Winstead Wandering

Prone to Wander

Low Carb Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza

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With a truly unique crust and a topping that includes crispy bacon and creamy ranch dressing, this Low Carb Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza is sure to satisfy.

With a truly unique crust and a topping that includes crispy bacon and creamy ranch dressing, this Low Carb Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza is sure to satisfy.

For about the first 10 years of our relationship, J only ate pepperoni pizza. I can’t blame him for loving it; it’s a classic for a reason. But with so many possible options, I knew he was missing out.

I don’t remember the circumstances that led to him first trying chicken bacon ranch pizza, but to say it changed his life would not be overstating things. A whole new world of pizza options was opened to him, and he now has a new go-to order.

With a truly unique crust and a topping that includes crispy bacon and creamy ranch dressing, this Low Carb Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza is sure to satisfy.

All that is great until you start to eat low carb. While there are several different crust alternatives out there, several of which we’ve tried, none were as big a hit with J as this Low Carb Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza.

The secret to this beauty is that the chicken is in the crust. Yup. The base of this pizza is a mixture of ground chicken and shredded cheese. It’s a flavorful alternative to the other dough replacements out there, some of which I find a little too rich. The ranch dressing on top is perfectly creamy, while the pepper jack cheese and crumbled bacon add just the right amount of heat and salt.

With a truly unique crust and a topping that includes crispy bacon and creamy ranch dressing, this Low Carb Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza is sure to satisfy.

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Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

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Loaded with fresh vegetables and tossed in a from-scratch dressing, Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect light side to accompany any main dish.

Loaded with fresh vegetables and tossed in a from-scratch dressing, Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect light side to accompany any main dish.

I bake a lot of sweets. That’s probably immediately clear to anyone who spends half a second on this site because I have a ton of dessert recipes. I do sell or give away a lot of what I make, so other than the necessary taste test here or there, I’m not actually eating too much of what I bake.

Let me be clear, though: I do have a killer sweet tooth. If things like nutrition and calories didn’t matter, I would live on desserts. But they do, so I make sure to whip up recipes like this Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette. It only takes a few minutes to put together, and it features some of my favorite vegetables.

Loaded with fresh vegetables and tossed in a from-scratch dressing, Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect light side to accompany any main dish.

Cucumbers don’t get enough credit. I can see why they may come across as slimy or flavorless, but I love them. They’re the perfect vegetable to carry this salad, and they’re a wonderful complement to the juicy tomatoes and the strong onions. Throw in a chunks of mild avocado, toss the whole thing in a tart homemade dressing, and you’ve got yourself an easy side dish that pairs well with just about any entree.

Loaded with fresh vegetables and tossed in a from-scratch dressing, Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect light side to accompany any main dish.

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Easy Instant Pot Baked Beans

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With a perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and smoky, Easy Instant Pot Baked Beans will be your new favorite side dish for every cookout and picnic.

With a perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and smoky, Easy Instant Pot Baked Beans will be your new favorite side dish for every cookout and picnic.

As a food blogger, I take nearly any available opportunity to test out recipes on people other than family. That’s why I recently volunteered to make baked beans for the hospitality room at the district basketball tournament at the high school. I knew right away I’d be making Easy Instant Pot Baked Beans.

With no soaking necessary, these guys are the perfect balance of sweet and smoky and spicy. Though there’s little work required, the end result is a batch of beans that taste like they’ve simmering all.day.long. It’s not hard to see why this will quickly become your go-to baked beans recipe.

With a perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and smoky, Easy Instant Pot Baked Beans will be your new favorite side dish for every cookout and picnic.

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Jalapeño Popper Twice-Baked Potatoes

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Why not combine two of your all-time favorite party foods and make these perfectly cheesy and irresistibly savory Jalapeño Popper Twice-Baked Potatoes?

Why not combine two of your all-time favorite party foods and make these perfectly cheesy and irresistibly savory Jalapeño Popper Twice-Baked Potatoes?

Are you ever awed by your own brilliance?

I’m not, at least usually, but one exception would be these Jalapeño Popper Twice-Baked Potatoes. I can’t remember what led to that stroke of culinary genius, but I remember standing in front of the refrigerator, both doors open, and thinking, “I should make jalapeño popper twice-baked potatoes!”

And so I did.

Why not combine two of your all-time favorite party foods and make these perfectly cheesy and irresistibly savory Jalapeño Popper Twice-Baked Potatoes?

I poppered these puppies up in a few different ways. First, I added diced jalapeños to the potato filling. I tossed in some cream cheese, too. Lastly, I topped each potato half with a mixture of Parmesan and bread crumbs to give the whole dish that golden crunch you expect from good jalapeño poppers.

I know I’m not the first person to combine these two particular food favorites, but damn is it a good combo.

Why not combine two of your all-time favorite party foods and make these perfectly cheesy and irresistibly savory Jalapeño Popper Twice-Baked Potatoes?

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Easy Instant Pot Seasoned Chicken

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Did you know you can make Easy Instant Pot Seasoned Chicken? It’s great for eating as-is, but it’s also wonderful for using in recipes or freezing for later!

Did you know you can make Easy Instant Pot Seasoned Chicken? It's great for eating as-is, but it's also wonderful for using in recipes or freezing for later!

It took me a long time — like, nearly a year — to really find a groove with my Instant Pot. I just didn’t take the time to figure it out. Even during that time, though, I was still using it regularly to make chicken.

We eat a lot of shredded chicken. While we rarely have it as a main dish, I use it often as a condiment of sorts, an ingredient in our meal, like these Baked Green Chile Chicken Taquitos. You’ll almost always find a container of seasoned shredded chicken in our fridge for use in recipes or just for whipping up a chicken and cheese quesadilla.

You might also like: Honey Balsamic Chicken Marinade

In the last year, all of that chicken has been prepared in the Instant Pot. Here’s the beauty of Easy Instant Pot Seasoned Chicken: it’s easy (I know, I said that already), it’s flavorful, it’s fast, and it’s totally customizable. I love that I don’t have to tend the chicken like I would if it was cooking on the stovetop, and it’s ready much faster than if I baked it. The pressure-cooking of the Instant Pot seals in the flavor, and I swap out spices to develop any profile I’d like.

Did you know you can make Easy Instant Pot Seasoned Chicken? It's great for eating as-is, but it's also wonderful for using in recipes or freezing for later!

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Easy Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese

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If you aren’t using your Instant Pot to experience the creamy, cheesy, gooey goodness of Easy Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese, what are you even doing with your life?

If you aren't using your Instant Pot to experience the creamy, cheesy, gooey goodness of Easy Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese, what are you even doing with your life?

I remember the moment I knew I was in love with J. It was my freshman year in college, sometime in the fall after we’d talked on the phone every day during the summer and spent the first semester of school hanging out on campus. I remember texting him often during those months (from my camera-less flip phone because this was 2005), saying things like, “I really like you.” It hadn’t occurred to me yet that I more than liked him.

You might also like: Creamy Sausage Macaroni & Cheese

And then one day I headed to the mail room to check my tiny mailbox. I don’t even remember if I had mail that day, but I do know I was leaving the building because I was headed up the stairs that led back to the center of campus and toward my dorm. I had my phone out, texting J, and I tripped on the stairs. That part doesn’t have anything to do with my epiphany; I tripped at least once on every set of stairs on campus. But sometime during that walk from the mail room back to my dorm, I thought, “I think I love this guy.”

If you aren't using your Instant Pot to experience the creamy, cheesy, gooey goodness of Easy Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese, what are you even doing with your life?

What does all this have to do with Easy Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese? Not much, really, except I’m writing this on Valentine’s Day (busy few weeks + blog issues =  tight post turnaround) so I’m feeling a little mushy. Also, even though there are a ton of things J and I don’t have in common — he loves Top 40 music and I’m all about 90’s/early 00’s hip hop; he loves sci-fi, action, and comic book movies, while I want light and happy; he’s an incredibly picky eater, but I’m more adventurous — macaroni and cheese is something we agree on. We both love the stuff, including this super simple recipe.

You might also like: Five Cheese Macaroni & Cheese

If you’ve never made homemade macaroni and cheese, this recipe is the perfect place to start. It doesn’t require you to make any cheese sauces, and it certainly doesn’t call for any of that neon processed cheese junk (I love a good helping of Rotel Dip as much as the next Southerner, but please keep that fake stuff away from my mac ‘n’ cheese). The Instant Pot does all the noodle-boiling work, and they don’t even need to be drained. Just add the cheese and other ingredients to the cooked noodles, stir everything together, and everyone will think you spent a ton of time making a mouthwatering side dish.

If you aren't using your Instant Pot to experience the creamy, cheesy, gooey goodness of Easy Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese, what are you even doing with your life?

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Instant Pot Mashed Red Potatoes

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Be the dinnertime hero by whipping up these Instant Pot Mashed Red Potatoes: the creamy, quick, flavorful version of everybody’s favorite side dish.

Be the dinnertime hero by whipping up these Instant Pot Mashed Red Potatoes: the creamy, quick, flavorful version of everybody’s favorite side dish.

I had my wisdom teeth removed (I only had three) the summer before my junior year of college. I was living in an apartment with friends, taking a summer class and feeling very much like a grown-up. Since I was 3000 miles away from my family, J drove me to the oral surgeon’s office on the big day.

The only thing I remember about being in the office is coming to when surgery was over. I was in that haze between sleep and wakefulness, but I remember clearly hearing the conversation between two nurses. Then one of them said to me, “Abby, you need to keep your eyes open.” And I replied, “I thought they were.”

You might also like: Oven-Roasted Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese

We stopped on the way home for a chocolate milkshake, but it kept running out of my mouth, so we went through the KFC drive-thru for an order of mashed potatoes. If I had any love for that place before our visit (spoiler alert: I didn’t; there was no love.), those bland, watery mashed potatoes would have squashed it. Luckily, my mouth was still numb enough that I could choke them down.

Which brings us to these Instant Pot Mashed Red Potatoes. Y’all, those nasty fast food “potatoes” don’t even deserve to share a name with this recipe. These guys are perfectly chunky in the best sort of rustic way. They’re creamy without being bland, flavorful without losing their potato-ness.

Basically, they’re everything mashed potatoes should be and you need to make them now.

Be the dinnertime hero by whipping up these Instant Pot Mashed Red Potatoes: the creamy, quick, flavorful version of everybody’s favorite side dish.

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Fried Pepper Rings with Spicy Dipping Sauce

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Wrapped in a crispy breading and served with a spicy dipping sauce, Fried Pepper Rings are the perfect crunchy side dish or appetizer.

Wrapped in a crispy breading and served with a spicy dipping sauce, Fried Pepper Rings are the perfect crunchy side dish or appetizer.

I spend approximately 73 percent of my time dreaming of new ways to cook with peppers. In addition to my poblano obsession, I’m a big fan of jalapenos and cubanelles. I bought a couple cubanelles at the grocery store a while back without any real plans for using them. They sat in the fridge for a few days, I brainstormed ideas, and then I had a light bulb moment.

Why had I never made fried pepper rings before? I’m talking onion rings, but with peppers. Genius, right? I’d had fried jalapeno slices, but I’d never seen it done with milder peppers. Once the idea came to me, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had no choice to but to make them.

I chose to use mild peppers, but I still wanted a little kick of heat. I whipped up a spicy dipping sauce and, I’ve got to say, please don’t make this recipe without the sauce. Fried Pepper Rings were made for so much more than boring ketchup; let them swim in the spicy sauce they deserve.

Wrapped in a crispy breading and served with a spicy dipping sauce, Fried Pepper Rings are the perfect crunchy side dish or appetizer.

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Instant Pot Refried Beans

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Forget the can, and forget sweating over a hot stove. Instant Pot Refried Beans have that smooth restaurant-style texture you love, with the perfect hint of spice.

Forget the can, and forget sweating over a hot stove. Instant Pot Refried Beans have that smooth restaurant-style texture you love, with the perfect hint of spice.

It all started with a bag of frozen Green Chile Chicken Taquitos. Two bags, actually. We had two bags, 14 taquitos in total, in the freezer at church. They were too old to give to people (“Congratulations on the birth of your baby! Here’s a bag of slightly freezer-burnt taquitos to help you out.”), but not too old to feed to the Wednesday night crowd.

14 taquitos wouldn’t be enough to feed everyone, of course, so I volunteered to make more. I volunteered before I was told just how many more would be. 100+, as it turns out. By that point I was all in, though, so I brainstormed a side dish, too. I’ve been making slow cooker refried beans for ages, so I knew immediately I had to replicate that recipe for the instant pot.

I’m used to having beans cooking all day when I make them in the slow cooker; it was so nice to have these guys ready in a fraction of the time, with the added bonus of not needing to stir them occasionally. The group at church Wednesday nights is mostly kids, so I wasn’t sure how refried beans would go over, but they were a hit! Several of the kids came back for seconds. At the end of the night, there hardly any left in the pot.

Forget the can, and forget sweating over a hot stove. Instant Pot Refried Beans have that smooth restaurant-style texture you love, with the perfect hint of spice.

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Southern Sausage Balls

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Loaded with hearty sausage and plenty of golden, melted cheese, Southern Sausage Balls make the perfect appetizer, snack, or party food.

Loaded with hearty sausage and plenty of golden, melted cheese, Southern Sausage Balls make the perfect appetizer, snack, or party food.

I’m not saying sausage balls are an exclusively southern dish. I’m just saying that, while the only ones I ever had while growing up in Oregon were made by southern relatives, they’re a staple at nearly every wedding and baby shower in The South. And because most people are huge fans of anything that combines cheese, pork, and some of form of bread, Southern Sausage Balls are always a hit.

I ate them for years and loved them; I even made them myself. Then one day my mother-in-law made a batch (actually, I’m sure it was at least a double batch) with a new secret ingredient. That secret ingredient was cream cheese and, y’all, it revolutionized the sausage ball eating experience. If you think that’s an exaggeration, you’ve clearly never eaten Southern Sausage Balls with cream cheese.

The addition of the cream cheese ups the moistness of the recipe and leaves all other versions tasting dry and boring. Even if regular sausage balls are already in your repertoire, I implore you to add cream cheese. It’s a total game-changer. If you’ve never made Southern Sausage Balls at all, what are you waiting for? Make them for game-day, for a party, or just for breakfast or a snack at home.

Loaded with hearty sausage and plenty of golden, melted cheese, Southern Sausage Balls make the perfect appetizer, snack, or party food.

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