Crockpot Southern Collards

Collard greens cooked low and slow to perfection!

I adore collard greens and I was delighted to find a recipe for the crockpot. My next mission is to find an Instant Pot recipe. I really cannot get enough of them. The low and slow method is the way to go and the flavors were fantastic.

Linguini Carbonara

Rich classic carbonara with linguine pasta, peas, and bacon.

Matthew (my oldest) would eat carbonara every single day if he could. So we have it for dinner often and I have saved different recipes to try (my favorite is pesto carbonara). This is very much so a classic carbonara and really easy to make. It's so rich and full of flavor.

Bacon Cheeseburger Salad

When you're craving a bacon cheeseburger, but make it slightly healthier!

I have posted many salads at this point and may be beating a dead horse by once again explaining how I love eating salads for dinner. But I really like salads for dinner but also want them to be somewhat filling and these kinds of recipes are great for that because there are filling toppings. This one has all the yumminess of a bacon cheeseburger but without the buns. It's a great low carb option, but also could definitely work in a pinch if you forgot your hamburger buns or they go moldy or whatever. The dressing is easy and wonderful too!

Slow Cooker Corn and Jalapeno Dip

This appetizer is quick to throw into the slow cooker and ready in a few hours and it is soooo good!

I don't think I have ever had corn dip before but growing up surrounded by cornfields, I adore sweet corn and love pretty much anything with corn. I thought this recipe would be great because it's kind of a mix of jalapeno popper with corn. Honestly, what's not to love about that? I've actually made this recipe a couple times now but can never get a good picture. So this is as good as it's going to get. Excuse the pictures and just take my word for it, you won't be able to stop eating this dip!

Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta Bake

This fantastic meal is fully cooked in the oven - pasta and all!

I know that the instructions say to do this recipe in a 9x13-icnh pan. I definitely would have been for whatever reason - I'm guessing my pan was probably dirty - and my cookware is safe to use in the oven. I did use foil instead of the glass lid. I cannot wait to make this again in the proper pan because it was so yummy. Kind of reminded me of what Hamburger Helper was meant to be, except it tastes way better and makes way more. I just love the idea of throwing everything into a pan and baking it. No fussing over the meal for an hour. It also tastes just like a cheeseburger.

Jalapeno Popper Chicken Egg Rolls

The best crunchy appetizer with spicy cheesy, bacon, and chicken filling!

I haven't made egg roll anything in so long, but we wanted egg rolls for NYE 2019 and we thought nothing could beat a jalapeno popper filling. I really thought that having chicken in it would also be great because we usually don't eat dinner on NYE since we're snacking all night. Absolutely loved these little egg rolls. They were so crisp and the filling was perfect!

Asparagus, Bacon, & Herbed Cheese Pizza

The perfect springtime pizza with asparagus, bacon, and dollops of rich herbed cream cheese!

I have found many recipes lately with a little cream cheese in them and I don't know what it is but I'm obsessed with it. I have always been a light on the sauce for pizza person, and I find that I really love pizzas that don't have red sauce (and I use pasta sauce for pizza sauce and I love pasta sauce). This pizza has olive oil and I love that the toppings are so simple but so delicious. I love the asparagus and bacon. Plus those little dollops of cream cheese - yum! That bit of super rich savory flavor is fantastic.

Penne Alfredo with Broccoli and Bacon

This quick pasta dish has homemade alfredo and crisp broccoli with some yummy bacon in there too.

This March is flying by compared to last March and it's crazy. I remember making this meal last year and being grateful that the bacon wasn't being overpicked and I was able to find some broccoli and pasta. I appreciate this recipe with how quick it is. I find a lot of pasta recipes that are able to be made in under 30 minutes - maybe that's why I like pasta so much! I also like this recipe because it's lite on meat, but you could absolutely add some chicken to it if you wanted.

Jalapeno Popper Tuna Melts

Tuna melts with a kick of roasted jalapeno plus extra cheese and a bit of bacon too.

I have never had a more delicious tuna melt in my life. I love roasted jalapenos and they are super easy to do and are a genius addition to tuna salad. I loved the tuna salad part of this recipe too. I think I'm going to be adding a little lemon juice to every tuna salad I make for the rest of my life. That zing of lemon is perfect. We also got to try muenster cheese for the first time and we all liked it. It's always fun to try something new and everyone likes it :)

Chicken, Bacon, and Brussels Sprouts Mac & Cheese

There is so much flavor packed into this great macaroni and cheese! Chicken and bacon...and 3 kinds of cheeses!

I'm still working on getting my family to like brussels sprouts and I think I'm at the point where if it's shredded, they are fine. So this recipe was a keeper. Also I will say that I love the three cheese combo in this. Original recipe called for swiss but it's the one cheese none of us like, so I always replace it with mozzarella. I think gruyere or gouda would be good too.

BLT Wraps

These wraps have all the best elements of BLTs and a delicious cream cheese-based sauce to boot.

I kept putting off these wraps over and over again and then finally made them. They are a really good lunch recipe in particular because they are fairly quick. I love that they aren't just bacon, lettuce, tomato. They have this delicious cream cheese sauce that has a tang of mayo and dijon mustard in it. It really compliments the wrap as a whole. To be honest, I can see myself making the sauce with regular BLT sandwiches from here on out!

Spicy Touchdown Chili

A three meat chili with beans, tomatoes, and a good kick of jalapeno and cayenne will warm you right up!

I thought I would put this spicy chili on the meal plan in hopes it would be spicy because I have some spicelords in the house who have very high spice tolerances and sometimes when things claim to be "spicy", they aren't spicy enough. I will say that this was the perfect amount of heat. You have hot Italian sausage, Rotel, jalapeno, and cayenne in it. My family likes beans in our chili, although I've heard there are people who don't like it. This is such a hearty recipe and it makes a good amount - I want to say we ended up freezing some of ours.

Steak with Roasted Potato Salad

Perfectly seared steak with a lovely roasted potato salad with some light fixings.

I love how I sat down to type up this recipe and couldn't figure out what was going on. The original recipe serves up the roasted potatoes on top of the salad and you make a roasted garlic buttermilk dressing to go on top. Then the steak goes on top of all of that. However, no one will eat that style of dressing and so we ended up just serving the things separately. It still was a great recipe and I was able to top my salad with my favorite vinaigrette - I will admit that I didn't want dressing on my potatoes or steak.

Bacon Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joes have never been better with this slow cooked version with lots of cheese and bacon!

I have found more and more that I am beginning to be okay with Velveeta cheese as long as it's not pure Velveeta. In this recipe, it goes in with garlic and beef and bacon into a slow cooker. I admit I still usually add a couple dabs of hot sauce to cut through that artificial flavor a bit. I loved sloppy joes as a child, so I really appreciate this recipe because it's a sloppy joe, but it tastes like a bacon cheeseburger. It's like an adult sloppy joe if that was a thing!? :)

Jalapeno Popper Macaroni & Cheese

Add some spice to the holiday feast with this over-the-top incredible macaroni and cheese or add chicken for a full meal!

I had kept putting off making this recipe and I cannot really tell you why because my family loves anything jalapeno popper. I have made this for dinner and I have made this for a holiday side. When I make it for dinner, I like to add chicken to it (usually seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic) to make it extra hardy. This is just a seriously wonderful recipe with the perfect amount of heat and a nice crunch from the topping. No one will want any other macaroni and cheese ever again. This one is perfect.

Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken

This hasselback style chicken is stuffed with cheese, jalapenos, and bacon and is complete perfection!

Back when my husband and I were first married, we ate jalapeno poppers on Friday nights often. For whatever reason, I cannot find the cheddar cheese kind anymore and it drives me banana sandwich because they are the best kind. So I have tons of recipes on the blog that involve jalapenos and cheese. I love that there is no butterflying or trying to pound the chicken out thin and rolling it up. Hasselback is the way to go.

Best Chili Ever

Bacon makes everything better including this chili!

 I like trying new chili recipes and I feel like I often stumble upon a lot of "best ever" "family favorite" "world's best" type recipes and one of these days I need to do a huge chili cook off and find the best best one. I really like this one because of the added flavor the bacon adds and the added smokiness from the ancho chili powder and smoked paprika. Nothing too crazy and out of the ordinary, but a super solid recipe!

Copycat Chick-fil-A Cobb Salad

Sometimes you crave a cobb salad from Chick-fil-A, but it's a Sunday. Have no fear, make your own cobb salad copycat at home!

Chick-fil-A is one of the very few fast food places where I'll eat anything on the menu. I like the plain chicken sandwiches, the deluxe spicy and non-spicy, the grilled club, the wraps, and all of the salads. Every single salad is so good, but I especially love the cobb salad. Unfortunately, a lot of times that I am out and want a salad from Chick-fil-A is Sunday and as we all know, they are not open on Sunday. So when Sundays happen, you have to have a good copycat recipe in your arsenal!

Copycat Marion's Pizza

This pizza copycat is straight out of Dayton, Ohio - an okay imitation at best - the real thing is too good!

When I had first met my husband, all I heard about was this amazing pizza place in Ohio called Marion's Piazza (and Skyline too). We met in 2004 and it took me until 2016 to actually go to Marion's and have this infamous pizza. In particular, my husband's favorite is the one with Italian sausage and banana peppers. It's a thin crust pizza that's cut into squares. Marion's crust reminded me a lot of the pizza crust at my childhood favorite pizza place, Pizza Ranch. :) I'm still trying to find a good thin crust recipe that tastes like the ones at restaurants and it's driving me bonkers.

Dill Pickle Cheeseball

The perfect snack food for any dill pickle enthusiast!

I am not sure when it happened but it seems like the blogging world - really food culture in general - has caught on that pickles are friggin awesome! So there are a ton of new pickley recipes being posted and shared and I'm all for it. I don't have many cheeseball recipes hoarded, so I'm all ears for some great cheeseball recipes! I didn't know if I would really care for this recipe because while I love pickles...I'm not a fan of relish - dill or sweet. But I did enjoy this cheeseball so much!