annie's — Recipes — All Roads Lead to Healthy

I’ve been a huge fan of Annie’s Homegrown products for years now, so when I heard that they now make Certified Organic versions of all of my favorite refrigerated doughs and baking mixes, you know I was all in! These products taste AMAZING, and they make baking fun and easy whether you want to make the mixes and doughs as is or play around a bit. Plus all of their products are made with only the best ingredients, meaning they use unbleached flour, and there’s no hydrogenated oils or high-fructose corn syrup here!

To celebrate the upcoming holiday season and these delicious baking mixes and doughs, they’re hosting their first annual Great Bunny Bake Off! I am beyond excited to be partnering with them to share this with you guys, plus you get a fun and easy recipe made with Annie’s Organic Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough!

The official #BunnyBakeOff is live NOW over on Instagram and runs through 12/13. Pick up one of Annie’s delicious baking mixes or refrigerated doughs, and play around! Make the most delicious and fun recipe you can think of, post it to Instagram tagging @annieshomegrown and using the hashtag #BunnyBakeOff, and you’re entered! Plus you have the opportunity to be regrammed my @annieshomegrown on Instagram. There will be three grand prize winners who will each receive an entire year’s worth of Annie’s products (valued at $366)! Plus the first 100 people who post their recipe to Instagram will automatically receive a free product coupon for any Annie’s baking product just for sharing. Does it get any better? For more on the official rules, head over to Annies.com via this direct link: http://bit.ly/2fEhhea

Now onto the recipe. I don’t even know if I can express my love for chocolate chip cookies, but let’s just say it HUGE. So when I saw chocolate chunk cookie dough that’s both organic and made with great ingredients, it was clearly my go to for the Bunny Bake Off! This cookie dough is phenomenal in and of itself, but I say go big or go home when there’s a year’s worth of Annie’s at stake! And what’s the only thing better than a dessert? Two desserts disguised as one. That’s where this chocolate chip cookie cheesecake skillet comes in.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

-Two 12 oz package of Annie’s Organic Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough
-8 oz organic cream cheese (room temperature)
-¼ cup coconut sugar
-1 egg
-5 oz plain unsweetened yogurt (Icelandic or Greek ideally)
-1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large, greased skillet, mix together the separated cookie dough pieces and spread to cover the entire bottom of the skillet.
In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, yogurt, coconut sugar, egg, and vanilla using a hand mixer until well mixed.
Pour the mixture over top of the cookie dough, spreading it evenly.
Put the skillet in the preheated oven, and bake for 45-55 minutes until the top layer is well browned and the cookie is cooked through.
Let cool for 30 minutes to an hour, slice, and enjoy!

I’m pretty sure you can’t even realize how much you need this cookie cheesecake combo in your life until you’ve had a slice. Trust me, there’s no going back! I topped mine with a scoop of organic ice cream and sprinkles, but feel free to play around! It’s also pretty darn good on its own. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

I have been compensated by General Mills for this post; however, I am sharing my own thoughts. All opinions are my own.

This week has been a bit hectic, so being able to make a one-stop shop was pretty key early in the week. I stopped into my local Walmart to pick up a few things for around the house and was also able to grab some great snacks while I was there. If you didn’t already know, Walmart carries a number of natural and organic brands like LARABAR, Annie’s, and Cascadian Farms which makes grabbing snacks that I can feel good about pretty easy.

I picked up Annie’s Bunny Fruit Snacks which I found in the Cereal, Granola, Hot Cereal, and Syrup aisle of my local Walmart. These fruit snacks are delicious in and of themselves, but I decided I wanted to play around. I’ll be totally honest, it was hard hiding enough of them from my niece (she’s obsessed) to even make it into a recipe, but I somehow managed it. I was initially thinking some sort of trail mix or bar because they’re generally guaranteed to be toddler approved in my house, but I decided to take it a step further, cookies. Let’s be real, these are definitely a better for you option to normal cookies. I just knew that there was no way that my niece would say no to cookies, especially ones that had her favorite fruit snacks as a major ingredient.

So I got to cooking, well, not necessarily because these cookies don’t require an oven. They’re super easy to make, have minimal ingredients, and the most time consuming part is tossing them into the fridge to harden for about 20 minutes. It’s also probably the most difficult part because waiting on cookies is always the hardest part. But they’re definitely worth the wait, and if you can’t wait that long, they still taste just as good when they’re a little bit gooey.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

-One 4 oz box (5 pouches) of Annie’s Bunny Fruit Snacks
-1 ½ cups rolled oats
-1 cup dates, pitted
-1/4 cup unsweetened almond butter
-1/3 cup honey
-3/4 cup almonds, loosely chopped
-1/4 cup shelled pumpkin seeds

Instructions:

Optional – Toast the rolled oats for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven.
Process or blend the pitted dates and about a spoonful of the oats in a food processor or blender for about a minute.
Add the almond butter and honey to a saucepan on the stovetop and warm over low to medium heat, stirring regularly.
Add the contents of three (of the five) Annie’s gummies pouches, oats, almonds, pumpkin seeds, dates, and almond butter/honey mixture into a large mixing bowl.
Mix together all ingredients with hands or a mixing spoon, distributing ingredients as evenly as possible.
Form small balls from the mixture (about ¼ cup each) and flatten into a cookie shape, topping each with 1-2 gummies from the remaining two Annie’s pouches, and placing the cookies on a plate or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Once the mixture is totally used (makes about 12 cookies), top the cookies with more parchment paper and place in the fridge to harden for about 20 minutes.
Serve, and enjoy!

Let me know what you think in the comments below, and I’d love to hear about any fun and creative ways you incorporate the natural and organic products you’ve picked up from Walmart.