Winstead Wandering

Prone to Wander

Mexican Street Corn Salad

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With sweet and smoky charred corn, cool sour cream and citrus, and the perfect notes of spice, this Mexican Street Corn Salad will be a year-round hit at your house!

With sweet and smoky charred corn, cool sour cream and citrus, and the perfect notes of spice, this Mexican Street Corn Salad will be a year-round hit at your house!

I first made this Mexican Street Corn Salad a few months ago for guests. The adults and the teenagers all raved about it, and not in a just-being-polite kind of way, either. In fact, at least a couple of them went back for seconds and thirds. I made it recently for a church potluck and, again, the salad got rave reviews.

With sweet and smoky charred corn, cool sour cream and citrus, and the perfect notes of spice, this Mexican Street Corn Salad will be a year-round hit at your house!

It’s not hard to see why this recipe is such a hit. With the sweet and smoky notes of charred corn, the hit of spice from chipotle chili pepper and jalapeños, and the cooling notes of sour cream and citrus, you’ve got a perfect summer salad that will transition right into fall. Sure, grilled corn is typically a summer staple, but the beauty of this recipe is that you capture all the favorite flavors of Mexican street corn without leaving your kitchen.

With sweet and smoky charred corn, cool sour cream and citrus, and the perfect notes of spice, this Mexican Street Corn Salad will be a year-round hit at your house!

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Homemade Peanut Butter Cup Bars

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Homemade Peanut Butter Cup Bars are a no-bake, four-ingredient, gluten-free alternative to the packaged version. So easy, fast, and incredibly tasty!

Homemade Peanut Butter Cup Bars are a no-bake, four-ingredient, gluten-free alternative to the packaged version. So easy, fast, and incredibly tasty!

The combination of peanut butter and chocolate is downright irresistible. At least it is to J and me and, based on the number of people who love store-bought peanut butter cups, we’re just two of millions. I started making a homemade version several years ago. They were rich and smooth and one of the best things we’d ever eaten. Making them, drizzling the melted chocolate into individual muffin liners, was a little tedious, though.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cup Bars are a no-bake, four-ingredient, gluten-free alternative to the packaged version. So easy, fast, and incredibly tasty!

More than a year ago, I had the brilliant idea to make the recipe into bars, to skip the cupcake liners and use a sheet pan instead. Best. Idea. Ever. Now, a recipe that was already impossible to resist is also sinfully simple to make. These homemade peanut butter cup bars are just as good as the homemade peanut butter cups, but they come together so much more quickly. Bonus: they’re gluten free!

 

Homemade Peanut Butter Cup Bars are a no-bake, four-ingredient, gluten-free alternative to the packaged version. So easy, fast, and incredibly tasty!

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Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

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Bringing all the classic flavors without the time or effort of making real dough, cinnamon roll cupcakes are the perfect rich, decadent addition to any celebration.

Bringing all the classic flavors without the time or effort of making real dough, cinnamon roll cupcakes are the perfect rich, decadent addition to any celebration.

Last month I was tasked with making the cake for my grandmother’s- Granny’s- birthday party. When I asked her what she thought she wanted, she said, “Surprise me.” I was excited by the freedom she gave me, but at the same time, having no parameters made choosing flavors difficult.

I was playing around with the idea of churro or snickerdoodle cupcakes when it hit me: I already had the perfect recipe inspiration on the blog. If you’ve not yet had cinnamon roll bars, you must make them soon. They’re thick and chewy and smothered with a generous layer of homemade cream cheese frosting. The recipe manages to bring all the classic drool-worthy cinnamon roll flavors and pack them into a simple-to-make bar.

And they’re the inspiration for this equally delectable cupcake.

Cinnamon roll cupcakes deliver the warm, comforting flavors of the classic, but without the pain of baking with yeast and rolling out dough. In fact, they start with a boxed cake mix; can you get any easier than that? The thick batter is portioned into cupcake liners, baked and cooled, and topped with a smooth and rich cream cheese frosting.

Bringing all the classic flavors without the time or effort of making real dough, cinnamon roll cupcakes are the perfect rich, decadent addition to any celebration.

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Potato Crust Sausage Quiche

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With a unique and crunchy potato crust, this sausage quiche is easy enough for a weeknight meal and fancy enough to impress just about anyone.

With a unique and crunchy potato crust, this sausage quiche is easy enough for a weeknight meal and fancy enough to impress just about anyone.

For the longest time, I assumed quiches were way too fancy for my taste and for my cooking abilities. One day I realized they’re mostly just a really big omelette, minus the complicated flipping part. They’ve been a staple at our table ever since.

Like a lot of the “breakfast” recipes I share, we usually enjoy this sausage quiche for supper. It’s super easy to make, especially when I use shredded hash browns and sausage from the freezer (I typically cook a pound of sausage at a time and freeze the half I don’t use). The cook time is longer than most dinner recipes I make, but the hands-on time is minimal.

With a unique and crunchy potato crust, this sausage quiche is easy enough for a weeknight meal and fancy enough to impress just about anyone.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it’s totally customizable to the tastes of the people you’re feeding. My husband doesn’t care for most vegetables, so it’s easy for me to include veggies only on my half. Of course, you could leave out the veggies entirely, or skip the sausage and double up on the vegetables.

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Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches

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Breakfast isn’t just for morning anymore. These bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches are easy and filling enough to be enjoyed for any meal of the day.

Breakfast isn't just for morning anymore. These bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches are easy and filling enough to be enjoyed for any meal of the day.

Bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches will always remind me of my childhood. My mom has made hundreds of these in the last twenty years for me, my siblings, and an endless array of friends. She can crank them out at an unbelievable speed.

J and I hadn’t been dating long when, as an admirer of all things breakfast, he fell in love with these breakfast sandwiches. They’ve been a stable meal in our home ever since we got married.

Of course we love the obvious: crisp bacon, perfectly-cooked eggs, and melted cheese, all sandwiched between the buttered nooks and crannies of a toasted English muffin. We also love that these guys can be prepared in about 15 minutes. We use whole wheat English muffins and, when we want to be even healthier, we’ll skip the bacon.

We rarely eat them for breakfast; for us, they’re the perfect easy, filling weeknight meal. I love them served with sliced fruit and fresh home fries. They’d be perfect with store-bought hashbrowns, too.

Breakfast isn't just for morning anymore. These bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches are easy and filling enough to be enjoyed for any meal of the day.

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Honey Balsamic Chicken Marinade

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Honey balsamic chicken marinade is a fast and easy way to get tender, flavorful chicken that will taste like it’s been marinating for days.

When I think of easy weeknight meals, marinating chicken is not the first type of recipe that comes to mind. It seems like a long process, and the idea of making your own marinade from scratch is intimidating. That’s why I reluctantly tried this recipe.

Honey balsamic chicken marinade is a fast and easy way to get tender, flavorful chicken that will taste like it's been marinating for days.

J takes grilled chicken to work every day for lunch; he grills up a batch once a week. I’d been marinating his chicken in salad dressing and his favorite was balsamic vinaigrette. Until we ran out of dressing.

I tried this recipe and J said he loved it. I tried it again with my own tweaks and adjustments and he said it’s the best grilled chicken he’s ever had. Seriously. Now, not only do I not have to buy salad dressing to use as marinade, but I also have a mouthwatering recipe that we can use any night of the week.

Here’s what makes this honey balsamic chicken marinade so special: it contains balsamic vinegar, which actually helps to break down the chicken and leave it more tender in a shorter amount of time. In addition, the ingredients hit all the right flavor notes. The honey and ketchup provide a backdrop of sweetness, the vinegar brings the acid, and the paprika and red pepper flakes introduce just the right amount of heat.

We prefer to grill our chicken. The heat of the grill seals in the juicy flavors and carmelizes the outside of the chicken. Don’t worry though, there’s really no wrong way to prepare chicken that’s been bathed in this marinade.

Honey balsamic chicken marinade is a fast and easy way to get tender, flavorful chicken that will taste like it's been marinating for days.

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How to Make an Awesome Bagel Pizza

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Bagels aren’t just for breakfast anymore. They’re the perfect way to re-purpose leftovers and they please even the pickiest eaters. Here’s how to make an awesome bagel pizza.

Bagels aren't just for breakfast anymore. They're the perfect way to re-purpose leftovers and they please even the pickiest eaters. Here's how to make an awesome bagel pizza.

Hold up. Before you double check to make sure you didn’t inadvertently land at fratguyfood.com, let me explain.

Bagels are a perfectly legitimate thing to eat for dinner. They’re carbs, which will keep you fuller longer, and they come in a huge variety of flavors: whole wheat, onion, everything, blueberry. Not to mention they’re pretty much universally liked, so even the pickiest eaters in your life will find a kind to enjoy.

Even so, this isn’t your average bagel pizza. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve to take these babies to the next level. First, I brush the outside of each half with olive oil and sprinkle it with garlic salt. It creates the perfect crunchy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside bite. Second, I turn the broiler on for the last minute or so of the baking process to really melt the cheese and meld the flavors.

The bagel pizza I made for these photos is a quick take on my jalapeño popper pizza. It’s one of my favorite ways to pizza-up a bagel, but it’s certainly not the only way to do it. I also enjoy a classic pepperoni version with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Really, though, the bagel can just be a vehicle for whatever you want to put on it. Any sauce, no sauce, any cheese, no cheese. It’s the perfect way to remix your leftovers; I’m envisioning fajita fixings piled high and sprinkled with cheese, or last night’s sauteed veggies.

However you plan to rock your bagel pizza, make sure to follow the instructions below for maximum awesomeness.

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salted caramel hot chocolate

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Homemade salted caramel hot chocolate that rivals the coffee chain version. It’s rich and smooth and, if made with almond milk or a similar milk substitute, it comes in at under 200 calories.

Homemade salted caramel hot chocolate that rivals the coffee chain version. It's rich and smooth and, if made with almond milk or a similar milk substitute, it comes in at under 200 calories.

I’m not a coffee drinker, but that doesn’t mean I don’t lament the fact that the nearest Starbucks is 80 miles away. EIGHTY. MILES. This is The South, y’all, and we don’t value our heated caffeine like our Northwest-living counterparts. I don’t even know how for I’d have to go to find the nearest drive-through coffee stand, but it’s far.

The reason I feel the need to whine about my lack of access to a beverage that I don’t even consume? Hot chocolate. Even though I’m not interested in coffee, sometimes I’d give my firstborn- most days, really, I’d probably get more for the second one- for a cup of hot, rich, decadent cocoa.

Don’t even get me started on the powdered packet stuff. Guck. I’ve tried a few homemade recipes, but it seemed like the ones that boasted richness called for melted chocolate and specialty syrups. No thanks. Others claimed to be a substitute for the coffeehouse version, but ended up weak, watery, or bitter.

Homemade salted caramel hot chocolate that rivals the coffee chain version. It's rich and smooth and, if made with almond milk or a similar milk substitute, it comes in at under 200 calories.

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what i learned from my most popular blog posts

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Writing blog posts that people want to read doesn’t just happen; it takes intention and planning. Here’s what I learned from my post popular blog posts.

Writing blog posts that people want to read doesn't just happen; it takes intention and planning. Here's what I learned from my post popular blog posts.

September was a huge month- by my modest standards- for Winstead Wandering. My little blog was viewed more than 10,000 times, and I had a few really popular posts.

I’m beginning to learn that popular posts don’t always happen by chance. Sure, sometimes  a post will explode for seemingly no reason; more often, though, we can analyze the components of a successful post and, at least in part, duplicate that success.

Here’s what I learned from my most popular blog posts of September:

homemade buttermilk ranch dressing

homemade buttermilk ranch dressing8

This is one of my favorite posts because it’s one I continue to make. A lot. As a food blogger, I rarely make the same recipe multiple times because, if I’m going to create something in the kitchen, I want it to be something new that I can share here. This is one recipe that’s sticking around.

what I learned

This post, even though it’s a simple salad dressing recipe, was years in the making. I’ve been dissatisfied with store bought ranch dressing for as long as I can remember. It doesn’t taste anything like the kind you get in restaurants, and that sucks. When I finally decided to make my own, I did it because I wanted a better option. Sharing the recipe here was almost an afterthought.

I learned that you should write what you know. This is something I’ve mentioned before, but the success of this recipe is a great reminder. I didn’t ask readers what recipes they wanted to me to make (although I’ve done that before here); I made a recipe that I knew would make my life better. I shared that recipe here and people happened to agree.

Similar posts: roasted red pepper hummus and easy roasted ranch carrots

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5 foods you should be making at home

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5 foods you should be making at home because it’s cheaper, easier, and better for your family. No, really.

5 foods you should be making at home because it's cheaper, easier, and better for your family. No, really.

I’ve been known to buy convenience foods from time to time (and even write blog posts about them), but I try to make from scratch when it’s realistic. Sometimes I make foods instead of buying them because the homemade version is cheaper. Sometimes it’s because I don’t have easy access to the store-bought variety. Sometimes, it’s because homemade just tastes better.

1. refried beans
I’ve been making these “refried” beans from Pennies and Pancakes for years. Not only are they healthy and easy, but they’re a way better value than the canned variety. When I make a batch of these beans, I freeze them in freezer bags so I can use a little at a time. I love to add them to copycat taco bell mexican pizzas or mason jar taco salad.

2. microwave popcorn

5 foods you should be making at home because it's cheaper, easier, and better for your family. No, really.
After making my own microwave popcorn for several years, I can honestly say there’s no comparison. The homemade version is fresh and flavorful, not to mention completely customized to my preference each time I make it.

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