Transform your favorite breakfast cereal into one epic easy entertaining dessert with these No Bake Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cheesecake Bites!
I wish I could say that the reason I borderline loathed cereal growing up was because I was way too healthy for it. I was too busy eating steel-cut oatmeal and fresh fruit. But in reality, I was a donut, chocolate chip muffin, and eggo waffle type of youthful fatty. For some reason, I just could never get into cereal. I tried a bunch of different kinds. I tolerated Kixs on an extremely rare basis. A handful of Cheerios were okay for a novelty snack. But the only cereal I semi-accepted as a breakfast option were Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
Then again, coat anything in cinnamon sugar and I'm pretty confident that I would eat it.
But there's no convincing needed for these irresistible No Bake Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cheesecake Bites. Guys. You're going to love these mini cheesecakes. They are bonkers addictive.
So addictive, in fact, that Asheley made us rid the house of them. She couldn't stop eating them, so we had to find the rest of the batch a "good new home".
Now, in full honesty, there is one tiny baking part in this. It's not the cheesecake though. It's the crust. And your oven is only going for like 7 minutes, so it doesn't really count. Plus, you can bake these crusts a day ahead of time and munch on leftover Cinnamon Toast Crunch while they are in the oven.
Boom.
Try just eating one. Seriously. Try just eating one. You can't. It's the curse of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. They are just so damn perfect, with all that cinnamony-sugary goodness.
These No Bake Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cheesecake Bites would be perfect for pretty much any party (the crusts can be made a day ahead of time and it can all be assembled hours before your get-together) AND you can totally rename these to No Bake Churro Cheesecake Bites... making them a pretty great end to any fiesta, Taco Tuesday, or Cinco de Mayo.
No Bake Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cheesecake Bites
Need More Cheesecake Desserts?
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Sweet Potato Cheesecake with Bourbon Whipped Cream
No Bake Caramel Apple Cheesecake Trifle
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Quesadillas
Peach Vanilla Cheesecake Trifle
Cinco de Mayo is TOMORROW. I am beyond excited. It is, hands down, my favorite non-major holiday of the year.
What's totally great about these Baked Churro S'mores Bites (besides the obvious wanting to stuff your face with them nonstop because hello... Baked Churro S'mores Bites) is that they only take 10 quick minutes of prep. 7 minutes if you're super efficient in the kitchen. AND, you have most of the ingredients in your pantry already.
I'm 100% sure your kids will absolutely love these Baked S'mores Churro Bites. Actually, screw the kids. YOU will loves these. They are clouds of sweet dough heaven... STUFFED with chocolate and marshmallows. What else could a 
I've been overweight all my life . So it shouldn't come to anyone's surprise that I also single-handedly kept our neighborhood ice cream man in business as a kid. I'm pretty sure I put his first born through college.
What makes it better? Uhm, can you say nutella-lined taco shell?! Yea... NUTELLA. #legit
How do I get away with only using 4 ingredients for these Nutella Choco Tacos, you ask? Well, instead of going and buying a waffle cone iron and making them from scratch (ain't nobody with a 10-month old got time for that), I found an amazing shortcut.
Do me a favor. When you line your waffle taco shells with Nutella, don't be stingy. Show your family how boss you are simply with the amount of Nutella you stuff into your copycat Nutella Choco Tacos. I use an offset spatula to help get the nutella into all the different nooks and crannies. 
Through trial and error, I found out that you really need to stuff enough ice cream into the taco shells so that it protrudes slightly over the edge of each shell. This way your chocolate shell isn't too thick. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about more chocolate. But to keep the bite-to-bite ratio on point, try and keep the shell on the thin side.
And there you have it. Doesn't it make you want to shed a tear of pure and unadulterated joy? No, just me?
Ever have an idea that sounds a lot better in theory than in actual real life? Yup. Happened to us this weekend. Tyler and I are photographing a wedding in a couple weeks with our company 
Tequila soaked raisins. That would be raisins spiked with tequila. Mmmm hmm. Don't worry... you can always skip the liquor bath if you want a kid-friendly taco. But besides the tequila adding some serious flavor to these Mexican Lamb Tacos, it just sounds pretty bad-donkey. Right?!
I'm in love with my 
And I'm not talking about any lamb in these Mexican Lamb Tacos with Tequila Soaked Raisins and Pepitas. This is 100% 
The best part about these nachos? Uhm, everything. 
You can find the recipe for these Churros Dessert Nachos with Mexican Hot Fudge and Dulce de Leche over at 
Oh heck yes. Cinco de Mayo is just around the corner. And you know how I feel about Cinco de Mayo.
I wish I could take credit for the genius move of actually making the egg the "bun". But that innovative move goes to 
Let's talk eggs. It's not the first time I've told y'all about Davidson’s Safest Choice® Pasteurized Eggs. Love them. They are pasteurized using an all-natural patented process (goodbye Salmonella risk), meaning we all can eat eggs 100% worry free.
Head Over To 
Just when you think you're busy... you find out what busy is.
Yes, you'll love these. Yes, your kids will love these. And yes, since they have bananas on it, I'm totally comfortable calling this a healthy snack.
Finally. It's quiet. At 10pm. After a long, long week, it's quiet. I can sit down, relax... and holy crap it's actually only Monday.
Anyone else beyond excited that nature has finally awoken from the winter freeze? Except you California... where the weather is pretty much perfect every single freaking day. Must be nice.
What I totally love about this super quick and easy spring lunch recipe?
And while we are on the subject of these crazy awesome little Minute Rice microwave cups. They are done in 60 seconds. What?! Yea, I know. 60 seconds.
This sponsored recipe for Gluten Free Spring Pea and Asparagus Brown Rice Salad has been written by me on behalf of Minute® Ready to Serve Rice.
Random fact of the day. Pregnancy can trigger autoimmune diseases. I know, weird right? I would have never known, or as bad as this sounds, care all that much, except that it happened to Asheley. She has officially been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I know. It sucks.
No worries if you don't have lamb (or don't really like lamb all that much). You can easily swap in ground beef or pork.
For those of you following along with my Operation Stop Being A Fatty, that is also going quite well. I've lost 39 pounds in just under 3 months so far, and continually inching closer to my 60 pound goal. It feels great to finally fit back into clothes that have been collecting dust in the skinny side of my closet.
Hosting a holiday meal for family, no matter how small, is never a simple task. You want to make it special. For my family, special means to make an absurd amount of food. Asheley gets so mad at me when we host and there are a ton of leftovers. But for me, that's a sign of a job well done. People ate. A lot. And there is still a fridge full of leftovers to feast on for the next few days. That is, until you are so sick of reheating the same meal over and over again and just say screw it. I'm getting Taco Bell. Oh, just me?
I can still remember the very first time I tried a Baked Alaska. It was at Bobby Flay's Steakhouse in Atlantic City about 7 years ago. It was kinda the very beginning of when I first started thinking food was cool. Before that, I was a complete culinary idiot. I'm hopeful that progress is being made in that department.
Oh and side note. Does anyone else totally associate lemon desserts with Easter? I'm really not a lemon dessert type of guy. Bring on da chocolate. But come Easter, it's all about these bright, citrusy sweets. I blame my wife, who's obsessed with lemon meringue pie.
So how much work are these Mini Lemon Vanilla Baked Alaskas? Honestly, barely anything.
And even if you don't have a Peeps-loving grandma, your kids/nieces and nephews/anyone with a pulse will totally dig these fun Easter dessert milkshakes. They literally whip together in minutes, and take even less time to gulp down.
By the way, I recently got a new blender because my old one finally bit the dust. Best thing to ever happen, because now I'm rocking this awesome 
I'm sure you've seen skillet cookies before. Skillet brownies, too. And you know those half brownie, half cookie bars have been floating around Pinterest. So I said... wait a minute. What if I combine all of those ideas into one. AND stuff some tagalongs in the middle?
This has to be, by far, the greatest school calendar in my 10 years of teaching. Phew, 10 years... it's going so fast. This is usually the absolute worst time of year... the very long stretch of time between the winter break in February and the spring vacation in mid-April. But this year? Easter and Passover are so far apart, we have off a few days for Easter in a few weeks, and then also a full week at the end of April.
If there is ever a time to harp on quality ingredients and treat your family to to a top of the line meal, it's at special holidays. This is the luxury model of all hams. A Kurobuta ham.
I wanted big and bold flavors to pair with this... well, big and bold flavored ham. It deserves it.
This glaze. It's everything. It's sweet, spicy, sticky... and I can't/won't get enough. Best of all, it comes together in minutes.
And that's the beauty of Snake River Farms’ hams. They arrive right on your doorstep fully cooked and smoked with authentic regional hardwood chips. The ordering process couldn't be easier, and even amidst all the craziness of holiday meal planning, getting this ham is completely stress-free.
Here's a pretty sweet deal. Get $20 off your
It's funny, because earlier this week I posted that 
So this weekend, treat your someone special (which can totally be yourself) to this Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Ramen. Especially if the night before involved a wee-bit of adult beverage consuming. You'll be the weekend breakfast hero for all time. Do it.
This originally was going to be a vegan dessert mousse. True story.
Once Tyler suggested the name change, my first step was to grab some of my favorite granola from the pantry. Yup. That sealed it. Vegan dessert became vegan breakfast.
. I use it at least a few times a week. It's perfect for grating garlic and ginger into dishes you want them to dissolve in, zesting citrus, and creating a pile of Parmesan snow on top of pasta dishes.
Side note. When there's not a whole lot of time to meal plan and my wife is hangry (that's angry hungry, for those unfamiliar), I love relying on Flatout wraps, Fold Its, and pizza crusts for quick and easy dinners. I'm 100% positive Flatout has saved weeknight dinner at least 3 times in the past two weeks.
Cate is all about donuts. She's always whipping them up... 
Now before you go saying how this sounds incredibly weird and blah blah blah... stop. It's not. In fact, it's beyond awesome.
Not going to lie. 
Give me a random ingredients, and I guarantee you a taco can be made. That's the beauty of tacos. They are perfect to clean out the fridge and use up whatever random ingredients you have going on.
Now it's your turn to play the 
Ah, winter vacation. One of the great perks of being a teacher. Random weeks off. And I love it. Although I have to admit, weeks off really aren't weeks off anymore. Parents. I now fully get it. No longer are my breaks filled with Netflix binges or spending days pretty much doing whatever the heck I want. Now it's Mickey Mouse clubhouse intertwined with following around a crawling maniac of a baby who is managing to show her daddy quite efficiently what I need to quickly baby-proof around the house.
I know. These aren't really considered a "nighttime" beverage. But I think they're great any time of day when you need a bright and bubbly pick-me-up. With an elegant brunch spread. As a "I survived an entire day of full-time daddy duties while mommy was at work" appetizer to dinner.
Side note to this recipe. I saw all this amazing citrus at the supermarket and it was screaming photograph me. Okay, maybe not screaming. More like a strong whisper.
*this recipe has been slightly adapted from my blogging pal Sarah's 
Full confession. This Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake Roll was my very first cake roll experience. No, not eating it. Obviously. But actually making one? Yea, I thought it was way too complicated. I mean, really, how does the cake not crumble when you roll it up.
So the secret to keeping the cake roll from crumbling? First, you have to make sure you can remove it from the pan quickly and easily. That means greasing the heck out of your pan and sprinkling it with powdered sugar.
You'll definitely have some of that rockstar strawberry whipped cream left over. If you can resist the temptation to eat it all right then and there, serve this cake with some extra whipped cream.
Did we even talk about how this cake only takes a few minutes of actual prep time. I honestly made sure to dedicate a big block of time to making this cake happen, and was shocked when it only took a handful of hands-on minutes.
Ah, Valentine's Day is just around the corner. It's time for all those waxy "chocolates" wrapped up in heart-shaped boxes, paying at least 542x the going rate for roses, and lining up like cattle for a chance to dine on a restaurant's finest pre-fixe lame-butt menu.
February is officially 
And once you fill out the 
I know what you're all dying to ask me... What lamb language of love are you, Chris?! I'm in-between a Classic Romantic and Homebody Lover.
So this recipe. Yea, these Southwest Ancho Chile Crusted Lamb Chops are totally legit. I absolutely love that it's super elegant but doesn't require hours of prep like my usual Valentine's Day feasts.
Let's talk 
I absolutely love game day food.
And really, they couldn't be simpler to make. Just a few ingredients and a few minutes of prep. Plus, bring these to a party and tell them you crusted 'em in Doritos... you know for a fact that you'll be deemed a culinary legend for the next 365 days, at which time you'll need to come up with another ingenious idea.
. It's the one I have at home (although, in full disclosure, I rarely use it... I often times just use a skillet to do my frying).
for the video, and it's great because it's electric! You can even plug it in outdoors to fry... and keep that "fried smell" out of your house.
So anyone else out there habitually over order at Chinese take-out joints? I just get way too excited.
is where it's at!
People are usually shocked when I tell them this, but I love Taco Bell. Yea yea yea... you can go on and on about how it's not real food and blah blah blah. But to be honest, it's a guilty pleasure and I just don't care. I 
If you've never tried fusing Korean flavors with your standby Mexican/Tex-Mex favorites before, you gotta give it a whirl. It's the new peanut butter and jelly... a legit combo.
You'll see some familiar faces in this burrito. Brown rice (swap in some 
Looking for kimchi and gochujang? I'm personally a fan of 
, which is a local product made in Brooklyn. And this is one of the top-rated ones... 
.
Healthy Korean Pork Burritos with Kimchi, Avocado, and Gochujang Aioli.
I'm no stranger to totchoss. There were these 
Guys. I'm proud of me. I finally decided to stop talking about getting healthy and actually started to do it. Over the past three weeks, I've lost 19 pounds. This is the point where all the women I've told start to yell obscenities at me because they've been eating healthy for months and still haven't lost those 5 pounds they've been trying to get rid of. Trust me, I know... I honestly don't know why my body responds so well to eating healthy. It just does.
By the way, complete side note to eating healthier lately... I feel like I can smell a whole lot clearer now. It's really weird, but kinda cool.
So what did I bring here to Sarah's virtual baby shower? Well like any good virtual shower, this one has a theme... Sarah's two favorite things: Cheese + Sweets.
Honesty time. The beginning of this school year was rough when it came time to dinner. By the time we got home for a full day of work, spent a few minutes hanging out with our baby girl, fed her dinner and did the whole bed time routine, it was 8 p.m. And who wants to cook dinner after all that? Certainly not us. We fell into the take-out trap. The "what do you want for dinner" question was really a "where should we send out for food". I still cooked on occasion, and of course got busy in the kitchen for any entertaining we did at the house... but it was just so hard to get into a weeknight groove.
Let's talk meatballs. They're gluten-free! You all know I'm trying to be a little more conscious with what I'm eating nowadays. I'm working hard to cut back on the carbs. And the sugar. And ice cream.
A few times a year, Tyler and I get a group of 10 food-loving friends together and throw what we've come to call the Shared Appetite Test Kitchen. It gives us an opportunity to try out some new cooking techniques, create an elegant and cohesive tasting menu, and cook together in the kitchen. It's a night when we get to play "pretend restaurant" and act like chefs running a legit operation. We get to use words like "Behind!", "Mise en Place", and other nerdy chef terms we think they use in restaurant kitchens. We 
This soup is also amazingly easy to make. The most difficult part is breaking down and chopping up the butternut squash... and if you need a shortcut around that, just grab some of that overpriced pre-cut butternut squash at your grocery store (if they have it, of course... I know Trader Joe's does).
Just be prepared to fall in love with this creative vegetarian soup. It's super hearty and filling. It's warming and comforting. It'll pretty much become your best friend.
I use and love.
I'm officially the heaviest I've ever been. Unlike my beautiful wife that quickly lost all her pregnancy weight, I look like I ate a few 
With just 10 minutes of prep, you can turn that leftover eggnog into one heck of a holiday morning breakfast... Eggnog Monkey Bread Muffins!
And sure... you might consider a sweet, creative monkey bread like this more of a dessert. But I put the word "muffin" in the title for a reason. SPECIFICALLY so I could eat these for breakfast. #thisiswhyimfat
And you might be saying to yourself... but Chris, I'm not hosting Christmas! I'm not going to have any leftover eggnog!!! Bummer. Maybe you could nicely ask the host to save you some (all you need is about a ⅓ cup)? Or better yet, you could bring eggnog to the party and conveniently leave the amount you need for this recipe at home! 😉
Okay, sorry. Cookies. That's where I was going with all of this. It ain't Christmas time unless you are enjoying cookies at pretty much every meal. Breakfast, you bet. Lunch... a few cookies and that 
These cookies. One half is a peanut butter cookie dough with semi-sweet chocolate chips. The other is a chocolate based dough studded with peanut butter chips. Now that alone would be reason for celebration. But we can do better. Grab yourself a bag of mini peanut butter cups... and stuff 'em right in the middle of these glorious sugar bombs.
And while you bask in the joy that are these creative Christmas cookies, know that you are actually helping out children in need. Yup... like you needed another reason to eat cookies. Now you have one.
A very big thank you to The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap Brand Sponsors, who matched the donations made by us participating food bloggers! You guys rock:
Bonus? They are super easy and totally crowd pleasers. I mean, what's not to like about sausage, egg, and cheese wrapped up in a buttery crescent roll? Exactly.
Johnsonville® has a bunch of different breakfast sausage options. For this recipes, I used their 
Johnsonville® Breakfast Sausages are sold nationally at a variety of retailers, including grocery, mass merchandisers, and club outlets. To find out where to buy near you visit their 
Let's be honest here. Even if you end up with a perfectly moist, juicy turkey on Thanksgiving (big props to you, my friend), you can never get it that amazing when reheating. It just gets more and more overcooked and dried out. That's why I like combining it with a creamy and zesty avocado jalapeno aioli, and top it with some pickled cranberries. No cooking required, and it stays nice and moist in the dressing 🙂
Can we talk about how much I love 
With just 10 minutes of super easy prep, you can wow your family and friends with these creative Pumpkin Cheesecake Quesadillas with Pecan Praline Topping!
I just downloaded while decorating and slurping down a few hot cocoas.
Like, seriously. They are absolutely incredible. And I'm not even a big pumpkin fan. Yup, I said it. I would much rather chow down on apple anything and everything... but these Pumpkin Cheesecake Quesadillas are slowly making me a convert.
Head over to Dixie Crystals to see just how easy these 
How do you achieve super creamy, rich, and luxurious pudding without any dairy, you ask? A secret ingredient, of course.
Let's talk about this rice. 
Best part? You can make it in under 10 minutes. 5 if you are really fast and especially hungry. Thinly slice an apple. Mix up some cream cheese with brown sugar and cinnamon. Layer 'em in a tortilla and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. A quick little trip to the skillet and BAM... instant euphoria.
Let's talk 
