Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pasta Salad

Looking for a yummy, easy side dish? Or a delicious lunch? Cheddar bacon ranch pasta salad is so good and so easy! 

Pesto Ranch Pasta Salad

I'm a sucker for pasta.  Seriously.  I have a serious pasta addiction,  Hot. Cold.  Doesn't matter.  Marinara sauce. Italian dressing. Ranch dressing.  Doesn't matter.  Have I mentioned I LOVE pasta!?! That led me to today.  We're having some baked chicken tenders and roasted asparagus for dinner and I was looking for another side dish.  I had some broccoli and grape tomatoes - which both go GREAT in pasta salad - so I decided a pasta salad would be a great dish to serve!  But I've been in a "creative mood" lately, so I decided to experiment.  A jar of pesto in my fridge was calling my name, so I whipped up this Pesto Ranch Pasta Salad!  And it was pretty doggone good - if I do say so myself!

S'Mores Bark

I love trying new recipes!  Especially desserts!  And especially during the holidays!  One of my favorite things to do is find new ways to make old favorites!  That's why I love this recipe!!! This deliciousness is S'Mores Bark!!! The recipe comes from Lisa at Wine & Glue ! Its SOOO GOOD!!!  And so fun! Try it for yourself!  (And make sure you head over to Wine & Glue and check out all the amazingness over there!)

Here's the recipe:

1.) Melt 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips and spread them onto a wax paper-covered pan. (I used one that was about 9x13, but the chocolate doesn't cover the whole bottom, so don't worry. Also, make sure not to spread it too thin.)

2.) Place pan in fridge for 30 min so chocolate can harden.

3.) Melt 1/2 cup white chocolate chips. Stir in 1 cup marshmallow fluff and microwave for 30 seconds.  Immediately spread over chocolate on the pan.  4.) Spread broken graham crackers (3 full sheets) on top of marshmallow and press into the marshmallow. (Make sure to press it in. Makes it easier to spread the chocolate on top later.) Place in fridge for another 30 minutes.

5.) Melt 2 cups chocolate chips and spread on top of marshmallows and crackets. Place in fridge or freezer for 2 hours to harden. 

6.) Once hardened, cut into pieces (the marshmallow makes it a bit difficult to just break into pieces, so I cut it with a big knife.) 7.) Store in the fridge.

Cowboy Breakfast Casserole

This casserole is super easy and perfect for a holiday breakfast because you can prep it the night before, cover and store in the fridge, then just throw it in the oven in the morning! Takes 45 minutes to an hour to bake.  That's just about the amount of time it takes for everyone to open and admire their CHristmas presents!  Haha!  Once everyone is done, breakfast is served! 

Toasted Bacon Cheddar Ranch Chicken Salad On French Bread

The bacon cheddar ranch chicken salad was SO GOOD!  It's definitely gonna become a new family favorite!  

Here's how I made it:

(Because it's a chicken salad, the ingredients can be tweaked a bit - i.e., more or less mayo or cheese, etc.)

Honey Sriracha Chicken Tenders with Fresh Mango

It may "feel" like winter right now, but its SPRING!!!  And, after months of casseroles and winter meals, I'm ready to enjoy some lighter fare!  So I went hunting for a fun new chicken dish - and also, a way to use the mangos we had on hand! As usual, Pinterest provided great inspiration!  I played around with a few ideas and came up with these baked chicken tenders that were a HUGE HIT in my house!  Honey Sriracha Chicken Tenders with Fresh Mango!

Sriracha Ranch Chicken Crescents

The other day I posted my recipe for Honey Sriracha Chicken Strips With Fresh Mango. They were a hit in our house and we ate the leftovers the next night! But we still ended up with a few leftover chicken strips. And I hate to waste food! So today I chopped up those leftover strips, mixed in a few simple ingredients, and made a yummy chicken crescent ring for lunch! It was a nice change of pace for me and the kids. (We often get into a “lunch rut.”)

Sriracha Ranch Chicken Ring:

3-5 honey sriracha chicken tenders

5 green onions, sliced

1/4 cup sharp cheddar

1/4 cup pepper jack cheese

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

2 tablespoons ranch dressing 

1 can crescent rolls

1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Unroll crescents on a baking stone or baking sheet.

2.) Chop chicken tenders into bite-sized pieces.

3.) Mix chicken, green onions, cheeses, mayo, and ranch dressing.

4.) Spoon mixture onto crescents and fold top over the top. 

5.) Bake at 375 degrees F for 15-17 minutes. 

Notes:

A.) If you haven’t made the Honey Sriracha Chicken, you can always use plain chicken or even mix some plain diced chicken with a little buffalo sauce for a little “kick!”

B.) I used a mixture of sharp cheddar and pepper jack because I thought it sounded “fun” (and I also had that in hand). But feel free to try your own cheese ideas - cheddar, Monterey Jack, Colby jack, pepper jack, Swiss, etc!

Chewy Snickerdoodle Bars

I’m sort of the unofficial baker of our small group at church. I usually let other people cook the food. I’d rather bake up something fun!  I have some “old faithful” recipes that I make over and over again,  but I also love to just get in the kitchen and create something new! As any baking enthusiast knows, sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t.  Haha!  Well, today it worked! And I’m SO GLAD! I played around with the traditional “blonde” recipe, made them a little "chewier," and mixed in a little snickerdoodle inspiration and came up with these Chewy Snickerdoodle Bars!  The folks at small group seemed to enjoy them, so I thought I'd share the recipe!

Hawaiian Chicken (Slow Cooker)

With small kids, I'm always looking for simple, quick recipes.  But finding something my kids will eat without grumbling is difficult.  The smallest ones are in that, "I don't like it - even though I haven't tried it" stage.  Ugh.  I can't stand that stage!  Thankfully, this simple slow cooker Hawaiian chicken is a crowd pleaser! 

Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas

Hi guys!  My very favorite type of recipe, as I've mentioned many times before, is anything I can prep ahead and just toss into the slow cooker or the oven at dinner time.  (Is it just me or do everyone else's kids go absolutely crazy right when it's time to make dinner?)  So I thought I'd share one of our favorites: Baked Chicken Fajitas!

This recipe is so easy to make and so delicious!!! And the best part is that I can mix it up during naptime or - even the night before - and just toss it in the oven at dinner time!   I originally found this recipe at budgetbytes.com (through a search on pinterest) and, as with most of my recipes, I played around with the ingredients a bit and found my own groove,  But you can check out the original recipe HERE if you like!

Whip up some rice and beans, a salad, or some guacamole or salsa and chips, or just eat these alone! Any way you do it, you can't go wrong!

BBQ Chicken And Black Bean Quesadillas (Freezer Friendly)

If you're familiar with my blog, you may have already seen my recipe for Bacon Cheddar Ranch Chicken Quesadillas. I'm obsessed with these things - and so are my family.  And it's not just that they are delicious, it's that they are an AWESOME easy meal.  I make bunches at a time (just assembling everything, not baking them), wrap them individually in tin foil, and stick them in the freezer.  Then when I need some dinner help, I pull a few out of the freezer, let them thaw for a few hours in the and bake them for 12 minutes at 375 degrees.  Seriously, it doesn't get much better than that!

Zucchini Bread Muffins

The other day I made a delicious Sausage And Veggie Pasta Bake for dinner.  It had zucchini and yellow squash.  But after I was done, I still had one large zucchini and one large yellow squash left over.  I hate letting fruits of veggies go to waste, so I decided to make some zucchini bread.  (I've got a plan for that yellow squash as well, and if its successful I'll blog the recipe!)

Sausage And Veggie Pasta Bake

Anyone else have trouble getting your kids to eat veggies?  I was so proud of myself as a first-time mom.  My little two-year old ate everything.  Now I have three kids and dinner time is often a battle.  But I'm not giving in!  My kids are gonna eat veggies if it kills me! 

Chicken Broccoli Cheddar Bites

As a mom of three littles, I'm often looking for easy, quick recipes.  Even if you aren't a mom, sometimes things come up and you don't have the time or ability to make a big meal.  Take last night, for example.  Around 3pm I began getting a horrible migraine.  Thankfully, I'd already prepped dinner.  But that's often not the case.  Sometimes a migraine or some other problem comes up and there's nothing easy in the house.  That leads to us eating takeout - which is just a waste of money that I don't like.  So I like to keep easy things on hand.  Stuff I can pull out of the freezer and pop in the microwave or the oven when the need arises.  These bites are perfect for that!  And this recipe makes 30 bites, so you can stay well stocked!

Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Cinnamon Pecan Glaze

I know.  I know.  Its not Fall.  But why does pumpkin have to be relegated to 3 months out of the year?  Pumpkin is delish!  And when you don't feel like going to the grocery store for baking supplies, but you have a can of pumpkin in the pantry, a pumpkin bundt cake can save the day! 

Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies

I've been on a baking jag lately, and I've been really enjoying it!  But I've made a lot of chocolate stuff.  (Check out my recipe for Oreo Truffles.  They're DA BOMB!!!)  So today I decided to make some peanut butter cookies.  I've found several yummy recipes online, but as I usually do, I've tweaked things a bit and here's the recipe I've come up with.  They're soft and chewy, with a little bit of crisp and crunch on the edges.  They're the best part of both cookie worlds.  They're the Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies.

Broccoli Cauliflower Salad

You guys, its HARD to get my kids (and my husband) to eat broccoli.  But I've figured out the secret.  Add mayo and sugar!  Haha!  Seriously, this broccoli cauliflower is delish!  And the proof is that the kids AND the hubby devoured it tonight at dinner!

Oreo Truffles - So Many Possibilities!!!

If you've never tasted an Oreo Truffle, you haven't truly lived.  That's right.  I said it.  These things are SERIOUSLY good.  And the best part is that, with this simple, basic recipe, you can make tons of different flavors!  The possibilities are endless!!!

Homemade Vanilla Wafers

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I've been baking up a storm this weekend!   (If you don't follow me on Instagram, you really should!  Check me out @theproverbs31mama !)  One of the recipes that people really seem to want is my Homemade Vanilla Wafers recipe! 

I can't take credit for this recipe.  I found it (through Pinterest) at bakingbites.com.  Now, usually when I find a recipe on Pinterest, I change it up a bit.  Add something, take away something, change measurements.  I like to play.  But this recipe - nope!  I haven't really changed it, except that, I sometimes switch the vanilla extract for lemon extract and make lemon wafers!  And they are DA BOMB! 

But I digress.  Let's get back to the Vanilla Wafers...

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 1/2 tsp of lemon extract, if you wanna make lemon wafers)
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2.) Cream softened butter, sugar, and brown sugar together.

3.) Add egg and vanilla (or lemon) extract and beat to combine.

4.) Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together and pour into butter mixture; stir to combine. (Dough will be very thick.)

5.) Spoon dough into a pastry bag (fitted with a plain piping tip), or go "old school" like me and spoon dough into a zip top bag.  Snip a little hole in one corner.

6.) Pipe dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  For mini wafers, you only need a large chocolate chip-sized amount of dough.  For larger cookies, pipe out less than a dime-sized amount. 

7.) The larger the dough, the longer they'll need to bake, so for chocolate chip-sized dough, bake for 8-10 minutes.  For larger cookies (they'll still be slightly smaller than traditional vanilla wafers) bake for 12-15 minutes. You want them to start to get golden around the edges.

8.) Depending on the size of your cookies, this recipe makes between 100-300 cookies!  But don't let that discourage you because it still won't seem like enough!  TRUST ME! 

Enjoy! 

Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Carrots

This month I've been branching out and trying new recipes.  I'm forcing myself to try some ingredients that I don't normally use.  One of those ingredients is sweet potatoes.  I've never been a big fan.  I think its because, in the South, sweet potatoes usually end up in a souffle or pie, and I'm not a big fan of either of those.  (I know, I'm a bad Southern girl.  LOL!)

But I forced myself to buy some sweet potatoes this week and search for a recipe.  That's when I saw several recipes on Pinterest for Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes and/or Carrots.  I had a huge bag of carrots as well, so I thought I'd give it a try - and mix the two.  After all, my main contention with sweet potatoes was that I didn't think potatoes should be "sweet."  But I figured, maybe on this one I just need to steer into the skid and embrace the sweetness. Well, let me just say, "Sweet Taters, where have you been all my life!?!"  I took the best elements from several recipes and threw these together.  And these babies are DELISH, if I do say so myself.  If you aren't a fan of carrots, you can just use 3 sweet potatoes.  Or, if you aren't a sweet potato gal, try 8-10 carrots.  But seriously, try them both.  You won't be sorry!!!  Come on, how delectable do these look!?!