Breakfast Scramble

This meatless scramble has so many fresh ingredients in it - it's the perfect morning food!

This recipe had me at scramble...because I LOVE scrambles. I've been eating lots of them lately, especially tossing leftovers into scrambles. It's either that or omelets and, to be honest, I'm still not the most proficient in making omelets. This scramble is meatless and has kale, peppers, and green onions. Plus FRESH HERBS. I have so much basil from my Aerogarden that I just relish in any opportunity to use it. I hope to make this scramble often and I would definitely love to try some crumbled feta next time!

Throwback Thursday No. 71

I don't understand why I haven't made this ONE BOWL VANILLA CUPCAKES FOR TWO since 2012 because there is nothing better than a dessert recipe that dirties one dish AND makes a small amount. It's the perfect recipe when you have a craving.

I am so impressed with how this GARLIC-RUBBED BACON TOMATO GRILLED CHEESE turned out. Rubbing garlic on a BLT grilled cheese? YES!

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Slow Cooker Chicken Spinach Pasta #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.

This month's Fantastical Food Fight theme is PASTA. October is National Pasta Month (American) and it could have not come at a better time. Nick recently went of his keto diet and is counting macros which means he is eating carbs. Which also means, I basically want to eat pasta every single day LOL. If you knew me in real life, you would know I am a pastaholic. Pasta is life (where pesto is my life blood). I'm ridiculously excited to see what my blogging pals have in store for today's Food Fight.

I decided to share this slow cooker chicken pasta recipe for today's Food Fight because it is now one of my new favorite chicken pasta dish. I love that it's slow cooked and you only have to prep the pasta before eating. I am not 100% sure, but I believe this was my first encounter with Creamy Italian dressing. It's now a must-have, stocked dressing in my fridge (along with French, Caesar, Poppyseed, and some kind of apple or onion vinaigrette). I would love to try this with fresh spinach - I'm sure it could be added in right before it's time to eat, so that it just wilts. Also confession time: I don't care for sundried tomatoes. I think they are much too sweet and potent. So I took grape tomatoes and roasted them. If you are good at laying down aluminum foil, you technically won't dirty a baking sheet to roast the tomatoes. And you can do it while you make the pasta.

Overall, this dish is just so wonderful. You can absolutely use any pasta you want, but I'm partial to spaghetti!

Bacon Brown Sugar Pork Loin

The perfect Sunday dinner pork loin made with bacon, brown sugar, and whole grain mustard!

When I found this recipe, I didn't even think twice about putting it on my meal plan - bacon-wrapped pork loin! I looked at the ingredients list and was a little taken aback with chutney. I had heard of it, but couldn't really recall what exactly it was. If you are also living under a culinary-noob rock, chutney is an Indian condiment made from fruit and veggies with vinegar and spices. Major Grey's is a specific kind made with mangoes and red peppers. I think the chutney and whole grain mustard (first time trying that too) really classed this dish up. The smoky paprika and spicy cayenne worked so well with everything too.

Menu Plan Monday - October 15, 2018

We have another super awesome week of food ahead of us. I don't know what I'm most excited for because some of these are old favorites and some are new recipes. And now...I'm hungry :)

Monday - Mediterranean Meatball Gyro Sandwiches
Tuesday - Ree's Burrito Bowls
Wednesday - Cinnamon Roll Donuts // Easy Zuppa Toscana Soup
Thursday - Pork Tenderloin with Shredded Brussels [Food Network magazine]
Friday - Bacon Cheeseburgers with Spicy Mayo [Food Network magazine]
Saturday - Philly Cheesesteak Omelets
Sunday - Breakfast Crunchwraps // Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

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 Beer Cheese Soup with Chicken

This rich beer soup has so much cheese - plus bacon and chicken for heartiness!

I have no idea what happened, but I now love beer cheese soup. I still don't like and won't drink a beer, even the wheat ones that are fine, in my opinion. But I love beer cheese soup. There is just something about a beer that adds such perfect flavor to the soup, a richness and tang. Typically, these soups only have bacon, but this one has chicken plus croutons and chives. It is such a well-rounded, hearty soup. It's perfect for this time of year!

Carne Asada Melts

Grilled cheese has never been better loaded with carne asada, tomatoes, and avocado!

I have made these melts a couple times. I have prepared them with marinaded carne asada beef and pre-prepared carne asada beef. I tend to prefer marinating it on my own but either way, it turns out fantastically. It just depends on how much time you have for prep. You can go spicy with the cheesy or more mild. Again, it's just up to you. But this is one fabulous grilled cheese that you don't want to miss out on! And I'm saying grilled cheese instead of melts because I mean, they are basically one in the same :)

Menu Plan Monday - October 8, 2018

We're having a few new recipes this week, but still mostly old favorites :) I ended up switching Wednesday's dinner because we have family in town because my sister-in-law got married over the weekend and one of my other sister-in-law's requested Dill Pickle Soup for soup night!

Monday - Loaded Blackened Chicken
Tuesday - Nachos Bell Grande
Wednesday - S'mores Baked Donuts // Dill Pickle Soup
Thursday - Rosemary Steaks with Cheesy Eggs [Food Network magazine]
Friday - Carrot Coconut Bread // Cheeseburger Pizza
Saturday - Mississippi Pot Roast
Sunday - Italian Baked Eggs // Butterbeer Cupcakes

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

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Throwback Thursday No. 70

I have two recipes perfect for autumn today and I cannot think of a more perfect day than one that contains both of these recipes! These PUMPKIN PUDDING CINNAMON ROLLS are amazing. Pudding mix makes everything better!

We also love this ITALIAN CHICKEN SOUP. I put it on the menu for th emonth as soon as I saw it in my Throwback Thursday line up!

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German Pea Soup with Egg Dumplings

This wonderful soup is classic in so many ways but has the addition of egg dumplings to really set it apart.

I've never been a big fan of dumplings, but I like to try new things and since we've been trying a lot of German food lately, I thought this soup would be the perfect recipe to try. The egg dumplings made me a little nervous, but they ended up being relatively easy to make and they tasted a lot like gnocchi. In fact, I think the consistency is almost dead on for gnocchi and I really enjoyed that a lot. I also used a ham hock for the very first time, which was really interesting to say the least. I wanted to stay as close to the original recipe as possible when I first made it and I didn't change anything the second time I made it. This soup reminds me a lot of beef stew but also vegetable soup. It's like the two had a baby together and this was result. So definitely give it a try! I haven't yet asked my sister-in-law (who is German) if this is an authentic recipe that is eaten in Germany, but I thought I'd share the name of the soup in German for fun: Erbsensuppe mit Eierschwämmchen.

Slow Cooked Chicken Fajita Chili

Chicken fajitas turned into a slow-cooked chili to warm you up on chilly days!

I adore when I can throw meals into the crockpot and I find that I really enjoy pretty much every single chicken crockpot meal I have made. We don't eat a lot of chili and when we do, I only have a couple chili recipes that I turn to. Most all of them are beef chili, so it's really nice to have a chicken recipes for chili. And I love that this recipe is reminiscent of fajitas with that lovely fajita seasoning in it!

Menu Plan Monday - October 1, 2018

Hello, October! We've decided upon lots of old favorites in October because it's going to be such a crazy busy month. This weekend is sure to be fun and also hectic as my sister-in-law is getting married :) We're excited to welcome yet another person *officially* into the family. And I'm basically going to get to soak up all the time I can with my nephews and nieces while everyone is in town!

Monday - Spaghetti
Tuesday - Taco Bell Chicken Quesadillas
Wednesday - Snickerdoodle Crumble Donuts // Italian Wedding Soup
Thursday - Grilled Cobb Salad
Friday - Pumpkin Poppers // Crockpot Chili Dogs
Saturday - No plans - WEDDING DAY!
Sunday - Easy Cinnamon Twists

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

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Spicy Chicken & Jalapeno Pizza

This pizza packs a punch of heat that will light your mouth on fire!

It still to this day amazes me that I eat spicy foods now. I eat jalapenos. When I was a kid, I rarely ate bell peppers because I thought they were spicy. I grew up on the mildest mild of food. Medium salsa was so spicy and I couldn't handle it. And now here I am eating jalapeno poppers and buffalo chicken and love all different levels of hot sauce (for the most part).

I love this pizza because it has so many good parts to it. The crust is perfect. I like thicker crusts, so I didn't roll mine out a lot. Although I love red sauce (I use pasta sauce instead of pizza sauce because I like the seasoning better), I prefer pizza with chicken as a protein to have white sauce OR in this case, and oil sauce. It's the perfect complement to chicken. The chicken is seasoned with some magical spices if you ask me. I would absolutely use those on chicken breast as a main dish in a heartbeat. And lastly, I love having the big pieces of cheese instead of shredded. It's like having a stuffed crust but on the actual pizza :) I'm such a huge fan of this pizza and definitely recommend it to anyone who loves spicy food!

Chicken a la King

This comfort meal is ready in under 30 minutes and is made in one pot!

I was introduced to chicken a la king in middle school during Wednesday night church. We did youth group and then some ladies in the church made dinner for us. I always looked forward to chicken a la king because it was so good. Stick to your ribs, warm you from your toes type of comfort food. I made this chicken a la king sans mushrooms because 3 out of the 4 of us eating it don't eat mushrooms. We also served it with biscuits instead of over egg noodles because Nick is doing a keto diet. This is such a quick meal and it's made in one pot, so it's a really fantastic QUICK comfort food recipe.

Cheese and Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken

Chicken has never been better stuffed with savory cream cheese, salty prosciutto, and bright and juicy tomatoes or red bell pepper!

This is one recipe that I struggled to get a good picture of. Struggled. Hard. This is actually the sixth or seventh set of pictures I've taken of it. However, I must say that I was not at all disappointed to make this stuffed chicken over and over again because it's one of my absolute favorite chicken recipes ever ever. I have made it in the original way with sundried tomatoes - but that's not really my favorite way to eat it because sundried tomatoes always seem too sweet to me. I've made it with roasted grape tomatoes a number of times, which is my favorite way to eat it. This last time I made it (as pictured), I made it with roasted red bell peppers.

I actually don't like making stuffed chicken because of how messy it can get, but I really don't mind this one and found that if I cheat and get PRE-thinly sliced chicken, I don't mind making them at all. I also have an insane amount of basil from my Aerogarden and this is the BEST way to use it. I love pesto, but I'm awful at making homemade pesto.

Menu Plan Monday - September 24, 2018

I'm going full-on pumpkin mode this week and will probably continue until it's peppermint time. Once again, we're having some old favorites because again, still having soccer practices and games, so we need the ease of having made something before (nothing new to surprise me).

Monday - 15 Minute Butter Ramen with Pork
Tuesday - Crunchwraps
Wednesday - Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins // Chicken Alfredo Soup
Thursday - Popcorn Chicken
Friday - Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread // Calzones
Saturday - My Favorite Meatloaf
Sunday - Swedish Coffee Cake // Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars

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

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Oatmeal Cookie Apple Crumble

This fantastic autumnal dessert is reminiscent of a dump cake and is the best crumble ever!

Tomorrow is the first day of fall here in the Northern Hemisphere and that means I have been ready for everything autumnal for the past month or so :) I made this apple crumble recipe out of season, but I cannot remember when. Then I lost my pictures in the Horrible Harddrive Failure of June 2018. I, of course, was absolutely distraught at having to make this recipe again to get new pictures - NOT! It's such an easy dessert and it reminds me a lot of a dump cake recipe. The end result is a magnificent autumn dessert. My favorite way to eat it is warm with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top - but that is only because I can't find the cinnamon bun ice cream I used to love for any dessert with cinnamon in it. Honestly, I could see a couple different flavors of ice cream being a great match with it!

Throwback Thursday No. 69

Hello, friends! I am in love with this era of recipes that I'm in now and I'm reminded that I need to make some of these again asap. First up is this BACON-WRAPPED GOUDA STUFFED CHICKEN recipe. 1. BACON and 2. GOUDA. Like you cannot go wrong with those two things :)

And you can't have savory without a little sweet and these PEANUT BUTTER CUP BLONDIES
are not only delicious but super easy to make. Just be sure you have a glass of milk ready to go!

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Banana Pudding Pancakes #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.

This month's Fantastical Food Fight theme is BANANA. Apparently, there is this thing called the International Banana Festival that takes place in the month of September (in Kentucky, I think?). That was all I needed to go ahead and make our September Food Fight all about bananas. I left it up for whatever my blogging friends wanted to do - sweet or savory - anything banana goes!

My birthday was this past Sunday and I decided that even though last month, waiting until the last weekend before the Wednesday to post ended in fiasco, I would risk it. This month, I had a magical recipe in mind and I wanted it on my birthday. I am ridiculously excited to share these gorgeous little pancakes today. What a decadent way to start my 30th year, right?!

It has all the best elements of banana pudding and then you get pancakes too! The sauce honestly seems pretty close to vanilla pudding to me. I'm fairly certain it is pretty much just a homemade pudding and I didn't even realize it when I was making it. Pudding makes me nervous haha. But alas, no hollandaise-esque disaster. Everything went perfectly and my birthday breakfast was FANTASTIC! It was awesome!

Easy Egg Drop Soup

This soup is so easy to make and you can make it with add-ins or without!

Easy Egg Drop Soup is one of my favorite quick soup recipes that I love to make in a bind. There is room to have add-ins to make it more filling, like chicken, tofu, bok choy, and mushrooms. You can add some, none, or all! It's totally up to you. The base is the same and is wonderful on its own. This recipe really is easy and it's so quick. My older two kids love cooking and have nailed frying eggs, making mac and cheese, and making grilled cheese sandwiches. I think if they could make those, they could definitely make this soup.

Menu Plan Monday - September 17, 2018

I think it's safe to say that this week is all comfort food. My niece turns 2 on Sunday and I get to make her birthday cake and I'm really excited to make it. I think it's gonna turn out super cute!

Monday - Carbonara
Tuesday - Slow Cooker Tex Mex Chicken
Wednesday - Coffee Cake Donuts // Kale Soup
Thursday - Cheesy Tuna Casserole
Friday - Grilled Butter Burgers
Saturday - Chicken and Dumplings
Sunday - Easy Cinnamon Twists // Birthday Cake for my niece, Presley

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

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Sugar Cookie Bundt Cake

Have your cookie as a cake, and eat it too!

I love sugar cookies and I love bundt cakes, so I figured I couldn't go wrong making this delicious dessert that combines the two. I also am right most of the time, so, of course, no big surprise when this bundt cake turned out wonderfully. I wish I still had the picture evidence, but I brought this to my mother-in-law's for Sunday family dinner and Nick put it in the car. And buckled it in the front passenger seat! It was the funniest thing ever. I guess I just risk going up and down hills and curves and chance that my cake will be okay. This tastes just like a sugar cookie would in cake form and the frosting was sweet sweet sweet!

Sourdough Waffles

You ain't had crazy good breakfast until you've tried these buttermilk waffles made with sourdough!

I've been trying to use my sourdough more often because it just sits in my fridge and gets its 10 day feedings and that's it. I decided to whip up these sourdough waffles because I have had the recipe saved for like 6 years or something crazy like that. If you don't know how to make sourdough, please scroll to the bottom of the post and make yourself a starter. It's easier than you'd think and most times, they are very forgiving. I personally really enjoyed the flavor of these waffles and absolutely adore that they contain buttermilk as well. Buttermilk pancakes/waffles are my favorite style/kind. I also really like that this recipe has two parts, but neither are very labor intensive. You stir a few ingredients together the night prior and then stir a couple more ingredients into that and boom! Waffles for breakfast!

Rosemary Bean and Bacon Soup

Bean and bacon soup with fresh herbs is the perfect way to warm up on a chilly evening!

For some reason, I can never remember to put crockpot soup recipes in the crockpot and inevitably, they end up being made in the stockpot. I personally don't mind this at all, but it's pretty nice to have the soup slow cook all day and the flavors meld together. This particular bean and bacon soup is more convenient to make in the stockpot, in my opinion, because you have to cook the bacon before you put it in the crockpot. And that means you are going to dirty an extra pan/pot anyways. I love the fresh herbs in this particular bean and bacon soup and cannot wait to make it over and over again!

Maple Walnut Blondies

The perfect fall treat with oatmeal, walnuts, and loads of maple flavor!

Confession time: I don't really like maple flavored anything. I prefer the fake maple syrup for breakfast foods. The smell of maple, to me, is gross and I hate how sticky it is. However, I am married to someone who loves maple entirely too much. He made a homebrew with maple (it was an oatmeal porter) and enjoys literally all the maple things. I made this recipe for him (and the kids). I did try one to see if maybe it would be yummy because I love blondies and I like all the elements of these blondies except the maple. Unfortunately, these were not for me. I couldn't finish one bite. So why on earth would I post a recipe I didn't like? My family devoured them. I have talked briefly about how Nick is doing a keto diet. He is fairly strict about carbs and he decided to have a cheat day and ate three of them. So if that is any indication, from someone who loves maple, that these maple walnut blondies are amazing, I don't know what is!

Menu Plan Monday - September 10, 2018

We survived the first week of soccer games and I'm so excited because my sister-in-law and two nieces are in town and she is a pumpkinaholic too, so we're gonna get fat on pumpkin foods. I'm making gnocchi soup on Wednesday (because she loves it and doesn't know it)  and she asked for hibachi on Thursday. Sunday is my birthday, so I'm having some delish pancakes for breakfast and then making a gorgeous cheesecake for my birthday cake.

Monday - One Pot Garlic Parmesan Pasta with Baked Parmesan Chicken
Tuesday - Tacos
Wednesday - Italian Baked Eggs // Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Thursday - Japanese Steakhouse Hibachi
Friday - Pumpkin Mug Cake // Zucchini Pizza Bites, Squash Chips, White Chicken Chili Dip, Cream Cheese Sausage Balls
Saturday - Sauerbraten
Sunday - Banana Pudding Pancakes // Frosted Animal Cookie Cheesecake

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

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Throwback Thursday No. 68

I adore this era of the food archives I've gotten into. I think it's where I started getting really good at cooking and found so many wonderful recipes. We love chicken chili and this BUFFALO CHICKEN CHILI is spicy and delicious. I loved all the toppings too.

One of our all-time favorite ways to eat Philly cheesesteak is in PHILLY CHEESESTEAK SLOPPY JOES form. My husband pretty much hates sloppy joes, but even he was on board for something this fantastic!

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Maple Bars

Who knew making this classic breakfast donut at home was so easy?

It's the most wonderful time of the year: AUTUMN! It's still 90 degrees in Tennessee, but I can still daydream of cooler weather that usually comes in October. Fall makes me think of pumpkin everything, caramel apples, and maple foods. I appreciate anything pumpkin. I am not a fan of maple really. I'm a weirdo who will eat a small amount of the fake sugary maple syrup (just enough to give it flavor, no extra on my plate), so I didn't expect to like these. On the other hand, Nick loves maple. LOVES it. The real stuff, not the fake stuff. He loves maple candies, maple beer, maple vape juice, maple bacon...just all the maple. These were more for him because they are his favorite donut. In the end, I actually really enjoyed them too. The flavor to the icing isn't overwhelming to me and made for an absolutely delicious topping to the fried biscuit portion of the donut.

Menu Plan Monday - September 3, 2018

Hello, September and hello, PUMPKIN. I know I said that last week, but I'm so ready for it. We're doing a lot of repeat recipes and that is totally fine by me as soccer games start this week and I just need some normalcy.

Monday - Bolognese Stuffed Zucchini with Pesto
Tuesday - Tuna Melt Quesadillas
Wednesday - Snickerdoodle Crumble Donuts // TN Pride Country Chili
Thursday - Pork Schnitzel Sandwiches
Friday - Guberburgers
Saturday - Chicken Bacon Alfredo Roll Ups
Sunday - Cinnamon Roll Donuts // White Chocolate Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

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

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