Broccoli Stuffed Chicken

Don't be scared by this recipe, it's easy to make and the filling is made better by the whole thing being wrapped in bacon!

I used to make a lot of stuffed chicken recipes, but I stopped and I'm not sure why. I think it used to seem daunting but then it ended up not being daunting at all. I decided that I wanted to wrap this recipe in bacon...because why not. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The filling was wonderful. The chicken seasonings were perfect with the dish as a whole. I honestly cannot remember if I did toothpicks at this point, but I may have. Use your best judgement. If you need to secure it with toothpicks for your peace of mind, do that! :)

Copycat Pickle Pizza

Calling all pickle lovers! This copycat pickle pizza is amazing with a white garlic sauce and lots of dill goodness!

Sometimes I find food pictures on Pinterest that are not linked to any website or recipe in any way shape or form. But I can be persistent and if I can't find the recipe, I'll try and find a description of what the food is. This particular recipe was one I had to come up with on my own. The pizza is a copycat of one you can find at Rhino's Pizzeria in Webster, New York and Rochester, New York. I am no where near New York (and we were still a few hours away when we did live in New York), so I hunted to see if there was a description of what was on the pizza. Their website says a white garlic pizza topped with mozzarella, dill pickles, and a dill weed sprinkle. I found a super amazing white garlic pizza sauce and it's killer and personally the reason why I think this is such a good recipe. I did not use a dill weed sprinkle because I did a thing of where I thought I had some, so I didn't pick any up at the store and then discovered in the middle of making it that I had no dill weed. Obviously that isn't a dealbreaker. If you love pickles, make this pizza. It's so awesome!

Menu Plan Monday - February 24, 2020

Once again, life has gotten insanely busy on top of all the other things going on - birthdays, school events, dr appts, college...now we may possibly be moving in the next few months with our house going on the market really soon. So Nick and I have been prepping and packing and decluttering and cleaning and WOW. Things get really dirty and you don't really realize it until you are on top of it with a magnifying glass trying to make it look its best.

Monday - Chicken Tetrazzini
Tuesday - Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers
Wednesday - Coconut Crunch Donuts // Easy Zuppa Toscana Soup
Thursday - 15-Minute Garlic Ramen
Friday - Grilled Chicken and Bacon Pizza with Garlic Cream Sauce
Weekend - Banana Nut Cinnamon Rolls // // M&M Brownies

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

Fried Pork Chops with Pickle Juice Gravy

Who wants plain fried pork chops when you can top it with the most delicious gravy ever made with pickle juice!

You may have noticed by now that my family enjoys dill pickles and we have enjoyed trying out dill pickle foods. After the huge hit of dill pickle soup, I knew this pickle juice gravy would be an absolute winner. Especially since I don't make a lot of gravy. I learned how to recently and I'm still working on being a little more competent. I know that my grandma and lots of grandmothers, I'm sure, are able to whip up gravy, eyeballing what they need and it always tastes perfect. That's what I'm striving to do even though I don't usually eat gravy. This gravy is definitely an exception though. It's the perfect gravy and it's so wonderful on top of a fried pork chop. I can't think of a better combination.

Hashbrown Potato Soup

No peeling and cutting potatoes for this soup recipe - the work is done for you!

New soup recipes are a little far and few between now that I have been making them every week for years. We do a lot of repeats. We do a lot of similar recipes. I have never made a soup with hashbrowns before and I was definitely intrigued. I love the shredded carrots that get sauteed. It reminds me a little of a chowder and with a milk-based soup with cheese melted into it, I really like to put a little hot sauce into it. It just does a little something something to it.

Red Velvet Sheet Cake #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!

This month's Fantastical Food Fight theme is RED VELVET. This unfortunately is going to be the very last Food Fight due to my very busy schedule. I just started my masters program in Accounting at the beginning of the month and I'm trying to cut back on all my "extracurricular" activities, so to speak. I have had so much fun with my blogging friends and have enjoyed seeing what recipes they've shared each month. I highly recommend following their blogs that you can find below in the blog hop.

Red velvet was chosen due to it being Valentine's Day this month. Even though we are past Valentine's Day now, I thought it would still be fun to do it. Now, I was a little nervous about this month's theme because I generally don't care for anything red velvet. It's basically chocolate cake dyed red, but that red is so overpowering and I think that's why I don't like it. However, my family loves red velvet and I decided to try this really pretty sheet cake that had whipped frosting (my daughter's favorite) and raspberries. And surprise, surprise, I liked it! In fact, it's on my favorites list now. It wasn't overpoweringly "red-flavored" and the frosting was so perfect. My daughter and I especially loved the little raspberry on each piece. It complimented the cake very well.

Menu Plan Monday - February 17, 2020

One birthday down - another one is getting celebrated this weekend alongside my sister-in-law's birthday as well. She requested a Take 5 cheesecake, so I'm going to modify the Twix cheesecake to fit the bill. I'm going to attempt to make a few sides this week and see how that goes. I also really need to get back into making my two breakfast recipes. I was doing well for a bit and now I'm slacking again.

Monday - One Pan Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta Bake
Tuesday - Loaded Taco Salad
Wednesday - Ultimate Chocolate Chip Muffins // Spicy Touchdown Chili with Black Pepper Cheddar Bacon Biscuits
Thursday - Hoisin Stir Fry Bowls
Friday - Homemade Baked Spicy Chicken Sandwiches with Crockpot Collard Greens
Weekend - Twix Cheesecake (made with Take 5) // Funfetti Cupcakes for Three

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

Chicken Fajita Pasta

Chicken fajitas turned into a one pot pasta dish with a kick of Rotel added in!

I've made some steak fajita pasta dishes in the past, but I think this may be the first chicken fajita pasta recipe I've made. It's an easy dish to make when you want something a little for Taco Tuesday. Or maybe you want to carbo-load up and need a good pasta dish. Either way, this is a keeper! Super simple and fast.

Sausage and Parmesan Garlic Linguine

This one pot pasta dish can be made with or without the sausage and is mouthwateringly delicious!

I had this recipe saved for a while and wanted to make it, but as I've said before I have some complainers for meatless nights. So I did end up throwing a little Italian sausage into the mix to make everyone happy. It was really so easy and I could make this most times (meatless) whenever I wanted because I pretty much always have the ingredients on hand.

Pesto Prosciutto Pizza

So many dream ingredients on one incredible pizza: pesto, prosciutto, feta, mozzarella pearls, and kale!

I kinda love how puffy my pizza crust got here but I think I finally found my happy medium pizza crust. I used the same ole recipe that is my tried and true - split the recipe in half, as you are supposed to do - and instead of prebaking it, I put the toppings on and then bake the crust just once. It keeps it from getting out of control puffy, so it's a thinner crust, but it's not so thin that it feels like you are eating cardboard.

Anyways, here I am sharing another recipe with pesto. I love love pesto and I was super excited for this recipe. It did not disappoint. I loved the salty prosciutto and the tangy feta. Also, mozzarella pearls are my favorite way to get mozzarella on my pizza. I love how gooey and melty they get! And kale! AH! This pizza has so many good parts to it and I adored it.

Menu Plan Monday - February 10, 2020

It's our first birthday weekend. We have all three kids' birthdays within a month of each other. Starting off with Cami who is turning 12. Her birthday is during the week but we will be celebrating this weekend and she chose beef stroganoff for her dinner and cheesecake for her dessert. She almost always chooses cheesecake for her birthday cake, but I was a little surprised that stroganoff was what she really really wanted for dinner. She also really wants to make the stroganoff, so I think she is going to do that - and, of course, nail it. She's a pretty good little chef :)

Monday - Dump-and-Bake Chicken Alfredo Casserole
Tuesday - Tacos
Wednesday - Berry Banana Muffins // Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Thursday - Mediterranean Meatball Gyro Sandwiches
Friday - Extra Cheese Pizza and Wings
Weekend - Chocolate Waffles with Raspberry Sauce // Ground Beef Stroganoff // German Chocolate Cheesecake

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

Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers

Stuff them and slow cook them and then enjoy these super easy stuffed peppers for dinner!

I adore stuffed peppers and try and make them as much as I can. I was intrigued by this slow cooker version, especially since you don't cook the meat beforehand, which is just strange when you're used to cooking everything first before putting it into the pepper. I love recipes where you get a full pepper to yourself instead of half a pepper. Honestly, it's easier to eat a half pepper, but it's easier to stuff a full pepper. As I near the time where I will begin working after 13 years as a stay at home mom, I'm definitely leaning on finding the best slow cooker recipes so I can have them in my arsenal!

20-Minute Chicken & Spinach Parmesan

This quick version of chicken parmesan is perfect for any weeknight supper - and it has the added bonus of spinach!

I think it's really interesting how many foods that I did not like as a child are ones I enjoy as an adult because I have made them myself. A lot of foods I had as a child were premade/frozen foods and even now...those really just aren't the best quality food. Homemade is better. I never like chicken parmesan as a child and that is most likely due to the fact that I had frozen tv dinner chicken parmesan which consisted of soggy breading, too tomato-ey sauce, and chicken that didn't really taste like real meat. This chicken parmesan is, of course, worlds better and I love the addition of spinach in it. I also love how quick it is!

Mexican Street Corn Soup

Classic street food turned into the tastiest, most perfect soup ever!

I had this recipe saved and knew I'd get around to it eventually, but then my sister-in-law made it and I immediately threw it on the meal plan. It was everything I wanted and more - from someone who has yet to have Mexican street corn (which is also a recipe I have saved to get to eventually). This was perfectly spicy and the bacon and cotija cheese was the perfect amount of saltiness that was needed to balance it all out.

Menu Plan Monday - February 3, 2020

This month I believe I have a really good balance of new and old recipes. I tried to do less red meat too, so some recipes I'll be adapting with turkey or turkey sausage. I also made an effort to look at my side dishes board on Pinterest and get some of those on my meal plan for the month too.

Monday - Roasted Red Pepper & Sausage Pasta
Tuesday - Chicken Tacos with Pico de Gallo
Wednesday - Blueberry Pie Yogurt Parfait // Dill Pickle Soup
Thursday - Sheet Pan Chicken Gyros
Friday - Copycat Guberburgers
Weekend - Lemon Raspberry Dutch Baby Pancake // Crispy Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Creamy Parmesan Garlic Brussels Sprouts // Red Velvet Macadamia Nut Cookies

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

Garlic Burgers

When you love garlic...really really love garlic, you make these very garlicky burgers because they are awesome!

The original Garlic Burgers recipe is actually a copycat recipe. However, I did not make it in the exact same way, so I will not claim it to be a copycat. The original is two quarter pound patties on French bread. I could not tell you why I chose to not make it the same way, but that's how it happened. Still, the garlickness of this recipe was really good. I was a little skeptical of so much garlic powder, but it works. It really works.