No-Bake M&M’S® Cookie Butter Avalanche Bars

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MakeItAMovieNight #CollectiveBias

Animated films are my jam, my cup of tea, my sweet love, my obsession and my vampiric life blood. If you don’t like animation, you may as well leave now because I’m pretty sure we can’t ever be friends again.

And no, you can’t have any of these bars on your way out. Hmph!

Animated movie nights are one of my favorite bonding activities ever. If you want to find the want to my heart–because lezzbereal here, everyone does–you might suggest having a snack-filled animation marathon night and I might love you forever.

Every time I go home, my family and I make it a point to watch at least one animated film together, which is so delightful because sometimes I spend more time watching them than watching the film itself. This winter break, we decided to watch Hotel Transylvania 2, which is an adorable film about Dracula’s attempts to turn his half-human grandson into a true vampire. The plot was cute overload, but you know you’re watching a real gem when Blobby the Blob needs to use the bathroom in the middle of a dramatic race sequence and suddenly your dad is cracking up so bad that he is alternately coughing and laughing and quite literally falling off his chair for three minutes straight.

Ahh, families. Gotta love ’em!

The only thing that could have made the night better was having about a bajillion snacks on hand. My family and I are a bunch of huge snackers, so we decided to stock up on Orville Redenbacher 6 pack Movie Theater Popcorn Bowls (a very good idea), Milk Chocolate M&M’S®, and Coca-Cola.

Why these particular snacks? I’m so glad you asked! First off, if you’ve never met Orville Redenbacher popcorn bowls, you absolutely need to. You know the magic of watching your corn kernals pop in the microwave as you heat them? It’s doubly magical when your bag pops up in the oven into a perfect shareable bowl. All we had to do was snatch it up from the microwave, grab our 6-pack of Coca-Cola cans, hop onto the couch, and shmooze all together for movie time.

As it ALSO happens, if you buy all three of these participating products and the Hotel Transylvania 2 DVD in one transaction at Walmart between12/22/15 and 2/2/16, you can take a pic of your receipt and submit the photo here by 2/9/16 to get a $10 Vudu movie code by email while supplies last! (Limit 1 per person.)

So what are you waiting for? Grab your cape and get a move on! Go go go!

Speaking of delicious snacksies, though–I need to introduce you guys to these No-Bake M&M’S® Cookie Butter Avalanche Bars, which are a spin off of my friends’ absolute favorite No-Bake Cookie Butter Avalanche Cookies. You know you are a responsible adult when you make good decisions such as these, because the bars were, as predicted, SO GOOD.

I brought another panful to our new year’s eve party and my friends could not stop raving about them. Their incredibly light, fluffy, crispy texture mingles with the soft cinnamon taste of cookie butter and the wonderful chocolatey crunch of milk chocolate M&M’S®….and best of all, it only takes 5 minutes to make these! If that’s not a perfect reason to make these, then I’m afraid you may leave and join the animation-detesters now.

Are you ready for your next movie night? You’d better bet we are!

 How do you celebrate your family movie nights? Get your next one started with these movie night idea starters!

No-Bake M&M’S® Cookie Butter Avalanche Bars

These no-bake M&M'S avalanche cookie bars are based on one of my very favorite cookies! They're filled cinnamony cookie butter, fluffy marshmallow, and the crispy crunch of rice cereal and M&M'S milk chocolate. Best of all, they take only FIVE minutes to whip up!

Print

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups rice cereal
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate
• 3/4 cup cookie butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup M&M’S® Chocolate Candies

Instructions

1. Lightly grease an 8x8-inch baking pan and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine cereal and marshmallows.
3. Place white chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl. (The bowl must be completely dry, or your chocolate will seize!) Heat on high for 45 seconds, then add cookie butter and continue heating at 30-second intervals, stirring vigorously between each interval until chocolate is completely melted + smooth. Mix in cinnamon.
4. Pour melted chocolate mixture into cereal mixture, stirring until cereal is completely coated. Fold in M&M’S® Chocolate Candies.
5. Spread evenly into prepared pan and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before cutting into bars.