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This recipe called Pretzel Crumb Topping Cheesecake bars was invented by my sister and I. We wanted to try to create something new when she visited me last. I had some pretzels and inexpensive Philadelphia cream cheese sitting around (by using coupons and smart shopping) so we decided to try to create a cheesecake with them. It combines so many things I love – the crumb/crisp topping like from apple crisp, buttery pretzels and cheesecake. Mmmm…and this turned out so yummy!! Hope you enjoy our little experiment.

Pretzel Crumb Topping Cheesecake Bars

Crust:
1/2 cup Sugar
1 1/2 Pretzel crumb
3/4 cup butter

Cheesecake Filling:
(2) 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
3 Eggs
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 tsp. Salt
3 tsp Vanilla
2 cups sour cream

Crumb Topping:
1 Cup Flour
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup Oats (can use either minute or regular rolled)
1/2 cup pretzel crumbs, crushed to crumbs
1/2 cup Coarse pretzels – where you can see the peices

Optional: a homemade caramel sauce to drizzle on top

Directions: For the Crust – mix sugar, pretzel crumbs and butter. Press into a 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

For the cheesecake filling: Beat the 2 packages of cream cheese till creamy. Then add eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla and beat on high for 2.5 minutes, scraping sides to make sure it is nice and smooth. Then add 2 cups sour cream. Mix well. Pour over cooled crust. Lick the bowl -well unless you worry about raw eggs… I don’t..LOL.

For the topping: Add all dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Then add softened butter and use a knife or your hands to cut it into the dry ingredients. You should have some pea sized crumbles in there.

Once it is ready sprinkle on top of cheesecake filling.

Add it to the oven and bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes.

Serve with a caramel sauce if you like!  Pretzels + Caramel + Cheesecake…it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Pretzel Crumb Topping Cheesecake Bars

Crust:
1/2 cup Sugar
1 1/2 Pretzel crumb
3/4 cup butter

Cheesecake Filling:
(2) 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
3 Eggs
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 tsp. Salt
3 tsp Vanilla
2 cups sour cream

Crumb Topping:
1 Cup Flour
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup Oats (can use either minute or regular rolled)
1/2 cup pretzel crumbs, crushed to crumbs (use food processor or toss in bag and smash with rolling pin -  should be consistency of crumbs)
1/2 cup Coarse pretzels – where you can see the pieces

Optional: a homemade caramel sauce to drizzle on top

Directions: For the Crust – mix sugar, pretzel crumbs and butter. Press into a 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

For the cheesecake filling: Beat the 2 packages of cream cheese till creamy. Then add eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla and beat on high for 2.5 minutes, scraping sides to make sure it is nice and smooth. Then add 2 cups sour cream. Mix well. Pour over cooled crust.

For the topping: Add all dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Then add softened butter and use a knife or your hands to cut it into the dry ingredients. You should have some pea sized crumbles in there. Once it is ready sprinkle on top of cheesecake filling. Add it to the oven and bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes. Drizzle a homemade caramel sauce on top if you like, enjoy!

See other Frugal Food Recipes from happymoneysaver.com.

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Today I decided to add some fun to our usual breakfast routine. Since Valentine’s Day is tomorrow I thought it would be fun to make Pink Heart pancakes for breakfast! It’s thrifty, and the kids all oooh’d and ahhh’d when they saw them. It was a hit!  

Here is how you make Valentine’s Day Pink Heart Pancakes.

Step 1: Make your pancake mix as per usual – I use Krusteaz pancake mix (Amazon) just because it saves me time.You could make some homemade as well if you prefer.

Step 2: Add pink food coloring

Step 3: Get a gallon size Ziploc bag and pour your batter inside it. Then take scissors and cut a small corner off of one of the bottoms. The smaller the cut the better, you can always cut it bigger if you find its too small. You will pour your batter out of the ziploc onto your griddle this way so you can make your heart shape.

Step 4: Make pancakes as you usually would – using your Ziploc piping bag. Make into heart shapes. Flip and serve.

I hope you enjoy!  What kind of Valentine’s Day food or goodies will you be making?

See more of Happy Money Saver’s Frugal Food Recipes here.

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I am about to share one of my most beloved recipes.

Shh… come closer, ( beckoning you with my finger) this recipe is top secret!

Today I am giving out my favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies. My favorite thing about this recipe is that it makes a large batch, and you can freeze the cookie dough, so that you can bake fresh cookies whenever you want without having to make them.  Just pop them in the oven and within 15 minutes you got yourself a wonderful breakfast, an afternoon pick-me-up, or a midnight snack. ;)

Neighbors will swoon over your amazing mom skills, when all the kids brag about how their mom always has a fresh batch of cookies waiting for them when they get home from school. And if your like me, (and if you are, I am sorry for that) you will bask in all the glory.  So keep this secret between us, shall we. No one needs to know that the cookie dough was actually made several weeks earlier. Ba ha ha!

Large Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups butter (4 sticks)
1 ½ c sugar
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
2 TBSP vanilla
6 c. Flour
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp soda
4 c. chocolate chips

Directions: Cream butter and sugars together.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix well.  In separate bowl whisk together flour, salt and soda.  Mix well.  With mixer running, add flour till well combined.  Add Chocolate chips and mix well.  Drop into rounded tablespoon sized portions on your cookie sheet.  I line mine with parchment.  Bake 350 for 9-12 min or till done.

If you would like to freeze these, here’s what I do:

Line cookie sheet with wax paper.  Pack as many scoops of cookies as you can fit on the sheet.  Press lightly with your hand to make the top flat.  Freeze for 1-2 hours until solid.  Place in gallon freezer bags. If you don’t have room to put a cookie sheet in your freezer, then you can take gallon sized freezer bags and place scoops of cookie dough directly in the bag. Then Freeze. This method may be a little bit more messy, but it’s what I almost always end up doing. To bake from frozen state, just place them on cookie sheet and place in preheated 350 oven.  Bake for 12-15 min.  That’s it!  Enjoy.

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Do you make your own brown sugar??  I do!  My cookies, cinnamon rolls, oatmeal, and pretty much everything else that requires brown sugar, turns out much better with the home-made browns sugar. It also stores well.  I have been making my own for a couple of years now, and from my personal experience, it has never gotten hard. It stays moist, unlike the store bought stuff.

The best part is how easy this stuff is to make.  Who would have known?  All you need is white sugar, molasses, and… umm… wait are those really the only ingredients?  Yes they are! A mixer of some sort does make things a whole lot easier though, so I will add that to the list of things needed.

Homemade Brown Sugar

(1) 5 lb bag of granulated white sugar

(1) 12 oz. jar of Molasses

Directions: Take a large mixing bowl and add your sugar. While on a low speed add half a bottle of molasses.  {The more molasses you add the darker the brown sugar.  If you like the flavor of light brown sugar better, then don’t add as much molasses.}

Let the mixer go for 5 minutes, turn it off and scrape the sides of the bowl. If you like a darker brown sugar, this would be the time to add more.  I usually add all my molasses to my sugar, but it all depends on your preference.Continue  Mixing and scraping until it’s well blended and looks the way brown sugar is supposed to look.  Then go make some dessert… you know you want to!

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Is it just me, or does everyone crave healthier and lighter foods as the weather warms up? I love a good granola, and this recipe is one of my fav’s!  It’s a yummy snack we eat all summer long at my house.  I love mixing it with yogurt, fruit,yogurt and fruit, or just eating it plain. My kids love to eat it in a bowl with milk  for breakfast, so in a way, it’s like homemade cereal!  It’s one food I don’t have to feel guilty about.  This recipe is great for using up some of the oatmeal I get from couponing, plus it’s super easy!

Homemade Granola 

4 cups Oatmeal
1/2 cup Wheat flour
1 cup Almonds, chopped
1/3 cup Oil
2/3 cup Honey*
1 T. Vanilla
1/3 cup Water
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/3 cup Brown sugar*
 1 cup Coconut

Mix all ingredients together except the coconut. Bake at 300 for 45 minutes,(less if you want it softer), stirring occasionally about every 15 minutes.  Add 1 cup coconut near end( I add mine the last 20 minutes).  When cool add craisins. 

*For Maple Granola: add 1/3 c. maple sugar instead of honey amount & 2/3 c. brown sugar. 

 *For Apple Cinnamon granola: change 1/3 c. honey, 2/3 c. brown sugar, 1 T. cinnamon.  Add dried apples.

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I previously posted a Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe that my family loves, but a few months back I tried a new recipe and although it is quite different from the other one, it is equally as good. One thing I love about this one is that it is simple and it uses up some of my salad dressing! You know all those salad dressings we are able to score for next to nothing?  Ever wonder how your going to use it all, or what to use it on? Well, this here is the answer to all your salad dressing woes…  that’s right, this recipe uses Catalina salad dressing as a main ingredient!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

8 large chicken breasts ( thawed)
16 oz. Catalina salad dressing
12 oz. jar of apricot preserves
1  pkg. dried golden onion soup mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a 13 x 9  baking pan, mix the Catalina dressing, apricot preserves, and onion soup mix until well combined. Add chicken and stir so that chicken is well coated.
Bake uncovered for 45 minutes or until done.  Serve over rice.

I would love to hear what  you do with all the salad dressings you get from couponing! Do you have a favorite recipe that you use yours in, or do you just eat a TON of salad?

See more of my frugal food recipes here!

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This is one of my family favorites right here. My kids love them, I love them, everyone who tries them loves them. This is my go to dessert for get-togethers and it’s a recipe that you will get asked for over and over again. The oatmeal and muffin mix are things we couponers often have on hand, which can make this recipe a great frugal last minute idea. Do you need any other excuse to try these? I didn’t think so. We call these Blueberry bars.

I received this recipe from a good friend a while back and let me just say that it has changed my life. (I love being dramatic when it comes to food.) Even if you aren’t a huge fan of blueberries, you will like these. They are that good.

To start you will need 1 package of wild blueberry muffin mix, some quick cooking oats, brown sugar, butter and some raspberry preserves or blackberry jam.

In a large bowl combine dry muffin mix, oats and sugar. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles crumbs.

Press part of the crumb mixture on the bottom of a greased 8 x 8 pan. ( I doubled the recipe for these photos so I used my 9 x 13). Next, mix the drained blueberries into jam or preserves and  spoon this over the crumb mixture in pan.

Spread the blueberry mixture evenly over the crumbs.

Sprinkle the rest of the crumbs over the top of the berry mixture and pat it down.

I feel like I can eat the whole pan because it has oatmeal and fruit in it.  (Ok, uhh that’s just so unhealthy right there, who would eat that much?)…me, that’s who. Wanna fight? I’ll take you down, I weigh more than you.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown. Whatever you do, don’t eat it while its hot. You will want to, because it looks so good, but trust me. Wait until it has cooled completely.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. I promise you it is worth every bite.

Recipe for Blueberry Bars

1 package wild blueberry muffin mix
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 stick butter
1/2 cup blackberry jam or raspberry preserves

Drain blueberries. In large bowl combine dry muffin mix, oats, and sugar; cut in butter. Reserve about 1 1/2 cups of this crumb mixture; press the rest on the bottom of a greased 8 inch square pan. Gently fold drained blueberries into jam or preserves. Spoon over crumb mixture in pan; spread evenly. Sprinkle the rest of crumbs and pat them evenly onto berry mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely and enjoy!

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