forget the cake...

So it's a chocolate cream cheese cookie with chocolate chips and cream cheese frosting on top... are you with me? Yes these are everything you'd want from a chocolate cheesecake, but in a handheld cookie form.

The picture above should really be captioned #lazy (p.s. this video explains my love of the hashtag). Basically, I just plopped the frosting in a ziploc, snipped a corner and bunched the cookies close together so that I could frost all of them at the same time. I mean, they all tasted great so that's really what counts here, right?

easy, breezy mornings

I've been wanting to make this recipe for a while now, so when my sister invited a friend and I over for brunch, I knew this would be the perfect accompaniment. First of all it's pumpkin flavored, and we all know how I feel about that. 

Secondly, it's a cinnamon French toast (which I love) but baked, so you're not laboring over a pan flipping a couple of pieces of bread at a time. Thirdly, this is better if you assemble it the night before baking, giving you the morning to leisurely toss this into the oven and do your nails or something. 

turn it over

Well, here's another pumpkin recipe, as promised. I hope you're not getting too sick of apple and pumpkin yet because there's more to come... although Ruby just turned 3 last Saturday, so I'll have her birthday recap coming up soon.

Sometimes I have a lone sheet of puff pastry begging to be used, and when I had some leftover pumpkin puree in the fridge (I hate to toss that...) I knew turnovers were destined to be in my near future.

Pumpkin and cream cheese are a wonderful pairing and I just love puff pastry. It's so easy to work with and yields such a wonderful, flaky, buttery result (that is so much better than pie crust, in my opinion), and the best part? It's store bought. Yup, homemade puff pastry dough may be on my list of things to make someday when I have tons of butter and tons of time, but for now, the grocery store wins.

no bake = cool kitchen

With the weather heating up, I crave cold foods. I know I'm not alone in this and I definitely know I'm not the only one who hates turning their oven on in the Summer. This is where the genius of no-bake desserts really shine and take center stage. 

In all honesty, I actually prefer a no-bake cheesecake to the original baked cheesecake. While I like regular cheesecake, it's very dense and rich and makes me feel a little heavier after I eat it. On the other hand, this no-bake cheesecake is literally whipped into a lightness and there's the smallest hint of that cream cheese tang.