I believe). I've been eating pb&js for snack a lot lately and I wasn't really feeling a bunch of fresh fruit or anything super sweet, like the chocolate chip cookie dough overnight oats I had made years ago. I did substitute out maple syrup for honey because I don't care for maple flavor. These are so incredibly easy to make and the payoff is unbelievable the next day. It tastes like the perfect pb&j sandwich but in oats form. You can choose any fruit jam or preserves you would like. I went with blackberry jam which is my absolute favorite.

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!

Butterfinger Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies #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 OATMEAL because January is National Oatmeal Month. Even though I host and plan the event, I typically don't pick my recipe until the theme is announced for everyone. I will go to my Pinterest boards and type in the ingredient or theme and see what pops up. This particular month, I was meal planning and happened to be looking for a cookie recipe for the first weekend of January and saw this Butterfinger Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies recipe with oatmeal in it. I immediately moved it to my meal plan board and was so excited to make it.

I have made Butterfinger Cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction before, but I really thought these looked quite good. The other ones were just a regular cookie base with candy in it. These, on the other hand, are peanut butter cookies with candy PLUS oatmeal, which is the whole reason for making them for the Food Fight! They are chewy and peanut buttery and the bits of milk chocolate chips and Butterfinger candy are the best - it's like a burst of rich chocolatey goodness!

Crockpot Peaches & Cream Oatmeal #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.

Happy National Peaches & Cream Day! We are celebrating today with a PEACHES AND CREAM food fight. All the recipes will contain peaches and cream. I can't wait to see what other goodies are linked up and y'all can find that at the end of this post.

I chose this breakfast recipe because I've been wanting to make oatmeal lately and kept forgetting to and eating a bagel or English muffin before realizing I wanted oatmeal. I was a bit miffed that the recipe takes 3 to 5 hours because I am not morning person and I sure as heck ain't waking up at 3 am to fix breakfast. However, I did make it and ate it for snack and it was wonderful. Just as wonderful as I knew it would be.

It also is just fine reheated in the microwave, which I ended up doing for the two mornings that followed. This was my first experience with steel cut oats and I was really intrigued by how much they reminded me of tapioca. In fact, this recipe reminded me of a flavored tapioca and I think that made me love it even more. I served my oatmeal up with half-and-half.

PB&J Crumble Yogurt Parfait #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 theme is PB&J -- peanut butter and jelly. Why? Because not only is March National Peanut Month, but it's also National Peanut Lover's Day today! And peanut butter and jelly is such an iconic and classic combination that I thought would fit perfectly. Today, you find recipes containing peanut or peanut butter and fruit (not necessarily jelly or jam). I chose this amazing breakfast parfait that I couldn't get enough of: PB&J Crumble Yogurt Parfait.

Technically speaking, it's actually peanut butter crumble yogurt parfait with fruit, but since I did add the fruit, I renamed it PB&J Crumble Yogurt Parfait. The peanut butter crumble is fantastic. I could and did eat it by the handful. Nick did too. I have eaten it with fresh fruit (the first picture) and frozen fruit that had been slightly heated up.

Everything about these parfaits makes me such a happy camper. But I cannot wait to see what other pb&j treats my blogging pals have to share!

Maple Glazed Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies are classic and so easy to make at home!

I feel like a normal child likes chocolate chip cookies...and while I did love chocolate chip cookies. I was also in love with molasses cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, and iced oatmeal cookies as well. The latter is the funniest to me because I don't like crunchy cookies, but iced oatmeal cookies are the exception. These ones actually aren't super thin and crunchy like the ones from my childhood, but are still fantastic. They are such a hearty cookie and the glaze is divine even if it has maple in it - which I am not fond of. They are so wonderfully full of warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.

These were also a huge hit with the family. In fact, Nick stashed half a dozen in a plastic baggie in his secret hiding place for food. And he claims he is NOT a sweets eater. He doesn't really like desserts. Of course, this is such a joke...literally every time I make a dessert, he exclaims it is the best thing he's ever eaten. It cracks me up. These are the perfect little cookie for the cooler season approaching.

Triple Berry Crisp

This crisp is the perfect thing to whip up with berries with or without ice cream on top.

We had family in town last summer and we scraped together a quick meal to serve a crowd. I needed a quick summery dessert that wasn't really heavy and didn't take many ingredients or time to make. I had already pulled together the 30-Minute Shepherd's Pie and I knew I wanted to do something with berries. I hunted in one of my favorite cookbooks: Sally's Baking Addiction. I found this berry crisp recipe and I had everything on hand to make it. I ate mine without ice cream because it's incredible without it.

Biscoff Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Safe-to-eat Biscoff cookie dough in homemade vanilla ice cream - so decadent and delicious!

After making the monster cookie dough ice cream, I wanted to make more cookie dough ice cream because it's one of my all-time favorites. I actually had not had cookie dough ice cream until I was in 6th grade. I don't know why I never tried it, but my math teacher in 6th grade took a poll on our favorite ice cream for an example of something or another and the majority chose chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. I begged my mom to get some at the store and that's when my love affair started. I get the craving every once in a while and I go crazy and buy all kinds of cookie dough ice cream, but this time I wanted to make my own. The monster cookie dough ice cream is a no churn recipe, whereas this one requires an ice cream machine.

I used two different recipes and put them together. The biscoff cookie dough comes from Sweet Twist of Blogging and the ice cream base is from Julie's Eat and Treats. They went together perfectly and honestly...the cookie dough bites would be fantastic on their own. I didn't use all of them in the ice cream and snacked on them throughout the process :)

{No Churn} Monster Cookie Dough Ice Cream

No machine needed for this awesome loaded cookie dough ice cream!

A late share today, please excuse me! It's been such a busy last few days. Tonight, we had the kids' meet and greet at their school. I'm excited that school is starting again and completely stunned that my babies are going to 3rd and 4th grade. I definitely need to make some more of this ice cream for an after school snack surprise. It's incredibly easy. Incredibly delicious! My kids seriously loved it the first time around. I used giant M&Ms and regular M&Ms in this...next time, it will definitely be mini M&Ms. I wasn't really thinking about how they would freeze and be hard as rocks. So save your teeth - use minis! Oh and the best part about this recipe is that it's a no churn and does NOT require an ice cream machine to make.

Blackberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

 Have you ever had a malted muffin with berries and chocolate? No?!

Well then, you must try this recipe!

Bear with these pictures, I was trying to be artsy fartsy and show how gorgeous these muffins were and how fluffy and moist they turned out by tearing a chunk out of one. I probably should have set it off to the side a little more. Sometimes I crack myself up. Regardless of my silliness, I love these muffins. Truly a great recipe!! I don't make recipes with blackberries enough and they are the best! Our produce has been great throughout the winter, so I didn't have to wait until summer to get a good batch of blackberries to use. I thought the chocolate was the perfect partner in crime for the blackberries. AND as I've mentioned, these muffins are fluffy and moist. These muffins are just beyond heavenly and it's all thanks to the malted milk in them!

Oh you heard me correctly...or read me correctly...read that correctly...MALTED MILK. The dimension of flavor it adds - it's so hard to describe. You all just HAVE TO MAKE THESE!!! Sorry for the all-caps there. But it is one of those times that needs the exclamation! :)

Soft Oatmeal Raisin Molasses Cookies

There are some people who go to grab a cookie thinking it's a chocolate chip cookie and are disturbed when they bite into it and find out it's actually a raisin cookie. I, on the other hand, LOVE raisin cookies...especially if they are oatmeal raisin cookies. What sets this recipe apart is that in addition to oats and raisins, it also contains a bit of molasses that add a very rich flavor to the cookies. They were incredibly addictive...I just kept on eating them. They are soft and chewy too, so the recipe is definitely a keeper :)

Cranberry Coffeecake #SecretRecipeClub

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day for my group, Group D! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into four groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

My assignment this month is Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook. Lauren is an air force wife, mom, and aerospace engineer. Quite impressive, right?! She does aspire to be a caterer - since she loves to cook. Lauren has a ton of great recipes on her blog (plus she also shares some of her other hobbies, like quilting and holiday decorating/hosting), so I took to searching immediately!

I found some very tasty looking treats, like Pineapple Macadamia Nut Bundt Cake, Strawberry Pomegranate Smoothie, Chile con Queso, Caprese Steak, and Spinach Salad with Spicy Pineapple Dressing. The last few weeks of my pregnancy gave way to an insatiable fruit craving. It's all I wanted. And it's sort of lasted past giving birth. I'm also craving the crap out of some steak. So my finds were fruit heavy and then there's the steak recipe :) I ended up going back and forth between two breakfast recipes featuring cranberries because I have been obsessed with them since Thanksgiving timeframe. So I was down to Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls and Cranberry Coffeecake.

As you could tell by my blog post title - I went the coffeecake route! I wasn't sure I could find fresh cranberries for the cinnamon rolls - I hadn't seen any in my local Kroger in a while. The coffeecake used canned cranberries (the whole cranberry sauce kind, not the awful jellied kind) and that's much easier to find. I only changed out one ingredient - the orange for a lemon - because I didn't know if Matthew would eat it or not and he's allergic to oranges. I loved this coffeecake. It was perfect. I rarely get recipes to look close to the original recipe, but my cake looked exactly like Lauren's picture. I made this as a surprise for Sunday dinner at my in law's - Nick had already taken Matt & Cami over, so I was trying to manage holding Mason and making this coffeecake, so I used my phone camera instead of my Canon. Pictures aren't the best, but the coffeecake IS the best!!

Strawberry Coconut Baked Oatmeal

In horrible form, here I am sharing a recipe on Friday...

It's been a crazy busy week between a day off of school, in-class observations, a doctor's appointment (14/15 week appt), and subbing for half a day for a class of very roudy 3rd graders. I'm just plain exhausted. And one of my favorite things to make and have for breakfast when I'm just too tired to do too much work is baked oatmeal.

You can throw things together quickly and you just put it in the oven. You end up with a filling, delicious breakfast - what more could you ask for? I love the combination of this baked oatmeal recipe. The coconut and strawberry compliment each other very nicely.