quick & easy crescent cinnamon rolls

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Sometimes when your kids ask out of the blue for cinnamon rolls, you just want to say yes.

Right now you just want to say yes.

You want to get up off the couch, and immediately put some cinnamon rolls in the oven, so that their sweet little 2 and 3 year old minds know that they are getting exactly what they asked for.

You want to see the joy in their faces upon hearing that beautiful “yes” instead of all the “no”s that have been going around lately.

This was one of those days. Our sweet baby girl has been sick all week and the boys have been pretty much doing their own thing. We all needed a break to reconnect and to just play together.

I kind of think we all needed cinnamon rolls… but there was no way I was going to be able to make any from scratch!

Then I remembered a can of crescent rolls I had found in the fridge the day before and decide to whip up something close enough (cinnamon rolls are cinnamon rolls to a toddler!) to satisfy their little cravings.

We had a lot of fun putting these together, and the boys loved that the marshmallows inside disappeared when they were baked.

(Marshmallows are just about their favorite food, so I decided to add some of those and it was a delicious addition!)

This was such a fun, quick and easy treat to make together!

crescent ‘cinnamon rolls’

Ingredients

  • 1 can refrigerated crescent roll dough
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup marshmallows

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Unroll the can of crescent roll dough and separate the triangles, laying them out on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Sprinkle each triangle evenly with sugar & cinnamon. Place a 5-10 mini or 1 large marshmallow at the wider bottom end of the triangle, fold over the sides and roll up, place them seam down on the baking sheet.

Sprinkle with a bit of extra sugar and cinnamon on top for decoration.

Bake for 12-18 minutes, until the rolls are golden and puffed. Serve warm, with a simple powdered sugar/milk glaze if you'd like!

http://sweetannas.com/2013/01/quick-easy-crescent-cinnamon-rolls.html

pizzeria-style garlic cheesy bread

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We are a pizza-loving family. Big time.

Pizza in any form: frozen, delivery, take-n-bake… but our absolute favorite, the pizza that pretty much ruined all other pizzas for us, is this homemade recipe.

We could eat this every day and not get tired of it.

But we do like to change it up, and so I decided to make a simple take-n-bake-style garlic cheesy bread for fun!

I absolutely love Papa Murphy’s garlic cheesy bread. L-O-V-E, love!

I have been known to go pick up just one of those, skipping the pizza all together, for just myself to enjoy.

Now, I don’t have to do that anymore, since I can just make my own!

This is also a great use for that second or third round of dough, if you are making one homemade pizza and don’t feel like freezing the rest.

So, so good!!

pizzeria-style garlic cheesy bread

Ingredients

  • homemade pizza dough
    • for each cheesy bread (one batch of dough makes two large cheesy breads):
  • 3-4 tablespoons butter
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, smashed
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper or cayenne
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

Make the dough as directed all the way through preheating the oven, letting the dough rest and then stretching out the dough into rounds.

As soon as you turn the oven on to preheat, melt the butter with the crushed garlic cloves and let sit for 20-30 minutes. Take out the garlic, set aside, and brush the infused butter generously onto each pizza dough round, covering the entire surfaces.

Sprinkle each dough round generously with the shredded cheese and then sprinkle evenly with each of the spices/salt. (Amounts are all subject to taste... adjust as you'd like!)

Bake on a preheated baking stone on the lowest rake of your well-preheated (preheated for at least 30 minutes) 500ºF oven for 8-10 minutes, until the cheesy bread is golden and puffy. Remove and serve immediately with a side of warmed up pizza sauce to dip in!

http://sweetannas.com/2013/01/pizzeria-style-garlic-cheesy-bread.html

baked pumpkin & ham mac and cheese

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Most of us had Turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, but I know some of you had ham, right?

And I’m guessing at least a few of you have half a can of pumpkin sitting in your fridge leftover from all that baking? (I used 3/4 cup for this recipe. If you have a little less, just substitute a little more milk or even better… some sour cream!)

I was playing a little ‘throw this all together and hope it tastes ok’ game with this meal, and I’m pretty sure I won!

I absolutely loved this combination of pumpkin, cheese, spices and noodles. Add a little cayenne if you like a kick, and some fresh sage if you’ve got it!

Wanna know the best part about this meal (besides the use of leftovers)? Your kids would probably not even notice the pumpkin hiding in all that cheese if you didn’t tell them… a perfect sneaky-veggies meal!

What’s your favorite dish for holiday leftovers?

baked pumpkin & ham mac and cheese

Ingredients

  • 1/2-3/4 pound short noodles, cooked al dente*
  • 2 cups diced leftover ham
  • 3 cups shredded cheddar jack blend cheese, divided
  • 2 teaspoons flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
  • 3/4 cup pumpkin purée
  • 1 large egg, beaten
  • 1 1/2 cups half & half or milk
  • 1 cup freshly grated parmesan

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cook the noodles according to package directions (1 minute or so less, if you don't like your noodles too soft.)

(*I usually boil the whole pound, and then give a bowl of buttered noodles to my toddlers to snack on while I work!)

Butter a 9×13″ baking dish. Stir together the cooked noodles, the shredded cheddar blend and the diced ham and place in the buttered baking dish.

Stir together the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, except for the parmesan. Pour this sauce evenly over the noodles in the dish.

Sprinkle the parmesan evenly over the top. (At this point you can combine some butter and bread crumbs and sprinkle those over the top as well, if you like!)

Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden and the sauce is bubbling (cover with a piece of foil if it is getting too brown towards the end of the cooking time!).

http://sweetannas.com/2012/11/baked-pumpkin-ham-mac-and-cheese.html