Fantastical Friday: 9 Blueberry Pie Recipes

Happy National Blueberry Pie Day! Today's Fantastical Friday is just going to be a roundup of some lovely recipes that are full of blueberry pie goodness.

1. Fresh Blueberry Cheesecake Pie from Carlsbad Cravings
2. Bake Sale Blueberry (and Cherry) Pie Cupcakes from Delish
3. Blackberry Blueberry Pie from Chef in Training
4. Blueberry Pie Yogurt Parfaits from The Attune Foods
5. Blueberry Pie Bars from Spend with Pennies
6. Glazed Blueberry Pie Thumbprint Cookies from Whole and Heavenly Oven
7. Blueberry Key Lime Pie Cheesecake Bars from Inside BruCrew Life
8. Blueberry Ice Cream Pie from Better Homes and Gardens
9. Blueberry Cheesecake Pie from Bake at 350

------------------------------
don't miss a thing. follow fantastical on:
facebook | pinterest | bloglovin | instagram

Carne Asada Fries

I don't need chili cheese fries, I need these Carne Asada Fries in my life!

For this recipe, I purchased carne asada style beef and a packet of carne asada seasoning to make my own carne asada. I wanted my cheese to be super melty, so I stuck the fries back in the oven so it'd be all melty and delicious. Then I topped it with the carne asada and cilantro. I am the only one in my family who eats guacamole, so I left that off of everyone else's. I do want to say Nick ate his topped with banana peppers though.

5-Ingredient Mexi Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

You only need five ingredients for this delicious stuffed pepper recipe!

I had every intention of making these quinoa stuffed peppers exactly how the original recipe stated, however, I had the worst time trying to find black bean crumbles, so I subbed in some chorizo. It still turned out fabulously and I love the easy of just having to use five ingredients to make dinner. It's just fantastic. Seriously.

Spicy Italian Meatloaf

Regular old meatloaf should move over! This spicy sausage meatloaf blows it out of the water.

I love meatloaf, but unfortunately, my family gets a little sick of recipes if I make them over and over again. It kind of works out well that I have so many recipes hoarded that there is always a new one to try out. I purchased the Cravings cookbook after seeing a million and a half food snaps from Chrissy Teigen. I knew the cookbook would be wonderful and I was so right! I was excited to see this particular recipe because I had never made a meatloaf using Italian sausage. And, of course, it did not hurt at all that it was spicy.

Menu Plan Monday - April 24, 2017

We are having a ton of throwbacks this week, which is probably due to me running out of the right meals for the end of the month while meal planning. I like to alternate red and white meats, so the new recipes go first and then I fill in the blanks with old favorites! What are y'all having to eat this week? Share a link in the comments to your Meal Plan Monday --or-- a recipe you are looking forward to making/eating!

Monday - Sausage Pepper Fettuccini Skillet
Tuesday - Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Muffins // Mexican Chicken with Jalapeno Popper Sauce
Wednesday - Easy Italian Sausage Soup
Thursday - Old Fashioned Cake Donuts // Chinese Green Beans with Ground Turkey
Friday - French Bread Pizzas
Saturday - Huevos Rancheros // Snickers Cheesecake Pie
Sunday - Copycat Olive Garden Tuscan Garlic Chicken // Baguettes


------------------------------

don't miss a thing. follow fantastical on:
facebook | pinterest | bloglovin | instagram

Italian Sausage Gnocchi Skillet

Fabulous and easy, this Italian Sausage Gnocchi Skillet is made in one skillet in under 30 minutes!

Hello and happy Friday! I have a wonderful one skillet meal to share with y'all today. Bonus: it's ready in under 30 minutes. These are my favorite kind of recipes! The sausage and red bells go perfectly with the gnocchi. There is a hint of lemon and parsley to tie the whole meal together. I personally love that the gnocchi gets a little browned to get a nice crunch.

Heirloom BLT with Fried Eggs and Smoked Gouda #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.

Did you know April is National BLT Month? I didn't until I was researching a good theme for April's Food Fight. This month, we were challenged to make a BLT. The rules were that it had to be a sandwich that contained bacon, a leafy green, and tomato. I'm curious to see all the new ways to make a BLT because I found plenty of variations that had me sweating trying to narrow it down. In the end, I chose a BLT with fried egg and gouda because I love fried egg sandwiches and gouda goes well on literally all the things. Okay, maybe not all the things, but a lot of them. :)

I chose to slightly modify the original recipe that I found because the bacon is turned into bourbon maple bacon and I do not like maple and I had no bourbon. I also left out the avocado because I am the only one who will eat avocado in my family. I really loved how the gouda and egg and chipotle mayo made this BLT so much better than just a plain BLT!

Outrageous Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese

This grilled cheese is outrageously good with its cream cheese stuffed jalapenos, bacon, and cheese on jalapeno cheese bread.

Are y'all ready for this jalapeno popper goodness? It's outrageous. It truly is.

I'm a little late posting today and didn't realize I needed to get a post up until around lunchtime. Then it was a matter of I wasn't happy with the recipe I was going to post and hummed and hawed over what the new recipe would be. I finally started posting 2016 recipes, so it's not that I don't have any ready to go. I have too many. I have the rest of this calendar year planned out posting-wise, so it was just a matter of picking one of my newer recipes to share today. I posted the jalapeno cheese bread recipe I used in this recipe last Thursday and did not have these grilled cheese sandwiches anywhere in my posting calendar for 2017, so it was definitely fate!

These are not yo momma's jalapeno popper grilled cheese. They are not simply grilled cheese with the flavors of jalapeno poppers. Nope. They have literal cream cheese stuffed roasted jalapenos inside them. Plus more cheese. Plus bacon. Plus...it's all on CHEESY JALAPENO BREAD!!! Come through, Jalapeno Popper Flavor, come through!

Menu Plan Monday - April 17, 2017

I am so excited about dinner tonight because spaghetti is my favorite. I am also excited for our throwbacks on Tuesday and Wednesday and all the new dishes that follow!

Monday - Spaghetti
Tuesday - Double Blueberry Muffins // Copycat Beefy 5-Layer Burritos
Wednesday - Easy Zuppa Toscana Soup
Thursday - Bring the Heath Doughnuts // Kung Pao Chicken with Zoodles
Friday - French Onion Burgers
Saturday - Homemade Entenmann's // Chocolate Oreo Cream Cake
Sunday - One Pan Crispy Parmesan Garlic Chicken with Vegetables

------------------------------
don't miss a thing. follow fantastical on:
facebook | pinterest | bloglovin | instagram

Fantastical Friday: Happy National Pecan Day!

Today is National Pecan Day and I thought it would be absolutely perfect to share some recipes that feature pecans. So here are 10 wonderful recipes to make to celebrate the day :)

1. Pecan Brittle from My Baking Addiction - Recipe | Pin it
2. Butterscotch Pecan Pie from Fantastical Sharing of Recipes - Recipe | Pin it
3. Pecan Cobbler from Call Me PMc - Recipe | Pin it 
4. Pecan Praline Trifles from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen - Recipe | Pin it
5. Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies from Tatertots & Jello - Recipe | Pin it 
6. Pecan Praline Cheesecake from Spicy Southern Kitchen - Recipe | Pin it 
7. Maple Pecan Granola from Life on Food - Recipe | Pin it
8. Pecan Pie Fudge from Crazy For Crust - Recipe | Pin it
9. Caramel Pecan Bars from My Baking Addiction - Recipe | Pin it
10. Pecan Pie Milkshakes from Fantastical Sharing of Recipes - Recipe | Pin it 

------------------------------
don't miss a thing. follow fantastical on:
facebook | pinterest | bloglovin | instagram

No Knead Jalapeno Cheese Bread

Impress friends and family with this cheesy, spicy bread that, as it turns out, is easy to make, but you don't have to let them know that!

I honestly could not scream favorite enough for this recipe for jalapeno cheese bread. It was my first time making bread in my cast iron Dutch oven and I was incredibly nervous. I did have my recipe come from someone I would call a bread making guru. Karen's blog has a million and a half bread recipes and is such a wealth of knowledge for a bread beginner, so I knew I had a trusted source for a good recipe. It just fell on me to not screw it up!

I was so thankful that I did not screw it up. I followed Karen's instructions very carefully and the result was the best bread I have ever had in my life. We used it to make jalapeno popper grilled cheese sandwiches (recipe coming soon!), like the jalapenos and cheese in the bread weren't enough to begin with! I just cannot describe in words how perfect and delicious this bread was. Y'all have got to try it for yourselves!

Homemade Bean & Bacon Soup

You can't beat a homemade soup -- especially one that has bacon in it!

When I was a kid, I lived for the moments when the canned soup for lunch was bean and bacon soup. It is the only canned soup I have ever liked remotely. I have tried a few bean and bacon recipes and they were wonderful, but did not quite capture the same essence of the canned soup. I know it's probably a weird thing to be hunting for a recipe that tastes like canned soup, but I don't mean that I want it to taste like canned soup. I want it to taste similar enough to it, but obviously much better because it's a homemade recipe!

I want to say my previous attempts at a bean and bacon soup did not contain carrots, which were a welcome addition. I also know for certain that they did not have tomato sauce in them. I saw that on the ingredients list and side eyed it pretty hard, but I've come to trust what recipe creators are doing and went with it. The results were incredible. It is reminiscent of my favorite soup from my childhood, but it's homemade and so the quality is so much better.

Chicken & Bacon Pasta with Spinach & Tomatoes

Don't underestimate this recipe -- it's incredibly flavorful yet simple to make!

I love when I make something that doesn't look altogether too impressive, but turns out to be so friggin' delicious that it blows my mind. This pasta recipe is one of those recipes. I adore pasta recipe with tomatoes and spinach. The only thing that makes pasta better, in my opinion, is pesto. Because I have been on the pesto train lately. Also, that is a thing...a pesto train.

This recipe didn't need pesto by any means. The paprika and Italian seasoning worked very well for minimal seasoning but maximum flavor (that was dorky, sorry). We have tomato and spinach and BACON. It's such a flavorful dish.

Menu Plan Monday - April 10, 2017

So I don't really "celebrate" Easter. We do the Easter bunny for the kids and dye eggs, but that's about it. And then...EASTER DINNER. I love Easter dinner. This year, I am at the very least bringing a side and dessert, but I may also bring deviled eggs and something else. Who knows.

Monday - Chicken and Broccoli Sauce with Pasta
Tuesday - Mocha Cookies & Cream Muffins // Copycat Taco Bell Meximelts
Wednesday - One Pot Thai Chicken Noodle Soup
Thursday - Cinnamon Roll Donuts // Steak with sides
Friday - Calzones
Saturday - Blueberry Pancakes
Sunday - EASTER DINNER: Carrot Cake Roll // Asparagus Gratin

------------------------------
don't miss a thing. follow fantastical on:
facebook | pinterest | bloglovin | instagram

Bacon Cheeseburger Gnocchi Skillet

When your day has been rough, this one pot skillet meal with all the flavors of a bacon cheeseburger is ready in under 30 minutes.

One pots have become my lifeline lately and usually they are pasta-based, so I was excited to test out  this recipe that has gnocchi and tastes like a burger! I mean who doesn't like bacon cheeseburgers and it's certainly nice to try a dish that has most of the elements of bacon cheeseburgers. This one pot meal is also ready in under 30 minutes. Winner winner, cheeseburger skillet dinner!

This week has been so confusing for me. On Monday, I thought it was Thursday and was convinced on Tuesday it was actually Wednesday. Needless to say, it's been a long week! On weeks like this, I just want simple meals. I love cooking -- don't get me wrong, but when I'm exhausted mentally and physically, I like to throw something together with little effort and be done with it. So I'm glad to have recipes like this in my archives to be able to whip together on hard days/weeks.

One Pot Ham & Pasta Skillet

A perfectly simple spring dish that can be enjoyed all year round - and in a flash, ready in under 30 minutes.

Hello, spring! Hello, seasonal allergies! LOL

I am back with a simple, wonderful one pot skillet dish. This one features some very spring ingredients. I dig any type of recipe that is made in one pot or skillet or pan and especially if that one dish recipe is made in under 30 minutes with very little prep. This recipe you only have to chop the onions and that's the only prep there is. Every other ingredient is already prepped and you just have to measure and dump it in. So that's a winner winner ham dinner in my book.

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

When in doubt, double the chocolate and serve it for breakfast!

As a kid, my mom made the pouch muffins all the time. I'm not going to lie...those pouch chocolate chip muffins are still, to this day, one of my very favorite breakfasts. However, I'm always worried about any packaged goodies being discontinued and finding copycat recipes that would take the place of them is pretty important to me. This is not a copycat recipe, but I do like to try plenty of muffin recipes so I can have a good little treasure trove of wonderful muffin recipes to make. Instead of a vanilla based muffin with chocolate chips, this recipe is double the chocolate. And there is nothing wrong with double the chocolate! The chocolate muffin with chocolate chips is just fabulous.

Menu Plan Monday - April 3, 2017

I caught some major grief for not making the chili dogs my 10 year old wanted last month, so I made sure to put those on the first full week of April's menu LOL. Pretzel bowls were highly requested by Nick and the big kids too. Overall, I'm pretty excited about this week's line up! What are y'all having to eat this week?

Monday - Bacon Chili Cheese Dogs
Tuesday - Banana Chocolate Chip Granola Muffins // Chicken Fajita Quesadillas
Wednesday - Loaded Baked Potato Soup in Pretzel Bowls
Thursday - Snickerdoodle Crumble Donuts // Crispy Chinese Lemon Chicken
Friday - Kids Menu Burgers
Saturday - Maple Bars // Mint Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Brownies
Sunday - Philly Cheesesteak Sliders

------------------------------
don't miss a thing. follow fantastical on:
facebook | pinterest | bloglovin | instagram

Cheesy Chicken Caprese Pesto & Quinoa Casserole #SundaySupper

Classic caprese flavors in a wonderful chicken and quinoa casserole

Hello, everyone! I am back for another Sunday Supper Movement event. Today's event is hosted by Rini of Healing Tomato and the theme is RECIPES USING FRESH TOMATOES. I immediately thought of this dish because it is one of my more recent favorites. I initially made it without pesto, but I feel the pesto really adds a depth of flavor it was missing prior to. Plus I have been on a very big pesto kick lately. It honestly doesn't matter what I'm trying to eat...a sandwich, pasta, pizza, etc., I've probably put pesto in or on it. I personally think this casserole would also be great with ground turkey or beef or even Italian sausage.

Don't forget to check out the recipes at the bottom of the post from my fellow Sunday Supper Movement blogger friends!