My family is big on nicknames.  I’ve written about my childhood nickname in the past and how I seldom hear “Christy” in my family because they still refer to me as the name I was given by my brother the day I was born.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve gotten even worse (or better, depending on your view) about nicknames, especially with my little sidekick, Katy. Oh goodness, all the nicknames I have for her! She just tags along with a smile on her face, answering to whatever I call out with that same sense of joy at knowing that a nickname means love and acceptance in our family.

Pumpkin head, Stinker Bell (which, oddly, I shorten to just Stink), and the most common one I use is  ”My Little Podunk Piddly”.

What is a little podunk piddly? I have no idea. I guess if you go by context of how I use it, a podunk piddly is someone incredibly cute and precious that you’re happy to have follow you around wherever you go. I just made it up one day, years ago and now, when I’m giving her a hug I’ll say “You know what you are?” and she’ll grin up and me and answer “Yup. I’m your little podunk piddly”.

Since we’ve talked in the past about nicknames we are called, today I’d like to hear about what you call your kids. Mama has pointed out that I never use the word “Honey” unless it is talking to my kids and I have quite a few nicknames for my son that I’ll refrain from sharing since he is a teenager now and would rather his entire school not know them. But what about you? Have you ever called your daughter “stink” in the middle of the grocery store and had her happily answer to it or am I the only one who does this mess?

Chime in below in the comments and let me know I’m not alone or crazy as a loon. I’ll take either one. There is a good kind of crazy that I like to cultivate in my life anyway :).

The recipe I’m sharing today is a deluxe version of the classic Monkey Bread that takes a few minutes more but really amps it up a notch and makes a great breakfast danish! We tend to have it for dessert or a special evening snack, though. The cream cheese isn’t sweetened so it created the perfect balance among the sweetness of the brown sugar. A quick, easy, and delicious pull apart bread that pops into the oven in minutes!

 You’ll need: Pecans (optional), Grands Jr Biscuits, Cinnamon, Brown Sugar, White Sugar, Cream Cheese, and Butter. 

Lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray. 

Place 1/2 a stick of butter (1/4 cup) in the pan and put this in the oven while it preheats just to give the butter time to melt.

In a small bowl, stir together cinnamon and sugar.

On a plate, cut your cream cheese into 24-28 cubes.

Oh look! Our butter done gone and melted!

Isn’t it nice when something does what we want it to?

Enjoy this moment while it lasts because goodness knows we don’t get many of these.

Sprinkle your brown sugar allll over the top of that.

Now add your pecans.

Which, for the record and in case anyone might lose sleep tonight over not knowing, I pronounce “puh-kahns”. However, I am happy to report that the world does not speed up in it’s revolutions or tilt the opposite way on it’s axis if you and I pronounce this word differently.

Okie dokie pokie!

Now take each biscuit and tear it into two layers.

This is supposed to be a photo of me doing that, but it is hard to tell with only one hand in the picture. If I had both hands there, you’d be able to see me taking the biscuit apart but then we’d also have to wonder who was holding the camera and it might start the internet thinking I have telekinetic powers, which I actually don’t – yet. It’s ironic that I am “on” the internet and yet I view the internet as the mecca of crazy. Actually, perhaps that makes sense….

Y’all know what I mean, though. It’s a wonderful thing on one hand, on the other it’s unleashed the insanity of the world. All depends on where you look and what you’re looking for though. Focus on the good and see the good.

Oh look, here are some cute little biscuits all torn into layers and then some whole biscuits up at the top awaiting their fate!

Once they’re all layered up, put a little cube of cream cheese in the center of each one.

Y’all, this isn’t all of the layers for one pan, it’s only half of them. Just wanted to point that out.

Then, fold the biscuits into little balls to cover up the cream cheese and press them a bit to seal closed. 

Now just roll them around in cinnamon sugar.

and arrange on top of your pecans in the pan.

Do this until your pan is full.

Now take your purple looking hand (okay, that is just my photography, right?) and sprinkle a few more tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar mixture over your bread.

Cut up the remaining butter and scatter that over the top.

This is only 1/4 cup of butter but when you cut it up into little pieces it looks like I’m dropping 2 pounds on this thing doesn’t it?

Yup. I’m gonna get emails about excess butter now….

Bake this in a 350 oven for 35-40 minutes, or until lightly browned all over the top.

Remove from the oven and let cook for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a plate.

Keep in mind that you have tiny little molten cream cheese centers so for some of us that means letting it cool, for others it means eating it as soon as possible!

“Be strong when you are weak, brave when you are scared, and humble when you are victorious.”

~Unknown

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Hey there! Notice anything different? Healthy Delicious has a new look! I’ve been working on it for months…and thinking about it for the better part of a year. There are still a few little things here and there that need to be tweaked, but overall I’m really happy with how it turned out. Be sure to check out my new recipe index, too. I’m hoping that its more user friendly than the last one. (If you notice anything that seems wonky or off with the site, let me know and I’ll make sure it gets fixed.)

I really wanted to share an amazingly healthy recipe when I announced the new design, but now that it’s October, my self-imposed pumpkin ban is over, and these soft pumpkin cookies with vanilla bean icing were too hard to resist. I promise I’ll be back later this week with a salad to help balance things out.

I made these cookies over the weekend and by the time I figured out what kind of frosting I wanted to pair them with (maple? cinnamon? vanilla bean?!) half the batch was gone. Luckily, they’re really easy to make so it wasn’t a problem at all to make more.

These are super soft “Lofthouse style” cookies – thick and slightly chewy without being at all cake-y. I added a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg to the dough, but kept them relatively simple so that the pumpkin flavor really shines through. (The dough is egg-free too, so go ahead an sample it raw.)

I like them unfrosted just as much as I like them with frosting, but I found a container of sprinkles when I was cleaning out my cabinets and really wanted to use them (same deal with the vanilla beans, which I ordered off of Amazon a few weeks ago.)