Sourdough Starter

Four ingredients and a little patience and you will have a sourdough starter that adds an unbelievable flavor profile to so many recipes!

I have had a sourdough starter for almost 2 years and kept forgetting that I could share it. And, in fact, I hadn't taken the picture of my starter until a week prior to this post going live. It's highly unusual that I have a recipe on my posting schedule without a picture for the post. I combined a starter recipe (ingredients) with a method that was in a sourdough starter recipe that was in my husband's dad's side of the family for generations. I most often use my starter for sourdough coffee cake, but that is a treasured family recipe that I won't be sharing. I do hope to make many more sourdough recipes with my starter to share though :)

I have heard of people naming their sourdough because it is "living", so mine's name is Big Bertha. I don't remember if someone else had that name, but I thought it was so funny and that's what mine is called.

Slow Cooker Parmesan Honey Roast

Slow cooked savory herb and Parmesan pork roast that gets topped in a sweet honey glaze.

After I delivered Mason, Nick took over whatever was planned for meals and made them while I stayed in the hospital. He agreed to wait on making Zuppa Toscana Soup (which was the first time we ever had it) until I got home from the hospital, but he did make this roast while I was there. I actually ended up having leftover roast my first day home with newborn Mason. Even leftover, it was amazing! And that's not because I had hospital food for 2 1/2 days - our hospital food rocks down here and I was spoiled on double portions because I was breastfeeding.

Since having Mason, we have made this two or three more times when we get the craving for pork roast and each time, I had failed to get a good picture of it. I finally got one last time we made it and was so happy to finally be able to share the recipe (pretty much 3 years after the first time I had it since my baby is now 3 as of the 24th - what?!). I have never been a fan of honey, but with recipes like this one, it's really growing on me.

Menu Plan Monday - February 26, 2018

Lots of moving parts this week and I'm not sure how many recipes I will physically be making but my husband will be on deck to do the cooking. On Tuesday, I'm having a procedure done on my heart. If all goes well, I'll be home Wednesday afternoon and be able to be back to cooking near the end of the week. The month of March is going to be a lot of recipes from my blog because I don't know how recovery will be. I'm optimistic that I'll be back to my normal routine within a week, but I also want to be cautious to not overdo it and less new recipes will be less stressful :)

Monday - Spaghetti Carbonara (Pioneer Woman cookbook)
Tuesday - [whatever they grab]
Wednesday - Salted Caramel Muffins // Cheeseburger Soup
Thursday - Ranch Style Spaghetti
Friday - Five Guys Style Little Burgers
Saturday - Cream Cheese Danish // Brinner
Sunday - S'mores 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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Italian Pizza Burgers

Find the recipe on The Recipe Jackpot.

Mom's Rhubarb Sauce #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 RHUBARB because apparently I don't know how to plan out what is in season. I honestly don't know what happened and I think I meant to do Rhubarb in March or April and something got mixed around and it was a little too late to change it. So, of course, I was nervous going into my grocery store, but for some reason, we get produce at all times of the year. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I have stuffed zucchini on my meal plan in the summer when it's supposed to be peak zucchini season...and my grocery store is out. Of course, now that it's February/winter, zucchini is everywhere and it looks amazing. We have had rhubarb since December and it looks great, so I was really lucky there.

I decided to try and make rhubarb sauce because I wanted to try out a few different ways to use the sauce. I grew up in Minnesota and we had rhubarb punch at every graduation party ever. There was always rhubarb desserts and treats at every church gathering, baby shower, bridal shower, etc. I, however, have never purchased rhubarb and I have never made anything with rhubarb even though I absolutely adore it and its tartness!

I attempted to make a danish out of the sauce, but I kept having my cream cheese entirely too soft and my filling was runny. Although my second attempt at the danish was actually pretty decent. But still not really a recipe I was ready to post just yet. I will most definitely be testing it out some more and post it in the future.

This rhubarb sauce was so so easy and it can be used in so many ways. Mix it into oatmeal or eat it with some toast. It can be used for pastries, muffins, cake, etc.. Or just eat it with a spoon :)

Cocadas

These crunchy coconut cookies are a Latin America delicacy that are so addictive!

Each year, my kids' elementary school does a world museum day for all the families to attend. Each grade does a different type of project to celebrate the world and history. Third and fourth graders usually prepare a quick presentation on a country. My daughter had Chile last year and she wanted to prepare a food to go with her presentation. She chose a coconut cookie and we hunted the internet to find a recipe for it.

I could have sworn they were called coconadas but it seems I was wrong. They are called Cocadas. They are super easy to make and they are ridiculously difficult to stop eating. I made a test batch and they disappeared. Then we made a triple batch and quartered them for perfect sampling size. Everyone who came through for her presentation loved it. Her class wanted her to bring another batch to school the next day! I was honestly really surprised because coconut can be a hit or miss most of the time.

Menu Plan Monday - February 19, 2018

There is such a huge range of foods this week and I'm really excited and happy for it. It's also the week my youngest turns 3, which is absolutely unbelievable. He's my pickiest eater and doesn't care for frosting (or any other messy type food), so he's getting a cookie cake because he LOVES cookies.

Monday - Dump-and-Bake Chicken Alfredo Casserole
Tuesday - Taco Bell Mexican Pizza Copycats
Wednesday - Snickerdoodle Crumble Donuts // Bean with Bacon Soup (Pioneer Woman cookbook)
Thursday - Pork Schnitzel Sandwiches
Friday - Homemade Stuffed Crust Pizza
Saturday - Easy Cinnamon Roll Peach Cobbler // Slow Cooker Pulled BBQ Chicken // Mrs. Fields Copycat Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Sunday - White Chocolate Macadamia Nut 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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Fantastical Friday

Hello, everyone! Hope your all's week went well - I, for one, am glad it's the weekend. I know I have been slacking a bit on the Fantastical Fridays, but I hope to get back into the swing of things in March and share lots of recipe roundups on Fridays.

Here in a week or so, I will be having a procedure done on my heart due to my SVT (super ventricular tachycardia). I am unable to stop episodes on my own without medical assistance and my most recent episode happened while I was on preventative medication. I am currently writing a series of posts on my personal blog to share my story. I hope that someone out there who has just been diagnosed with SVT can find my story and take solace that they are not alone. I wish I had had more support from others who have/had SVT when I was first diagnosed. My hope is that the procedure (an ablation) will be successful on the first try and cure my SVT. :)

I will work on getting posts scheduled, so hopefully there will be no lapse in the regular feed here, but I may be a little quiet on social media while I recover. Thankfully, it should be a pretty easy recovery and only one night stay at the hospital.




Visit my personal blog here.

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One Pot Philly Cheesesteak Soup

All the great ingredients of a cheesesteak topped with crispy croutons in a wonderful one pot soup.

This one pot soup features 3 different kinds of cheese and carrots, green bell pepper, and poblano, in addition to steak. Years ago, I never would have thought I'd enjoy philly cheesesteaks, much less making it into soup. This is a lovely soup that we cannot wait to have again.

Chocolate Oreo Cream Cake

This chocolate cake is devilishly good with a Oreo whipped cream filling and fudgy chocolate frosting.

Happy Valentine's Day to all those celebrating! Today is just a momentary breath between more birthdays for us, so the holiday isn't really a huge deal. My middle baby, Cami, just turned 10 on Sunday, and pretty soon, I'll have my boys turning 3 and 11. They are all getting so big! It's like I blinked and they're grown.

Speaking of birthdays, this lovely chocolate cake was picked by Matthew, my oldest, for his birthday cake last year. He is too much like his momma and loves chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. In fact, the more chocolate you can jam pack in a cake, the better. He especially loves Oreos and really liked the idea of a cake that was like a giant Oreo. The cream filling was simply fantastic. It was so fluffy and I wish I could eat it by the spoonful.

Sausage & Pepper Fettuccine Skillet

This quick dish features kielbasa, sweet bell peppers, bursts of grape tomatoes, and pasta with a savory alfredo-like sauce.

This skillet recipe is almost made in just one pot - the pasta cooks separately. But I can totally forgive it because it's such a quick recipe to make and I love that it is so colorful. It's got a sauce that is pretty similar to an alfredo sauce and the bursts of tomato are amazing.

Menu Plan Monday - February 12, 2018

We get a little break this week before we have yet another birthday. We're going to be enjoying some more old favorites and cookbook recipes this week.

Monday - Pizza Pasta Casserole
Tuesday - Cilantro Lime Chicken Taco Salad
Wednesday - Oreo Muffins // Stuffed Pepper Soup
Thursday - Ham Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Peas
Friday - Argentinean Burgers and Perfect French Fries (Bobby Flay cookbook)
Saturday - Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes (Rachael Ray cookbook) // Hobo Dinner
Sunday - Snickerdoodle Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

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

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Mexican Chorizo Pizza

Only five ingredients to this pizza that is perfect for Taco Tuesday!

Taco Tuesday can have pizza now too! This pizza is super simple and consists of crust, sauce, cheese, onion, and chorizo. Which makes it the best kind of pizza because it doesn't have to take a lot of effort or ingredients to make a delicious meal. You could absolutely adapt this recipe - maybe dip your slices in guacamole or add diced tomatoes and jalapenos - the sky is the limit. It is simply wonderful just the way it is. You can buy a premade crust or use pizza dough (homemade or store bought).

Crockpot Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli, and Wild Rice Soup

Chicken and wild rice soup and broccoli cheese soup combined with a secret ingredient that ties it all together.

I don't know if it's strictly a Minnesota/Midwest thing, but I grew up eating my grandma's wild rice and chicken soup. It was perfect for all those chilly and cold days and it definitely has all those memories of being a comfort food. I was looking forward to making this recipe because it's a combination of that with another favorite soup, broccoli cheese soup. What could be better than two of my favorite soups together? Made in a crockpot? Not much, I tell you what.

It's a stick-to-your-ribs soup and it's absolutely comfort food. All the cheese and the bacon alone is total comfort, but then you have broccoli and chicken and wild rice. YUM! Plus the secret ingredient: alfredo sauce. Yes! Alfredo adds a creamy, garlic savoriness to this already amazing soup. It sounds like a lot, but all the ingredients work together so so well.

Baked Ziti

Slow simmered sauce and lots of cheese make for the most wonderful baked pasta dish!

Something can be said for a slow-simmered red meat sauce and a cheesy pasta dish baked in the oven. I personally adore baked ziti but don't make it a lot because for me, it's very much a weekend recipe and we usually have pasta dishes on Mondays. I had been craving ziti for so long, so I decided to vary our weekly meal plan and fit this recipe in there. I did change some of the recipe up and omitted ricotta cheese because none of us really care for it and we didn't want it to taste like lasagna. I knew this would be a keeper because it's a Pioneer Woman recipe and I think I have only made one recipe of hers that I didn't like. Just one. And that's a far better track record than any other recipe creator.

Menu Plan Monday - February 5, 2018

This week I'm visiting some old recipes, a few from the newest Pioneer Woman cookbook, and a compromise to make cheese pizza as long as I made the same wings that I did for NYE because apparently, they were a hit. Cami turns 10 on Sunday and she picked her dinner and cake. I was really surprised that she chose tuna noodle casserole but not at all surprised that she went with cake that also has whipped cream frosting. She is obsessed with whipped cream frosting.

Monday - Cheddar BBQ Chicken
Tuesday - Taco Quesadillas (Pioneer Woman cookbook)
Wednesday - Cinnamon Roll Donuts // Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup (Pioneer Woman cookbook)
Thursday - Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
Friday - Extra Cheese Pizza with Air Fryer Hot Wings
Saturday - Cream Cheese Danish // Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese
Sunday - Tuna Noodle Casserole // Funfetti Cheesecake with Cake Bottom

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: 5 Recent Favorite Finds

Just keeping it short and simple today! These are five of the recipes I have found recently that I cannot wait to try.

Roasted Eggplant with Meat Sauce from Budget Bytes
Zebra Layer Cake from Sally's Baking Addiction
Cheesy Kielbasa, Broccoli, and Rice Skillet from Mom on Timeout
Meal Prep Greek Chicken Quinoa Bowls from Whole and Heavenly Oven

German Chocolate Carrot Cake from A Dash of Sanity


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Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies

These amazing shortbread cookies are filled with raspberry jam and drizzled with a sweet almond icing!

Since I have made a few thumbprint cookie recipes now, I feel much more confident about making them and decided to try my hand at a shortbread like cookie with a raspberry filling and a sweet almond icing. These were easy to make and delightful. They aren't overly sweet, but they are just the right amount of sweetness to keep you coming back for more, if that makes sense.