Taco Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Oh, once again, the horrible New York lighting struck again. We had a couple of really mopey cloudy months to start summer and I did not feel like digging out all my fancy light box stuff and what not. So excuse the pictures that don't quite capture the true color and deliciousness that is this recipe.

I really like the picture below....it mostly captures how scrumptious this recipe looks. It's all cheesy and gooey and YUM! I love zucchini and thank goodness I'm in the South now where produce is decent for most of the year. Even in the summer in NY, zucchini is hard to come by. I think I had planned this particular recipe for a few weeks before I finally got zucchini at the store to make it.

What I really enjoy about this recipe is that you use ground turkey in place of ground beef. It's a great recipe and not too outrageously fattening - so you don't have to feel guilty about going back for more :)

Copycat Popeye's Spicy Chicken

I love copycat recipes. It's a problem. To date, I have 67 copycat recipes posted on the blog (see them HERE). Now that I'm back home in Tennessee in an actual city, it's not really any issue of getting crappy fast food/restaurant food...crappy Taco Bell? Well, there's about a million of them in the area, so you know which one you go to and which one you don't. Up in New York where we lived, you don't get that kind of luxury. So I resorted to finding out how to make my favorite restaurant recipes at home when I was getting a craving.

Even still, there are a lot of times I think that my homemade copycat recipe tastes better than the restaurant version. In most cases, if I eat fast food, it makes my stomach hurt - probably all the grease. And you know...not knowing exactly went into that food. Gross! I used to love KFC and I've eaten Popeye's a few times...but I'm not big on the texture of the chicken. It just doesn't taste completely right.

This Popeye's copycat recipe is the bomb!!! I was amazed at how close it tasted to the real thing. Popeye's definitely has its own style of breading - it's crunchy and so delicious. I was happy that this recipe reflected that. And it's spicy! YUM!

Pizza Dip

I almost tried this appetizer out for New Year's Eve, but decided not to when Nick came home early from deployment. He would never touch this appetizer in a million years. So I made it when we had friends over since it's my favorite thing to do to make a cheesy food that we can all dig into. I think that when I did it, we used tortilla chips, but I think something more substantial like slices of French bread would be much better.

Fantastical Friday: Beware! Brownies & Bars Ahead!

I'm trying to plan ahead here and do another round up while I settle into my in law's house. This one is something I'm very excited about. Can I please just have one of each of these amazing looking bars and brownies?? I'd gladly eat them all. Yes, I'd gladly eat 50+ bars/brownies. Who wouldn't?

A shout-out to all the awesome bloggers who made this round up possible! Y'all are the bee's knees :)

To get to the recipe listed below - click the picture or title! Be sure to leave the bloggers a little love for their delicious treats :) To find more Fantastical bars & brownies, go HERE.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

There's nothing better than sitting down with family on a Sunday morning with coffee and a slice of delicious coffee cake and gabbing away. To me, coffee cake is a Sunday morning food. It doesn't seem right to eat it any other time. It also doesn't seem right to eat it by yourself. It's definitely a food to share with family, friends, and lots and lots of laughs.

This coffee cake is just perfection. It's light and fluffy with a smooth cream cheese filling. The lemon is not overwhelming - it's such a delicate flavor. The lemon almond topping? That's just "icing on the cake" - so to speak :)