Beer Cheese and Macaroni Soup

This creamy, cheesy beer soup with bacon and veggies is just what is needed on a cold night!

I am a person who does not enjoy beer as a beverage. Not in the slightest. I've tried many different kinds, but it's really just not my thing. I, however, do enjoy beer in soups and stews and savory dishes. I'm actually going to be using beer in a dessert recipe later in the year and I'm curious to see how I'll like that. Beer cheese is one of those things that I can't explain why I like. It tastes like beer. I don't like beer. But I like beer cheese. I knew this recipe would be such a quintessential cold weather kind of food. I think of it as a really good fall dish, but I also think it isn't limited to just fall :)

Bacon Cheeseburger Tatortot Casserole

Yum doesn't even begin to cover this variation of a classic tatortot casserole!

I have made tatortot hotdish a whole lot in my many years as an adult. It was one of my favorite meals when I was a kid and I have loved how the internet has provided a place for people to share variations of what I knew to be "classic" tatortot hotdish. This recipe is one of those and it is FANTASTIC. The original recipe did not call for toppings, but if I eat a bacon cheeseburger, I want the works on it and so we topped ours with ketchup, mustard, and pickles. It was the perfect touch to this already wonderful recipe!

Menu Plan Monday - January 27, 2020

I'm ridiculously excited for tonight's dinner because I adore eggplant. I also think Thursday's dinner is going to be fabulous too :)

Monday - Eggplant Parmesan Boats
Tuesday - Southwestern Stuffed Peppers
Wednesday -  Peanut Butter & Banana Oatmeal // Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup
Thursday - Lemon Pepper Tuna Lettuce Wraps
Friday - Easy Pesto Pizza
Weekend - Easy Cinnamon Roll French Toast Roll Ups // Hobo Dinner // Coconut Cream Pie

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

Jalapeno Popper Pizza

This pizza is super quick to throw together and tastes just like a jalapeno popper!

I had to make a few adjustments to this recipe that makes it similar to one I've posted before. Nick does not and will not eat ranch dressing. I'll be honest and say that I was sure he would eat it with the cream cheese as the "sauce", but I took a chance. I'm glad I did and used whipped cream cheese and ranch dressing seasoning mix in place of the heavier ranch dressing to regular cream cheese ratio. I chose to dice my jalapenos to cover more surface area and I used bacon bits instead of cooking bacon and crumbling it...because I'm lazy. This is a really quick pizza recipe to throw together and I do appreciate that some Fridays when I'm just tired and done and ready to relax.

Copycat Chicken Bryan

This restaurant favorite has seasoned grilled chicken topped with goat cheese, roasted tomatoes, and basil and drizzled in a luscious lemon butter sauce

This recipe has multiple parts to it and it does seem a little daunting, but if you time everything and read through the recipe a few times, you'll be good to go. I did include little tips for timing before the specific instruction set for different parts, so it's a little less overwhelming. The many parts come together and make this meal astounding. I have never been to Carrabba's and I'll be honest and say that the name made me think it was a Mexican food place. I was surprised to find it was an Italian grill restaurant (and I definitely want to go now). I am up for any recipe that has tomatoes and basil at this point. They all seem like winners. This recipe is different in the grill seasoning - that is one of my favorite spice mixes I've ever used - especially on chicken - and the recipe uses goat cheese rather than mozzarella. I'm still relatively new to goat cheese, but I do enjoy it thoroughly. Last but not least, you have the amazing wonderful lemon butter sauce that is too good it should be illegal.

Bacon Cheeseburgers with Spicy Mayo

A classic bacon cheeseburger topped with a kicker - spicy sriracha mayonnaise!

We eat cheeseburgers about every other week for the most part. I love burgers and like to make different variations. Honestly, this one is nothing too crazy. It's kind of just your basic bacon cheeseburger but the spicy mayonnaise is key. It's nothing too hard or crazy either, but the mayo, ketchup, and sriracha combined are the perfect condiment for this burger or really any burger.

Menu Plan Monday - January 20, 2020

Hello, everyone! Hope your January is going super well. I always look forward to sharing my meal plans each week and this week, I am ready for all the veggies. The weekend is going to be more of an "unhealthy" streak, but the weekdays have lots of veggies and I love it.

Monday - Ratatouille Pasta
Tuesday - Spicy Chicken and Avocado Tacos
Wednesday - Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins // Slow Cooker Creamy Vegetable Soup
Thursday - Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps
Friday - A&W Chili Dogs
Weekend - Copycat McDonald's Pancakes // Slow Cooker Chicken Alfredo Sandwiches // Salty Caramel Puddle Cookies

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

Italian Baked Eggs

This delicious breakfast can be ready in under 30 minutes and it's SO easy to make!

For whatever reason, this week I'm posting my egg recipes :) This was before I went on my no-egg yolk deal, but I'm sure it would be too easy to just do egg whites. I love how absolutely easy this recipe is. You really just throw everything in a ramekin and bake it and that's it. I mixed our eggs slightly because Nick and I don't really eat our yolks runny. I may occasionally have a sunny side up egg, but it's very rare.

Chicken Pot Pie Noodle Soup

All the flavors of pot pie turned into a hearty soup that is ready in under 30 minutes!

I'm sure I've talked about it briefly over the years here and there, but I don't really care for pies - including pot pie. However, Nick and the big kids do like pot pie. So about as far as I get for compromising is making pot pie-like recipes without the pie crust like this soup. You can absolutely get away with canned chicken OR rotisserie chicken if you'd like - rotisserie chicken especially in the lemon pepper variety, I think, would make a fantastic substitute. This is totally comfort food and it pairs perfectly with a good hearty buttermilk biscuit.

Mexican Egg White Omelet #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 OMELETS. January is National Egg Month and what better way to celebrate the egg than by making omelets?! I used to make omelets a whole lot but I don't really any more because Nick does intermittent fasting and doesn't eat breakfast and I'm trying to avoid eggs because of how much cholesterol is in them. However, the cholesterol is in the yolks and I thought I'd try this egg white omelet recipe because it's kind of the best of both worlds. I still get to eat omelets and it isn't super high in cholesterol.

I have to be completely honest and say that I wasn't really thrilled with taking the yolks out, but I'm trying to be open with compromises with food. I love food and I'm not happy about some of these changes. Even knowing all the ingredients (which are definitely some of my favorite things), I was still skeptical. And then this omelet BLEW ME OUT OF THE WATER! I made one with yolks for Nick and he was also super impressed. Honestly, the best omelet I've ever eaten and I think Nick agreed. I really didn't miss the egg yolks and I was surprised at how filling the 3 egg white omelet with the fixings was. I'm excited to see what my blogging friends are sharing for the first Food Fight of 2020. Make sure you check out their posts below!

Menu Plan Monday - January 13, 2020

I'm going to do something I thought I would never do and try turkey bacon. I have to admit that I am okay without bacon, but I would still like to eat bacon LOL. Does that make sense? I think this week is the only week with a lot of red meat, but I think we'll survive. I'm excited for Wednesday's breakfast and hope it turns out like I think it will.

Monday - Penne Alfredo with Bacon and Broccoli
Tuesday - Cilantro Lime Turkey Stuffed Peppers
Wednesday - Orange Walnut Braids // Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Thursday - Grilled Chicken Caprese Orzo Salad
Friday - Homemade Calzones
Weekend - French Vanilla Chai Cinnamon Rolls // Pizza Meatloaf // Red Velvet Sheet Cake

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

Ragu Stuffed Peppers

Hello, rich turkey ragu stuffed peppers with couscous and asiago cheese!

I'm kind of obsessed with stuffed peppers. I'm honestly not too sure why but I think it's due to the fact that I keep finding such good recipes for them. I am trying to remember the last time I was disappointed by a stuffed pepper and I don't think it exists. What I really enjoy about this recipe is that there's ground turkey instead of beef (a substitute we've made a lot recently to try and limit red meat) and it was our first experience with couscous - which I think was a hit for all of us. I also have never really used asiago cheese on its own (always in an Italian mix) and really enjoyed it by itself. The ragu in this recipe is actually from a pasta recipe that I've posted previously on a different blog (and is linked at the bottom of this post) so I knew it would be great. All of the parts combined made for a wonderful stuffed pepper recipe.

Rosemary Steak and Eggs

Steak and eggs, but not just any steak and eggs - steak drizzled with rosemary butter and eggs that are insanely cheesy!

We don't eat breakfast a lot but we do sometimes eat breakfast for dinner. I knew this recipe would be a hit with the husband because it's steak and basically anytime I make steak, he is a happy camper. For me, the most exciting part of this recipe was the rosemary butter! And yes, I'm aware my steak is well done. I'm still trying to get a handle on being able to consistently cook steak medium rare to medium for Nick - I usually take pictures of his plate when we have steak. I'm a worrywart and like my steak well done. The cheesy eggs were also fantastic. They were perfectly cooked as per the recipe instructions. All-in-all, steak and eggs are a wonderful dinner and would also make a wonderful breakfast if you're a morning person :)

Chicken & Dumplings

Hearty comfort food with biscuit-like dumplings that are so tender they may fall apart on you when you scoop them into the bowl and prevent you from getting a picture that proves you made chicken and dumplings!

Today is a rarity. I'm sharing a recipe for a food that I don't really eat. I also have to mention that it does not look like dumplings at all, it looks like a mess, but I decided to post anyways because this is a wonderful recipe. The dumplings didn't stay in separate biscuit form, but sometimes the weirdest looking foods are the best foods (see: tatortot hotdish). This is a very hearty, stick-to-your-ribs recipe. It has the best savory herbs that are just so perfect for colder months.

I personally think I may have made my dumplings slightly too big and that's why when I tried to remove them from the pot, they basically just fell apart. Regardless of how this looks, make this recipe. You have to. I don't even like chicken and dumplings and I was all about this recipe.

I don't get a lot of mean comments, but I honestly expect someone to come here raging at how this looks. I'm ready for you haha

Menu Plan Monday - January 6, 2020

You'll probably notice over the next month or so that there are fewer red meat recipes and more vegetables, but that really isn't an extreme dietary change but moreso an experiment into if avoiding red meat helps more with cholesterol than the limiting I did over the past few months. We'll see after a few months if it helps or not!

Monday - Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Boats
Tuesday - Easy 20 Minute Chicken Tacos
Wednesday - Blueberry Cornbread Muffins // The Best Chili
Thursday - PF Chang's Turkey Lettuce Wraps
Friday - Steak 'n Shake Frisco Patty Melts
Weekend - Oladi (Ukranian Buttermilk Pancakes) // Caramel Fudge Turtle Cookies // Oven Fried Chicken

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

Cheeseburger Salad with Animal Sauce Dressing

This salad is a lower carb version of the In-N-Out Cheeseburger with Animal Sauce!

In 2020, I don't really have a lot of resolutions. I'm not a resolutions type of gal. However, I am continuing my slight change in diet and I want to eat more salads in the new year. I love love love salads, but I got a few complaints from the others about salad for dinner. I think they have come around a little because of recipes like this that are a little hardier than a regular salad. I thought this one was really fun with the slider-like mini burgers. The animal sauce dressing really brings the whole thing together. We added bacon bits to the recipe because why not?!

Frosted Animal Cookie Cheesecake

This sweet cheesecake is loaded with frosted animal cookies and topped with a ganache, whipped cream, frosted cookies, and sprinkles!

I am already blanking on if this was just for fun or if this was Cami's birthday cake last year. I want to say it was her birthday cake. I'm just gonna say this was her birthday cake. She seems to gravitate towards pink cakes with sprinkles and whipped cream. Her favorite frosting is whipped cream frosting. I have never had a cheesecake crust more delicious than this one with crushed frosted animal cookies. Honestly, what could be better than that?!

Countdown to 2020: Fantastical Faves

It's time to share the best recipes of 2019 to ring in the new year!

Happy New Year! It's the start of a new decade - woohoo! I hope 2020 is the start of something great and wonderful for each and every one of you. Today's category is the perfect way to start the new year because we celebrate whatever we want to celebrate from our blogs from 2019. I always like to share my personal favorites. Check out what my blogging friends chose to share today below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter