cheater•raspberry cinnamon rolls

Weekends are a cause for celebration in this household-- especially now that we've figured out how to keep the boys from waking us up before it's light outside.  We somehow convinced them to play in their room when they wake up instead of waking us up right away.  Never mind that to keep busy this morning they decided to remove every last book from their bookshelf, covering the floor with a colossal, sprawling heap of books.  My boys have quite a lot of books, and this makes a big...

Gigantic. 

Mess.  

And this isn't the first time they've done this first thing in the morning.  Something about that pre-dawn glow makes them want to destroy their room (or is it just something about being a boy that makes them want to destroy anything, at any time?).

But, on the bright side (as in bright from the sun, as opposed to the bright of a Buzz Lightyear book light shining in your face at five AM on a Saturday), we did get to sleep in until 6:45 this morning!  This is pretty big for us.  It probably doesn't sound great to those of you who get to experience the joy of really sleeping in, but on a weekday at that same time Brock would already be on his way out the door and the rest of us would be in the middle of our frenetic race to finish breakfast, get dressed, gather school stuff and get to school (within 10 minutes of) on time. 

So anyway, I was in a celebratory mood this morning and wanted to make something special.  This something special also had to be easy and fast because my boys had worked up an appetite destroying their room, and I almost never have the foresight or energy to start cinnamon rolls from scratch the night before.
In comes the store-bought dough, which is a favorite of ours to make in the dutch oven when we're camping.   Since we're still in the depths of winter here in the mountains and we won't be rolling out the tear drop trailer anytime soon, this "cheater" version of cinnamon rolls has snuck its way into my kitchen of late.  At least the local store carries an all-natural brand...  It's still loaded with sugar, but is free of partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and other offenders you might find in other store-bought dough.  

Roll in some raspberries and mix some cream cheese into the frosting, and I like to think  there's a tiny bit of something in these that's good for you (and besides, we're celebrating, right?).  
This is not the kind of cinnamon roll you can pick up and eat or pick apart with your fingers (unless you're Oliver and you just don't care).  You'll want to get out the forks because these are a gooey mess-- in a wonderful, delicious, weekend morning kind of way...
Happy weekend, friends!

the (non) veggies:

• About 25 fresh raspberries, washed
• 1 roll of pre-made cinnamon roll dough (I use a 17.5 oz package containing 5 rolls and a regular icing packet)
• 1/2 cup cream cheese

the love:

1. Preheat your oven to 350° and get out a baking pan (I like to use a pie plate for this).
2. Pop open your dough and unroll a single cinnamon roll on a plate or cutting board.  Tightly re-roll the dough, squishing in a whole raspberry every inch or two, for a total of about five berries per roll.  
3. Repeat with the remaining rolls and raspberries, and don't worry if you're loosing some of the cinnamon paste from between the dough-- just spread whatever came off back on top of the rolls once they're all rolled up again.
4. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until your rolls are golden on the edges and no longer doughy in the middle (but they will still be gooey from the raspberries).
5. While the rolls are baking, whisk together the cream cheese with the icing that came with the cinnamon rolls.
6. Let the cinnamon rolls cool for just a couple minutes before frosting (if you can stand it), then glob the frosting on thick.
7. Slice and fry up some veggie sausage and brew a cappuccino for on the side, and toast to the weekend.