Cinnamon Toast Crunch Popcorn-Guest Post with A Zesty Bite

(Side note: Today is mine and Michael's 5 year anniversary!! Yay! <3 <3 <3)

This is it! The final "ahh I'm moving and planning a wedding and need help" guest post! I am so grateful to all the wonderful ladies I had helping me out and am already so behind on making, photographing, and wirint for the blog...so I can only imagine the mess I would be in if it weren't for these posts! Today's post is courtesy of the adorable, talented, wonderful Meagan of A Zesty Bite! I actually guest posted for Meagan a while back, so I was so excited when she said she'd return the favor! Meagan is so incredibly sweet and has the most adorable little toddler (*sob* she's not a babyyyy anymoooore!) She is also probably the only person who ever made me consider moving to Texas (no offense to TX, it seems cool and all!) And her photography skills are amazing, her site is adorbs, and her recipes are all mouthwatering.

Like this one, for instance...

Hi, Cooking Actress readers!  When Kayle contacted me to help out since she would be busy moving and planning a wedding I was absolutely thrilled to help out my friend.  We have never met but I feel like Kayle is a close friend of mine and I would LOVE if she would move to Texas.  For those of you who don't know me my name is Meagan and I'm over at A Zesty Bite.  I'm a stay at home mom to a busy little toddler girl who is 19 months old.  My website consists of easy and delicious meals that anyone can make whether you cook a lot or have never cooked before.  My recipes range from healthy to complete and satisfying comfort food.
I also like to cover travel and lifestyle posts about our busy little family.

Popcorn is my all time favorite snack!  It's quick to make, healthy to eat and just fun to add different flavors to it.  Now you can't go wrong with lightly salted popcorn but this recipe with cinnamon toast crunch will have you craving more.
Totally…..
Now I have to admit that I like plain non-frosted, non-sugary cereal but for this recipe I needed the extra sugar and there was no glass of milk included.  My little one LOVES popcorn just as much as me and I couldn't wait to share this fun afternoon "special" treat with her.

If you have left over popcorn just store it in an air-tight container.

ENJOY ~ Meagan

Milk Bar Inspired Cereal Milk Cupcakes-Guest Post with The Brunette Baker

Jenny. Oh Jenny Jenny Jenny. Jenny is The Brunette Baker. Guys....her blog name alone....I already have a bunch in common with her-we're brunettes and we bake! Instant friendship! Ha jk but no really-I think I discovered her via instagram and she was so sweet and so funny and just crazy nice and supportive to me on there that it was like...impossible not to wanna be her best friend. This girl is seriously gorgeous and smart and BAKES SO MANY DELICIOUS THINGS IT'S LIKE OMGEEE GET IN MY BELLY! Like...I can't...I can't even make you wait any longer for this recipe. You guys are gonna love it:

Hey kids! I'm Jenny over at The Brunette Baker and I'm super chuffed for the opportunity to have a small walk on role here at The Cooking Actress.

It should come as no surprise to her readers, or anyone that is blessed to know her, that Kayle is truly something special. I’ve had the utmost pleasure of meeting her through the love of blogging. Although I haven't met her in person (YET), she's the sort of person you don't need to meet in the flesh to know what an amazing girl she is. She's a talented and smart girl with incredible beauty - inside and out. In fact, her heart is bigger than all the Hollywood egos put together. Needless to say, this girl is going places.

I will not be surprised to see her on the red carpet in the near future, wearing a gorgeous vintage Valentino gown donning a jewel-encrusted Balenciaga clutch as the dashing Michael, wearing Armani, escorts her while 10,000 camera flashes go wild. I’ll, of course, be in my living room, wearing my cupcake flannel pajamas and holding a bucket of fried chicken, jumping up and down, screaming, ‘OH MY GARSH! I KNOW HER! I knew her when she made those Browned Butter Brownies and Michael chugged a can of Spaghettio’s!” Then I’ll probably choke on a chicken bo-. Sorry. Tangent.

Anyway. Miss Kayle moved from The Big Apple back to Ohio. I know how tough it is moving in the same town, let alone a couple States away. I was only happy to oblige when she reached out to her blogger friends to help her while she readjusts to her surroundings.

New York City has always appealed to me. When I was 18 before heading off to university, a group of girls and I would hop the 6am bus to Port Authority almost every Saturday and explore all the amazing things the city had to offer. I was only a budding foodie back then, so I didn't have the appreciation I did once I hit my 20s and all ten of my 29th birthdays.

It's been a few years since I've been back to the city, but my memory does not fail me. Eileen's on Cleveland has some proper cheesecake, Serendipity's frozen hot chocolate is moan-worthy, Veniero's on East 11th has the bestest cannoli, and of course, there's William Greenberg's for Black & White Cookies.

Of course, there have been several desserteries (totally a word, yes?) that have popped up since my last visit and have been calling me to visit. Bouchon Bakery (I would secretly like one of everything in that bakery to follow me home), Wafels And Dinges (OMG. Hello?!) And Momofuku's Milk Bar.

I have had the pleasure of hitting Milk Bar’s Toronto location quite a few times (and I'm proud to say I'm officially the first Canadian customer to try their cereal milk soft serve – sorry, I’m milking that bragging right. Pun totally intended) and I can honestly say it's one of the most unique desserteries (Oop. There's that word again) out there. I can’t say there is one thing I tried that I didn’t like. In fact, I wanted to #EATALLTHECOOKIES.

So, to celebrate the NYC-TORONTO-OHIO-BLOGGER-FRIENDS connection (I’m sorry. I have no idea why I was screaming just then), I made some Milk Bar Inspired Cereal Milk Cupcakes. Instead of using the traditional cornflakes Milk Bar uses, I used one of my favourite cereals, Capt'n Crunch. Because, why not?

Keep reaching for the stars, Kayle, and feeding my eyes with your gorgeous creations.

I big, red, puffy heart you.

Xo

Cornflake Crunch

Now, technically I'm sharing this recipe because it's a component you'll need for what I share on Friday. But here's a secret: this stuff is delicious all on it's own. Like...really delicious. But trust me, what I've got for you on Friday is like...CRAZY delicious. Out of the world scrumptious. Inconceivably tasty!

Which totally makes up for all the self control you'll need to not just scarf this stuff down. It's really addicting. I had a hard time stopping myself from constantly eating little pieces. So good!

Have you heard of Momofuku's Milk Bar? It's an amazing dessert spot in NYC that I somehow still haven't gone to (and that serves some of the most unusual, yet out of this world delicious, stuff). Christina Tosi, the genius chef behind Momofuku's Milk Bar, shared her delicious brilliance with the world through a Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook! And, through the wonder of the internet, many of these recipes are view-able (from bloggers, articles, etc.) on the internet :). That is where this (and Friday's) recipe comes from! Powdered milk is apparently a big component of a lot of her stuff (milk bar...get it?!) Anyhow, enough back-story, to the recipe!:

Cornflake Crunch

From Momofuku's Christina Tosi via Daily Candy