Roasted Cheesy Potato and Ham Soup

This unbelievable soup is full of roasted veggies, plus tons of cheese, all served in an pretzel bowl!

I knew when I saw the picture of this cheesy potato and ham soup that I was going to love the recipe. I knew it was going to be mind-blowing. I was a little nervous to make it because it looked so fancy and even though I'm pretty competent at cooking, I didn't want to mess this one up. Low and behold, this is actually a easy recipe to make (including the pretzel bowls) and it actually isn't that time-consuming. Yes, you do have to time it to make the pretzel bowls in time for the soup to be finished, but you don't have to babysit the pretzel bowls while the dough rises, etc. I personally think the pretzel bowls are a must with this soup. It's literally the most perfect dinner ever. The pretzel bowls are addictive and the soup is creamy and cheesy and all the roasted goodness makes the soup superb!

Roasted Pesto Bacon Potatoes

These potatoes are perfect with roasted chicken or turkey breast - pesto and bacon are the best pair ever!

When I was really young (like middle school), I used to make potatoes in the oven a ton. By the time I hit my teenage years, I loved to cube up potatoes and cook them up in a skillet. Once I met my husband, we would cook up either fried potatoes or roasted potatoes constantly. They are total comfort food and they go with everything that isn't pasta or rice-based. I was excited to make these potatoes because not only do they have bacon and cheese, but PESTO too. Oh, how I love pesto. Pesto makes everything better. And with bacon, these potatoes are just incredible.

Menu Plan Monday - November 27, 2017

And just like that...winter is upon us. I'm craving all the comfort foods which is reflected in this week's meal plan for sure. Making some old favorites and some soon-to-be new favorites! I'm still debating whether we will have frozen pizza or just frozen junk food on Friday because Matthew isn't eating dinner with us that night.

Monday - Roasted Broccoli Alfredo
Tuesday - Copycat Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supremes
Wednesday - Loaded Potato Soup with Bread Bowls
Thursday - Apple Cranberry Smoothie Oatmeal Bowls // Chicken Fried Steak
Friday - Frozen Pizza
Saturday - Buttermilk Pumpkin Waffles // Kalesidillas // Moist Vanilla Cupcakes
Sunday - Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches

What are you having for dinner this week?
Feel free to leave a link to the recipe in the comments!

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Countdown to 2018 [Information Post]

The year is winding down and it's time to announce the Countdown to 2018! It will be my fourth year hosting and it is still one of my favorite blog events to do each year. If you have a food blog, you definitely want to keep reading!

From December 26 until January 1, food bloggers will share their best recipes posted in 2017 to ring in the new year. Each day has a different category but bloggers are not required to join in for all the days, if they don't want to. Each day a blog hop will open at 12:00am EST and close 48 hours later. The first day of January is the Wild Card category, which means you get to choose what category you want to share. It can be YOUR favorite recipes posted in 2017, underrated gems from 2017, recipes you want to try in 2018, best beverages of 2017, etc. It's totally up to you!

If you have any questions, please email me at fantasticalsharing1 at gmail dot com. I'll see you back on the 26th for the first Countdown to 2018 post all about the best appetizers and snacks recipes of 2017! Sign up for the mailing list is below the image at the end of the post.

Please feel free to post on your blog about the Countdown or share the button on your sidebar or one on your social media. To save, right-click and upload from your computer, tablet, or phone. Do not copy/paste.

Sign up for the mailing list: here.

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Pretzel Bowls

Ridiculously addictive bowls that are perfect to serve soup out of!

I really love homemade pretzels and enjoy pretzel rolls a ton, so I was looking forward to making these pretzel bowls and eating soup out of them. I knew they would be perfectly salty and incredible. I was, of course, right. Because I usually am right about most things. I will be posting the soup recipe that went into these pretzel bowls soon, so keep an eye out for that! They are super easy and ridiculously delicious. I kept eating the tops and insides while ladling out the soup. It's so hard not to!

Cheddar Bay Chicken Casserole

This casserole has chicken and marinara and topped with Red Lobster biscuits - so delicious!

I have yet to have an authentic Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuit because I'm honestly not a huge fan of seafood, so I don't really ever go to Red Lobster. I have always meant to make homemade copycat  biscuits, but never got around to it. I actually wasn't even aware there was Cheddar Bay biscuit mix, but took a chance that I would go to the grocery store and it would be there. I was really happy with how this turned out. I love anything with marinara and the biscuit topping was seriously amazing. I have got to make homemade Cheddar Bay biscuits soon.

Menu Plan Monday - November 20, 2017

It's already Thanksgiving week! What?! It's gonna be a small Thanksgiving unfortunately. All the siblings are now out of state and won't be home until Christmas. So it'll be just my crew, my mom-in-law, mom, and brother. But I do want to make my first stuffing and then also desserts as per usual. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving (if you are American and celebrating this week!).

Monday - Spaghetti
Tuesday - Crockpot Chicken Fajitas
Wednesday - Olive Garden Pasta e Fagoli
Thursday - Sausage Cranberry Pecan Stuffing // Pecan Pie Blondies // Caramel Pumpkin Spice Blondie Streusel Cheesecake
Friday - Culver's Butter Burgers
Saturday - Cinnamon Roll Casserole
Sunday - Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches

What are you having for dinner this week?
Feel free to leave a link to the recipe in the comments!

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Southern KFC Fried Chicken

This tasty fried chicken copycat is easy to make at home and finger-lickin' good!

I haven't had KFC in ages but my family used to get it a ton when I was a kid, so this copycat recipe definitely brings up good memories. We paired our chicken with mashed potatoes and corn - I totally forgot biscuits - shame on me, right?! Regardless, this meal definitely filled us up and I know that Nick and the kids cannot wait to have it again. We love spicy fried chicken, but this seasoned crispy fried chicken was great too!

Copycat Applebee's All-In Brunch Burgers #FantasticalFoodFight

Welcome to another Food Fight! Fantastical Food Fight is a group of food bloggers who will get a theme or ingredient each month and make some sort of variation for it. It could be traditional or nontraditional and can be found in a cookbook, on a blog, or be a blogger's own creation! For more details, check out this page.

November's theme is FAST FOOD COPYCATS and I could not be more ready to see what my fellow food fighters have in store for today's theme. I personally consider a lot of restaurants fast food even though they may not be fast. So my copycat for today is a burger I've always wanted to get at Applebee's, but never do. I am a creature of habit and cannot NOT get my favorite: the quesadilla burger! I need to make a copycat for it soon, but I had to make this All-In Brunch Burger first.

I believe the onion and bacon is cooked into the burger patty, but I don't like that. I find that just means my burgers aren't going to cook as well because they'll be sticking to the pan and then the onions won't be cooked uniformly. So I chose to cook the onions with the hashbrowns and the bacon by itself. I also am unsure if you get a choice in whether your egg yolk is hard or overeasy. No one in my household likes overeasy (except me on the rare occasion), so I just did our eggs cooked all the way through. These were an absolutely magnificent burger. Matthew and Cami both claimed that it had definitely hit top 5 for them and Nick also claimed it was one of the best burgers he had ever eaten. I thought it was pretty freaking fantastic too.

Puffins

Pancakes meet muffins in this wonderful breakfast that you can customize in so many ways!

This is one of the most genius recipes I've ever found and made. It literally can be turned into whatever flavor combinations you want it to have. It could be savory or sweet. For our puffins, I made mini chocolate chip, cranberry and white chocolate, and bacon and caramel. All three combinations were fantastic, but my favorite was the chocolate chip for sure. The possibilities are endless and if you do make these with your own combination, please leave me a comment. We make these often and keep making the same three flavors because we love them so much, but I would love to try new combinations too!

Menu Plan Monday - November 13, 2017

Matthew requested Tuesday and Wednesday's meals, but I think he will be really excited for ramen on Thursday. He is obsessed with anime and loves when we have ramen. There are a few recipes that are old favorites to remake and get a better picture of those foods!

Monday - Italian Mozzarella Chicken Foil Packets
Tuesday - Taco Braid
Wednesday - Cheesy Roasted Ham & Potato Soup with Pretzel Bowls
Thursday - Snickerdoodle Crumble Donuts // 15-Minute Garlic Butter Ramen Noodles
Friday - Homemade Stuffed Crust Pizza
Saturday - Butter Pecan Cheesecake
Sunday - IHOP Buttermilk Pancakes // Sheet Pan Parmesan Pesto Chicken, Potatoes, Broccoli, and Carrots

What are you having for dinner this week?
Feel free to leave a link to the recipe in the comments!

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Fantastical Friday: A Dozen Homemade Breads

November 17th is Homemade Bread Day and that means I have recipes to share, of course! Homemade bread is one of my favorite things in the world. I love so much the aroma that wafts through the house when it's in the oven.

Oven Baked Schnitzel Burgers

Crispy oven baked schnitzel makes a perfect sandwich!

Yes, I am posting yet another schnitzel recipe on the blog. We have schnitzel pretty often and I definitely like to switch it up each time we have it. It definitely hasn't gotten old for us, but it's still nice to have something just a little different. This recipe for schnitzel is baked and that did make me a little weary. However, the schnitzel comes out crispy and super tasty. I love the addition of paprika to this recipe. I would say it's a pretty authentic addition because my German sister-in-law puts paprika on everything or at least it always seems that way! :) The kids, of course, loved this sandwich, and we will have to do more toppings next time. There was no arugula or cucumber when I was at the store to get ingredients, so I ended up doing them pretty plainly. I do want to try with cucumber and tomato badly though!

Chicken Alfredo Soup

This soup is the ultimate creamy, stick-to-your-ribs meal with all the goodness of alfredo in it!

I honestly didn't think I could like a soup so much and then I had this one that brings alfredo pasta to soup form. I just loved how wonderfully creamy and thick this soup was. It really sits nice and heavy in your stomach and is perfect for a cold night. Tennessee has been quite the whiplash for weather lately. It'll be really cold but then semi-warm the next moment. So I am not sure if I'm ready just yet to have this soup again, but I know we aren't too far off from it.

Light Chicken Pot Pie

This lighter version features Greek yogurt and one crispy crust on top that is incredible!

Surprise, surprise - as a child, I hated pot pie. I'm honestly still not the biggest fan of it now as an adult. However, Nick and the big kids love pot pie and I try to compromise and find ways to stomach pot pie and still make it for them. The reason why I don't like pot pie is because of the crust. I've never been big on eating pie crusts. I wanted to try this particular recipe because there is half the amount of crust and I thought that I could deal with that.

I went in with very low expectations and was very shocked when I ended up loving this recipe. The crust is crispy and thin and it just tastes different than normal pie crust. The filling was wonderful and I think the combination really just solidified that I can eat pot pie if it's made like this! Nick and the big kids also really loved the recipe, so I think we have found that compromise that makes everyone happy.

Menu Plan Monday - November 6, 2017

We decided to do a lot of oldies in November. I am really happy about it because I have been going through my old posts and making them SEO-friendly and taking out broken links to linky parties and updating pictures as I go. I really need to update a great deal of the ones from when I first started my blog in 2010. Also...SUNDAY BREAKFAST!!

Monday - Sausage Roasted Broccoli Lemon Penne Skillet [from Whole and Heavenly Oven]
Tuesday - Crockpot Chicken Tacos
Wednesday - Cincinnati Chili
Thursday - Pumpkin Oreo Donuts // Italian Pineapple Chicken
Friday - Kids' Menu Burgers
Saturday - Pumpkin Gingersnaps
Sunday - Harry Potter Butterbeer Pancakes // Crockpot Bacon Tatortot Hotdish

What are you having for dinner this week?
Feel free to leave a link to the recipe in the comments!

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Bacon & Brussels Carbonara

The shredded brussels in this recipe take on a much milder flavor and they are perfect in this creamy pasta!

I'm working on convincing my family that brussels sprouts are delicious. I love them and would eat them any which way. I figured that if they were shredded, Nick and the kids might take to them a little better. Plus I figured that carbonara would definitely win over their hearts...er, stomachs. I was glad to be right! Nick and the big kids did love this recipe. They actually didn't realize that it was brussels and were all pleasantly surprised and I think more willing to try brussels in the future because of this recipe. I think the shredded brussels pick up more flavor from other elements in the recipe and become a little less bitter. I personally don't mind their bitterness, but I think that was definitely one of the reasons this worked so well for the whole family.

Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup

It's a far cry from canned tomato soup, so don't be afraid to give this wonderful soup a try!

I was accustomed to eating a lot of canned soups as a kid and therefore, I didn't really care for soup at all. I did love bean and bacon soup, but that was literally the only soup I liked. Since growing up and learning that I like homemade foods better than canned or boxed foods, I have been trying out foods I may not have liked as a child. I think they deserve a second chance. Plus I make good food! Last year, my mom-in-law made homemade tomato soup and I really liked it. It had a lot of basil in it, so I knew that I wanted to also make a tomato soup with basil. I was so pleased to find a tomato soup recipe that was magnificent. I don't hate tomato soup anymore. AND my kids LOVE tomato soup. AND an even bigger feat...Nick loved it. When we first met, he wouldn't touch tomatoes. Not even diced tomatoes in casseroles. Now he will eat tomato soup. It's a miracle!