Bloody Zombie Guts (cinnamon rolls + cherry pie filling) are a gore-met dessert

This is a sponsored post by Challenge Butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

Is there zombodie who you would truly like to frighten? Serve up these gore-met Zombie Guts! This dessert is so easy to make, it's ghoulproof!

Bloody Zombie Guts
Ingredients

• 1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
• 2 cans jumbo cinnamon rolls (save icing for later)
• 3 Tablespoons Challenge butter, melted
• Red food coloring

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Spoon half of your can of cherry pie filling into the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch pan 
3. Remove cinnamon rolls from can. Unravel each of the cinnamon rolls so they resemble a long rope.
4. Bend the unraveled dough around each other in the pan so they resemble intestines.
5. Brush melted butter on top of rolls and bake for 16 minutes or until the rolls start to turn golden brown.
6. While it’s baking, mix together icing from cinnamon roll packs, the remaining cherry pie filling, and a few drops of red food coloring.
7. Remove cinnamon rolls from oven and spoon icing mixture on top before serving.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cake

This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

It’s officially the first day of fall, and I'm ready for cozy sweaters, crunchy leaves, and most importantly everything pumpkin! Today I'm sharing a recipe for Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cake, and I think it’s the perfect way to kick off the season!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cake
Yield: Serves between 6 – 8 people
Ingredients

• 1 cup pumpkin
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 Tablespoons Challenge butter, melted
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 tubes cinnamon rolls

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine pumpkin, milk, brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and vanilla. Set aside
3. Combine butter, pecans, brown sugar, and flour. Set aside.
4. Open tubes of cinnamon rolls and cut each roll into quarters.
5. Prepare 9 x 9 square pan or 9-inch pie pan with nonstick spray. Spread cinnamon roll pieces so they cover the bottom of the pan. Dump pumpkin mixture over cinnamon rolls and spread so it’s even. Sprinkle pecan mixture on top
6. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until pumpkin mixture is set.
7. Cool for about 10-15 minutes and drizzle icing from cinnamon roll tubes on top before serving.

Four surprising foods you can make with a waffle iron

Most likely, your waffle iron is significantly underused. Sure, we all know waffle irons get a workout during breakfast, but did you know it’s a great tool for making savory lunch and dinner dishes too?  In fact, I’d go as far to say that you can make just about anything in a waffle iron!

So today I’m going to help jumpstart your creativity by sharing a four of my favorite waffle iron recipes!

Also, in case you're curious, this is the waffle iron I own. It is the best waffle iron ever! Nothing sticks to it, and I LOVE that the plates are removable so I can just stick them in the dishwasher. (This is my own personal opinion not influenced by any outside company.)

1. Pizza

One of the greatest things about waffles irons is they’re quick. For example, a homemade pizza would probably take a half hour to make, but in a waffle iron it only takes a few minutes! So just about anything that starts out as dough or batter works well in a waffle iron.

The most important thing to remember while making pizza waffles is to never leave any part of the center exposed because then pizza sauce will leak out and you’ll have a mess on your hands.

Ingredients

• 1/2 of a 13.8 ounce can of refrigerated pizza crust dough
• 1/4 cup pizza sauce
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
• 6 pepperoni slices

Directions

1. Preheat waffle iron and grease with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Lay pizza dough over waffle iron. Spread pizza sauce on top of pizza dough.
3. Sprinkle half of mozzarella cheese over pizza sauce, and add pepperoni slices on top of cheese.
4. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of pepperoni.
5. Fold pizza dough hanging over edge of waffle iron to center of pizza so the center of the pizza is not exposed (you don't want the sauce to leak out).
6. Close waffle iron and cook on high for about 3 minutes.
7. Serve with marinara dipping sauce.

2. Quesadilla

Your waffle iron essentially acts as a Panini press when making quesadillas. The center gets nice and gooey while the edges get a little crisp.

Ingredients

• 2 tortillas
• 1/2 cup cheese
• Peppers, onions, any other ingredients per your preference

Directions

1. Preheat waffle iron and grease with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Place tortilla on waffle iron and sprinkle 1/2 of cheese on top.
3. Add any other ingredients you want on top of cheese and cover with remaining cheese.
4. Place second tortilla on top of cheese and cook on high for about 3 minutes.
5. Serve with sour cream, pico de gallo, salsa, or guacamole.

3. Omelet

Now this is awesome!  Waffle irons are a foolproof way to cook omelets. You don’t have to worry about a too-runny center or a messy flip because everything is evenly cooked and timed out in the waffle iron.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs, beaten
• Crumbled bacon, peppers, mushrooms, any other ingredients per your preference
• 1/4 cup cheese

Directions

1. Preheat waffle iron and grease with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Pour eggs into waffle iron.
3. Sprinkle bacon, peppers, etc. on top of eggs.
4. Sprinkle cheese on top and cook on high for about 3 minutes.
5. Serve with a sprinkle of cracked pepper.

4. Cinnamon rolls

I have a whole post dedicated to cinnamon roll waffles because they’re a family favorite! And it’s the easiest thing ever to make. All you do is buy a pack of refrigerated cinnamon rolls and stick one in the center. It’s a good idea when you’re cooking cinnamon rolls for a small group because you can just cook a few of them and refrigerate the rest of the dough for another time.

Ingredients

• 1 (12.4 ounce) tube refrigerated cinnamon roll dough

Directions

1. Preheat waffle iron and grease with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Place one cinnamon roll in the center of the waffle iron.
3. Cook on high for about 1 minuted.
4. Serve with cream cheese icing that comes in tube.

Cinnamon roll pancakes with maple cream cheese glaze

If you ever needed a reason to eat pancakes, today is the day! It’s National Pancake Day! I decided I wanted to make something super decadent to celebrate this special day. Immediately the first thing that came to my mind was cinnamon roll pancakes!

There’s a restaurant in Bloomington on Kirkwood Avenue called Village Deli. Village Deli has the most amazing, bigger-than-your-head pancakes. And even better, they have cinnamon roll pancakes! It is life-changing. And since I haven’t been to Village Deli since I graduated in 2013, I NEEED to recreate it!

I started scouring the internet to figure out how I could recreate this blissful breakfast item. And after some research, I discovered that you could essentially turn any pancake into a cinnamon roll pancake by adding a cinnamon sugar swirl to the batter while it’s cooking. Genius, right?!

And of course, cinnamon roll pancakes wouldn’t be complete without a cream cheese glaze. I made a simple glaze using just butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk, and a little maple syrup. These pancakes are great with just regular maple syrup, but they’re FANTASTIC with cream cheese glaze.

So treat yourself on National Pancake Day by combining two of America’s favorite breakfast foods into one glorious treat!

Cinnamon roll pancakes with cream cheese glaze

Yield: Makes about 8 pancakes

Ingredients

For the cinnamon filling

·      4 tablespoons butter, melted

·      1/3 cup brown sugar (69 grams)

·      1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the cream cheese glaze

·      4 tablespoons butter

·      4 ounces cream cheese softened

·      1 cup powdered sugar (126 grams)

·      1/4 cup milk

·      1 teaspoon vanilla extract (can replace with maple extract)

For the pancakes

·      1 cup all-purpose flour (125 grams)

·      3 tablespoons brown sugar (39 grams)

·      2 teaspoons baking powder

·      1/2 teaspoon baking soda

·      1/2 teaspoon salt

·      1 cup sour cream (227 grams)

·      4 tablespoons melted butter

·      1/2 cup milk

·      1 egg

Directions

For the cinnamon filling

1.     Combine melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon in mixing bowl.

2.     Fold a quart-size Ziploc bag over a cup and pour cinnamon sugar mixture into bag. Seal and set aside.

For the cream cheese glaze

1.     In a saucepan on low heat, melt the butter.

2.     Add the cream cheese and whisk until smooth.

3.     Remove from heat and slowly whisk in powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Set aside while you prepare pancakes.

For the pancakes

1.     In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2.     In a medium bowl, whisk together sour cream, milk, melted butter, and egg.

3.     Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and gently mix until just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.

4.     Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Use 1/4 cup measuring cup (or an ice cream scoop) to add batter to the pan. Let the pancakes set on the skillet for about 2 minutes.

5.     Snip the corner of your bag of cinnamon filling. Starting at the center of the pancake, squeeze the filling on top of the pancake batter to form a large swirl. Do not get to close to the edge of the pancake.

6.     Let pancakes cook about 3 more minutes, or until the bubbles begin popping on top of the pancake and the underside is golden brown. Slide a thin, wide metal spatula under the pancake and gently flip.

7.     Cook an additional 3 minutes, or until the other side is gold brown as well.

8.     Remove pancake from skillet and put them on a plate, swirl side up.

9.     Before cooking the next batch of pancakes, wipe all cinnamon sugar filling from the griddle.

10. Drizzle cream cheese glaze on top of pancakes and serve warm.

Recipe adapted from No. 2 Pencil