Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Tomato, Spinach, & Bacon Quiche

Tomato, Spinach, & Bacon Quiche | A good quiche is hard to beat when it comes to having a perfect breakfast #quiche #recipe #breakfast #bacon

Nothing beats a good quiche! I've become obsessed with adding spinach to everything. I made box mac and cheese last weekend and wanting nothing more than to add spinach to it, but didn't have any on hand. It was a sad day. But I digress...my quiche's crust got a little dark and I wasn't a fan of it, so next time we make this recipe it will be with a homemade pie crust.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Pizza Hut Cheese Bread

Pizza Hut Cheese Bread | Cheesy garlicky "breadsticks" that rival Pizza Hut's! #copycat #recipe #pizza

Y'all know that I ADORE copycat recipes, so it comes as no surprise that I hoarded this recipe and made it :) I really loved the topping and buttery-ness. I do think that next time I make them it'll be with my favorite pizza crust recipe. I just can't help it...it is my go-to crust and never has failed me. It's the perfect texture and fluffiness. I also would love to make a Little Caesar's jalapeno Crazy Bread copycat. If you've had it, you know what I'm talking about! YUM!

Monday, January 26, 2015

Menu Plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday | My week of meals, grocery list, and how much I'm spending on these delicious treats! #menuplan #groceries

This week is all about spiciness and that is something I'm really excited about! I'll be back later today to share how much it cost for all the spicy goodness :)

{Monday}
Jalapeno & Cheese Grilled Chicken
chicken breasts, bacon, jalapenos, provolone cheese, potatoes (side), onion, broccoli (side)

{Tuesday}
Beef Fajita Nachos
steak, fajita seasoning, onion, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, tortilla chips, Monterey Jack cheese, jalapenos, salsa

Frozen Inspired Cake Mix Cookies #SecretRecipeClub


It’s time again for Secret Recipe Club! What is Secret Recipe Club, you ask? It’s a club of food bloggers split into 4 groups that post on separate Mondays in the month. Each blogger is assigned a blog secretly and they stalk that blog to find a recipe or two to make. Once made, the recipe is photographed and a blog post is made to showcase the recipe and blog on the designated Monday! It’s a really fun way to find new blogs, try new foods, and share a little love to a blogger.

This month, I was assigned to Jaime's blog, Mom's Test Kitchen. I have followed Jaime's blog for FOREVER and was super excited when she joined SRC. Her and I have a very similar food/cooking style, so I knew I was going to have problems picking a recipe. I "narrowed it down" to: Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes with Cherry Buttercream Frosting, M&M Cookie Bars, Butterscotch Brownies, Butterscotch Pudding Triple Chip Cookies, S'mores Dip, Caprese Florentine Quiche, and Raspberry Oatmeal Bars. Clearly, I had a bit of a sweet tooth when I was hunting down a recipe to choose, which is absolutely hilarious because I am not craving sweets right now at all. In fact, it's the opposite at this stage in my pregnancy. I want nothing to do with sweets.

And, of course, because NOTHING makes sense in pregnancy, I ultimately chose Jaime's Frozen Inspired Cake Mix Cookies. Even though initially all 4 of us in the house loved Frozen, the boys kind of got over it. Cami and I are still full-on obsessed even after a year. In fact, I'm listening to the soundtrack right now LOL. So she was really really excited when I told her I was making Frozen cookies.

Frozen Inspired Cake Mix Cookies | For all those fans that won't "Let It Go", these cookies are just for you! #Frozen #cookies #LetItGo #SecretRecipeClub

I attempted to make them the first time and have no clue what happened. I followed the recipe and they just did NOT make a cookie dough. There was not enough liquid - it was literally just crumbs in my bowl. I was deadset on making these cookies, so I tried to fix the batter....and I ended up with cupcake tops (think muffin tops, but cupcake fluffy consistency). They weren't bad, but obviously they weren't cookies. I decided to redo them using a recipe I had for cake mix cookies and the end result was much better. I also added white chocolate chips to the cookies as well :) Because why not! I used two types of sprinkles - white and blue nonpareils and silver sanding sugar. I dumped a TON of sprinkles in there. Because it's a Disney cookie - it has to sparkle! This time my cookies turned out perfectly! And they are cute and DELICIOUS!

Frozen Inspired Cake Mix Cookies | For all those fans that won't "Let It Go", these cookies are just for you! #Frozen #cookies #LetItGo #SecretRecipeClub

Friday, January 23, 2015

Fantastical Friday: Over 75 Bangin' Buffalo Chicken Recipes

The Super Bowl is coming up and that means that everyone is all about appetizers, finger foods, snacks, and WINGS. I personally prefer boneless wings and like 'em hot! Instead of a traditional Super Bowl food round up, I decided to feature Buffalo Chicken specifically and go for all sorts of courses - appetizers, side dishes, main dishes - all featuring the amazingness of Buffalo Chicken!

Also just because of the theme - I have to ask you readers - do you eat buffalo anything with ranch or bleu cheese or some other white cool sauce/dip? I didn't realize how common it was 'til I made the round up. We eat buffalo stuff without a cooling sauce of any kind. Just straight up spiciness!

Over 75 Bangin' Buffalo Chicken Recipes | No need to enjoy buffalo sauce on just wings, this roundup is full of all sorts of non-wing buffalo chicken goodness! #SuperBowl #buffalosauce #chicken #recipes


Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Candy Bar Pudding

Candy Bar Pudding | Homemade chocolate pudding that can be paired with your favorite candy bar! #dessert #recipe #chocolate #pudding

I have never made homemade pudding - like no box mix. I actually think the amount of times I've actually made box mix pudding as an adult is only 1 or 2. I digress... I saw this pudding and thought it looked amazing. I made it with Butterfingers (which if I remember correctly is how the original blogger did), but really you could pair it with any candy bar - Baby Ruths, Twix bars, Milky Ways, Reese's cups - nom nom! I used fresh whipped cream, but I definitely think I'll go the Cool Whip route next time.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Menu Plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday | My week of meals, grocery list, and how much I'm spending on these delicious treats! #menuplan #groceries

Monday, we meet again. ::squinty eyes:: This week's menu brings "chicken" (turkey) parm meatballs, chowder, and only the best pancakes and quiche EVER! So excited. I should probably not be so excited about food, but I can't help it. I'll be back later to update how much I spent :)

{Monday}
"Chicken" Parmesan Meatballs
ground turkey, parmesan cheese, lemon, spaghetti sauce, mozzarella slices, angel hair, asparagus (side)

{Tuesday}
Taco Casserole
refried beans, ground beef, cheddar cheese, tortilla chips, salsa, lettuce, tomato

Friday, January 16, 2015

Fantastical Friday: 34 Weeks


Fantastical Friday: 34 Weeks update #pregnancy #thirdtrimester

How far along are you? 34 weeks
How are you feeling? I'm starting to get a little antsy and a little nervous. The what-if's kill me. And for some reason any pain or weird feeling freaks me out. I think partly because I was in the hospital overnight with Matthew at 33 weeks and almost stayed overnight with Cami at 34 weeks. I didn't have either of them until 40 weeks, but still. Freaks me out.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli

Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli | An easy but fantastic crockpot meal #recipe #crockpot #beef

Crockpot meals are the best! Today's recipe is a super simple Asian (probably super Americanized, so don't take me too seriously claiming that) meal that turns out incredibly delicious. For those who are brave, mushrooms and water chestnuts would be a great addition. None of us are big fans of those though, but I know lots of people love them and figured it'd be worth a mention.

I served this over brown rice, but it would also be fantastic over quinoa too. We are actually having it again for dinner tonight, so I'm really excited!

Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli | An easy but fantastic crockpot meal #recipe #crockpot #beef


Monday, January 12, 2015

Menu Plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday | My week of meals, grocery list, and how much I'm spending on these delicious treats! #menuplan #groceries

Hello, hello, Monday! It's time to share my weekly menu and grocery list. Again, there are links to all the recipes I will be making. About half are on my blog, half are not. I have tried all of these recipes though and can confirm their deliciousness. I'm especially excited about Tuesday. The first time I made the salad, I was totally blown away by the salad dressing! Be back later to update my total amount of money spent on the groceries!

{Monday}
Kicked Up Sausage Alfredo
smoked turkey sausage, cherry tomatoes, penne, baby spinach, parmesan cheese

{Tuesday}
Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad Copycat
chicken tenderloins, romaine lettuce, napa cabbage, red cabbage, carrot, green onion, cucumber, sliced almonds

Friday, January 09, 2015

Thursday, January 08, 2015

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Root Beer Buttercream Frosting

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Root Beer Buttercream Frosting | Rich, moist cupcakes with dark chocolate and coffee paired with fluffy root beer buttercream - YUM! #chocolate #rootbeer #dessert #cupcakes #recipe

Each year, I struggle to get Nick to pick a dessert for his birthday. He always claims to not really like sweets (which is a total lie - I've seen him snatch 4 cookies off the cooling rack before they are even cool!) and it makes it pretty difficult to make him something. This past year, I chose to make dark chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream. I think he likes the idea of cupcakes as much as I do, they are single serving, easy to clean up and store, etc. However, my raspberry buttercream did NOT turn out. I'm not sure where I went wrong, but it was a hot mess that I couldn't fix.

I ended up only frosting 4 cupcakes - just enough for each of us to eat one on Nick's birthday. He seemed to like the frosting just fine, but it was not pretty. I don't think I even got a picture...destroyed THAT evidence. I froze the remainder of the cupcakes - which by themselves were pretty darn fantastic.

At this point, I had no clue what to do with them. I really wanted a rum buttercream frosting, but at the same time, I was craving root beer like no other! Root beer is about the only soda I drink and it's on rare occasions I have it. For example, I had it on New Year's Eve (out of a bottle - yum!) but hadn't had it for months prior to that.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Root Beer Buttercream Frosting | Rich, moist cupcakes with dark chocolate and coffee paired with fluffy root beer buttercream - YUM! #chocolate #rootbeer #dessert #cupcakes #recipe

So I thought that I would go with a root beer buttercream based off my go-to vanilla buttercream frosting. I had had some root beer concentrate in my cabinet for quite a while and I thought I oughta use it. The buttercream turned out perfectly and it paired with cupcakes perfectly as well. It made me such a happy camper!


Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Almond Joy Frappuccino

Almond Joy Frappuccino | Coffee & Almond Joy flavors make for a delicious cold beverage #frappuccino #almondjoy #coconut #recipe #beverage

I'm not a big fan of Almond Joys. Let's just put that out there.

However...
I am a big fan of my husband's and he loves Almond Joys. So as with pretty much all the foods he loves (and because I put up with him), I've hoarded recipes to make for him. This was one I figured he would love because it combines Almond Joys with one of his all-time favorite things in the whole wide world: coffee.

Even though I am not the biggest fan of Almond Joys, I quite enjoyed this little cold coffee treat. I think that the chocolate and coconut worked together well and nothing was too overpowering :) And of course it got Nick's seal of approval!


Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Crockpot Creamy Chicken & Green Bean Casserole

Crockpot Creamy Chicken & Green Bean Casserole | A delicious casserole featuring bacon, gouda, quinoa, and more! #recipe #maindish #bacon #quinoa #crockpot

I have made quite a few dishes with quinoa over the last year or so. It's quickly become a family favorite. We've even subbed it out when rice or pasta is called for because we love it so much. I jumped the gun when I found a crockpot quinoa recipe. I adapted it slightly because we had poor broccoli supply at the store at the time I wanted to make it and I wanted to make it extra cheesy with not only pepperjack but some smokey gouda cheese too! And I totally cheat and use the real bacon bits instead of frying up bacon because let's be honest - it's super messy!

Crockpot Creamy Chicken & Green Bean Casserole | A delicious casserole featuring bacon, gouda, quinoa, and more! #recipe #maindish #bacon #quinoa #crockpot


Monday, January 05, 2015

Menu Plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday | My week of meals, grocery list, and how much I'm spending on these delicious treats! #menuplan #groceries

MPM is back! That's right, it's the very first MPM of 2015 :) This year I've decided to do things slightly different and post links to all recipes, regardless of them being posted on my blog or not. I'm also on the quest to make MORE breakfast a week instead of relying on cereal and yogurt. So here we go!

{Monday}
Crispy Chicken with Creamy Italian Sauce & Bowtie Pasta
chicken breasts (1), rice krispies, bowtie pasta, Italian herb & cheese cooking creme, cream of chicken soup (2), parsley, asparagus (side)

{Tuesday}
Taco Ring
ground beef (1), crescent rolls (1), salsa, lettuce, tomato, refried beans (side)

Friday, January 02, 2015

Fantastical Friday: 32 Weeks

My bump picture for this week :)
Shirt is barely covering the bump and pants barely fit - guess who needs to go shopping!?

How far along are you? 32 weeks. I cannot believe I am saying that. When did that happen?

Thursday, January 01, 2015

Countdown to 2015: Pick Your Poison

Find some new recipes to try in the new year, as we say goodbye to 2014! The Countdown to 2015 has a slew of #recipes from many food blogs! #Countdownto2015 #newyear

Can you believe it's already January 1st? I mean c'mon!! Where did 2014 go? Today is a fun category theme as each of the foodies who links up below gets to choose what they want their round up to be. It can be anything from their favorites, a category we didn't cover, recipes from other blogs they want to try in 2015, etc. Today I am choosing to share not only my top 10 favorite recipes of 2014, but also my husband's favorite recipes of 2014! Thank you all once again for all your support and here's to another Fantastical year of recipes and more!