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Home Fries

February 22, 2016 by Abby

A breakfast favorite, home fries are potato chunks cooked in a little bit of oil and plenty of seasoned salt. This yummy classic couldn’t be easier.

A breakfast favorite, home fries are potato chunks cooked in a little bit of oil and plenty of seasoned salt. This yummy classic couldn't be easier.

It’s no secret that potatoes are one of my great loves. In fact, I was almost embarrassed when I realized three or four of the posts I had planned for January feature potatoes. Almost embarrassed. But not quite because, judging by the popularity of most of my potato-related posts, I’m not the only one who loves them.

Really, what’s not to love? They’re versatile and inexpensive, easy to prepare and not too bad for you (unlike a lot of the things we like to add to them). Sure, this recipe calls for oil, but it’s a pretty small amount; it’s not like we’re deep frying anything. Life is all about perspective, right?

My mom has been making these potatoes for as long as I can remember. They’re a much-requested food for my siblings and I at our birthday dinners, typically paired with her to-die-for homemade chicken strips. I only make them myself on occasion, even though every time I think, “these are so easy. I should make them more often.” The way the exterior develops that crispy crunch while the inside remains soft and fluffy is just mouthwatering.

To be honest, I often make the recipe with only one potato and enjoy these little nuggets as a meal all by themselves. Other times I serve them as a side with supper, to accompany chicken or burgers. Home fries are also perfect for breakfast or, one of our family’s favorites, breakfast-for-dinner. You can serve them with eggs cooked just the way you like, a little bit of salsa and some shredded cheese, and you’ve got a hearty, restaurant-worthy meal.

There’s really no wrong way to serve home fries. Just like the cooking process, the presentation is pretty hard to mess up.

[Read more…]

Easy Weeknight Sausage and Potato Skillet

January 6, 2016 by Abby

Hearty sausage and potatoes come together with the vegetables of your choice to make an easy, crowd-pleasing weeknight meal. Plus, you’ve got to check out the mouthwatering breakfast-for-dinner recipe you can make with this leftover sausage and potato skillet.

Hearty sausage and potatoes come together with the vegetables of your choice to make an easy, crowd-pleasing weeknight meal. Plus, you've got to check out the mouthwatering breakfast-for-dinner recipe you can make with this leftover sausage and potato skillet.

When I’m looking for or brainstorming easy dinner recipes to make for my family, there are few different things that will make me stop and take notice. First and foremost, I’m always on the lookout for easy weeknight meals. I don’t want complicated ingredients or dozens of steps. Sure, there are times I enjoy more involved recipes, but weeknights aren’t one of those times.

If a recipe can be made using one pot only, I’ll definitely give it a second look. I hate making a twenty minute meal and then spending just as long on clean-up. If the process can be streamlined by using the fewest pots and utensils, I’m much more likely to consider trying it.

Lastly, I love when leftovers lend themselves to a recipe redo. For example, I almost use leftover chicken and salsa from easy weeknight chicken tacos to make nachos or quesadillas. The ingredients may be similar, but the flavors and textures are different enough to feel like a new meal. What I especially love about this recipe is how a hearty dinner becomes an easy, filling breakfast.

As you might can imagine, this sausage and potato skillet recipe checked off all the above boxes for me. It’s ready in less than 30 minutes, and it requires only one pot. You could easily speed up the prep process by using two skillets and cooking the sausage and potatoes at the same time, but I prefer to use the cooking time of one ingredient to prep the next.

The round two sausage and potato skillet recipe is super simple. Just add salsa, a little shredded cheese, and a fried egg to a serving of the original recipe and you’re good to go! This would obviously make a quick and filling breakfast, but it’d also me a crowd-pleasing way to serve these leftovers for supper. Basically, when you take a recipe that was delicious to begin with, add the trifecta of cheese, salsa, and an oozing egg, you can’t go wrong.

[Read more…]

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Scones with Maple Glaze

November 4, 2015 by Abby

These moist scones are packed with the warm flavors of pumpkin and chocolate, and drizzled with a rich maple glaze. It doesn’t get any more fall than chocolate chip pumpkin scones with maple glaze.

This recipe originated from my desire to make something that combines my three current favorite flavors. Chocolate is always something I’m in the mood for, and right now I’m just as smitten for all things pumpkin as everyone else seems to be. It’s like we all feel this desperate need to cram 12 months of pumpkin eating into the three months that it’s actually socially acceptable.

And then there’s the maple glaze. I grew up in a small town with the best local donut shop. My all-time favorite donut flavor is maple-frosted. It’s a flavor you can’t find on other baked goods, which is kind of okay with me; it belongs on donuts.

Since moving away and leaving those fabulous donuts behind, I’ve been on the lookout for a local version that might come close. I’ve yet to find it, partially because I’ve never even found another maple-frosted donut. I don’t know why donut shops in the south don’t carry that flavor, but they don’t, which means I don’t get a maple fixed.

Unless I make these scones. Don’t get me wrong, the pumpkin and chocolate in the scone itself is rich and moist, but still dense like a scone should be. They’re great on their own, but the maple glaze makes the pastry. It’s a sweet but deep flavor that complements the pumpkin and chocolate. These scones were a hit with my family, even the ones who don’t feel as strongly about maple as I do.

[Read more…]

Frosted Cranberry White Chocolate Cookie Bars

October 26, 2015 by Abby

A hearty oat cookie bar base, packed with cranberries and white chocolate chips, spread with a thick layer of white chocolate cream cheese frosting, and topped off with more cranberries and a white chocolate drizzle.

Frosted cranberry white chocolate cookie bars taste like home. My mom, whose cookie prowess I’ve mentioned before, makes a cranberry white chocolate oatmeal cookie that’s to die for. Like, good enough to convert cranberry and white chocolate hating people like J. Seriously, her cookies have powers.

So I texted her a couple weeks ago and asked if I could blog that recipe. She didn’t hesitate to send it to me, but the wheels in my head were already turning. My mother-in-law, a darn good cook, too, had mentioned her affection for Starbucks’ cranberry bliss bars. I checked them out and the basic idea reminded me of my mom’s cookies.

So I decided to combine the two. To make my mom’s cookies a little more holiday-friendly, I added cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange zest. I baked them in bar form, as much to save time as to mimic the coffeehouse kind. And then I smothered the whole thing in a decadent white chocolate frosting.

I’ve got to confess that I’ve never had a cranberry bliss bar, but these bars are the definition of bliss (perfect happiness; great joy). Happiness is devouring a generous square of these frosted cranberry white chocolate cookie bars.

[Read more…]

Cinnamon Roll Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

October 19, 2015 by Abby

(this isn’t a sponsored post; I just really love this product)

Pillsbury Traditional Yellow Cake Mix gets a boost with cinnamon and brown sugar. They’re baked until chewy, and then spread with a thick layer of icing for cinnamon roll bars with cream cheese frosting.

Who doesn’t love cinnamon rolls? I know I do, and I even make them on occasion. I’m not afraid to work with yeast and there’s just something about a warm homemade cinnamon roll that defies description.

But this is real life. Sometimes it’s 10 p.m. and you remember, as you’re about to climb into bed, that you promised a group of students you’d feed them at your 7:30 a.m. meeting. And since cinnamon rolls are certainly not happening, you rack your brain for a simpler solution. Something mouth-watering, yes, but something that comes together quickly.

That’s where these cinnamon roll bars come in. The base is Traditional Yellow Cake Mix, so it doesn’t take too many more ingredients for the bars to come together. As soon as you open the bag of cake mix, you’re hit with its rich vanilla-y smell. By the time you add the cinnamon, brown sugar, and other ingredients, your whole kitchen smells like a decadent cinnamon roll.

As I put the bars in the oven, J walked in the kitchen and said, “That smells so good; what did you make?” He was surprised I hadn’t baked anything yet because the kitchen smelled that good. And by the time I pulled the cinnamon roll bars out of the oven, the whole house smelled like cinnamon and sugar.

Sure, you could make this recipe from scratch, but the Pillsbury Traditional Yellow Cake Mix does all the work for you. It delivers deep flavors while doing most of the hard work for you. You get the convenience of a boxed mix with the ability to transform it into something entirely your own.

[Read more…]

glazed strawberry lime scones

September 28, 2015 by Abby

These glazed strawberry lime scones are so light and fluffy! The strawberries baked inside are sweet and juicy, and the lime glaze is the perfect balance of tart and sweet.

Some of my best recipes come to be through a desire to use up expiring ingredients. In this case, I bought a pound of strawberries and promptly forgot about them in the fridge. When I remembered them a few days later, they were just past the eat-them-raw stage. They hadn’t quite moved into completely inedible, though, so I knew I could bake them into something to avoid throwing them away.

I had pinned this scone recipe a few weeks earlier and knew it was just the vehicle for these almost-spoiled berries. Scones have a reputation for being the dry, unappealing cousin of biscuits or coffee cake, but I’m here to tell you that’s not true.

My only experience with scones has been the ones my mom makes, and those are moist, light, and full of flavor. The key to producing a fluffy scone- and not a triangle-shaped hockey puck- is to not over mix your dough. Once you add your wet ingredients to your dry, stir everything just until it’s combined.

These glazed strawberry lime scones are packed with pockets of fresh berries and swirled with lime juice. Before going in the oven, they’re sprinkled with coarse sugar for a sweet crunch. Next, they’re baked until golden and light and then drizzled with a tart sugar lime glaze.

[Read more…]

bacon, egg, and cheese potato waffles

August 31, 2015 by Abby

Bacon, egg, and cheese potato waffles are all your favorite breakfast flavor notes, packed into crunchy waffles that are perfect for any meal of the day.

When I bought the hashbrowns to make this hashbrown crust breakfast pizza, I also bought another bag and tossed it in the freezer. They were on clearance, so I figured I’d find a use for the second one later.

I tossed around a few ideas in my head, but nothing really seemed to pique my interest. And then one day here was this recipe, right in my Pinterest feed, like a gift. I knew, with a few adjustments, these bacon, egg, and cheese potato waffles would be worthy of those extra hashbrowns.

As I was making them, J, who shares my love of all things brinner, came into the kitchen to investigate. Our exchange went something like this:

“Do these have potatoes?”
“Yup.”
“And eggs?”
“Yup.”
“And bacon and cheese?”
“Yup.”
“Wow. That’s all my favorite things.”

If those are your favorite things, too, this recipe needs a place of honor at your table sometime soon. [Read more…]

healthy whole wheat blueberry banana muffins

August 19, 2015 by Abby

Healthy whole wheat blueberry banana muffins are lightly sweetened and packed with moist bananas, sweet applesauce, and juicy blueberries.

Let’s be honest. A real blueberry muffin, the kind with white flour and tons of sugar, is nothing more than an unfrosted cupcake. Sure, we like to pretend that muffins are somehow healthier than cake or cookies, but in most cases, they aren’t.

Except for these. Healthy whole wheat blueberry banana muffins are sweetened mostly with bananas that, along with applesauce, keep the muffins moist in the absence of loads of oil or butter. Regular flour is nixed in favor of a heartier white whole wheat version, and each muffin is dotted with juicy blueberries for a pop of freshness.

These muffins are the best kind of healthy; the kind that doesn’t taste like you’re sacrificing anything.

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better for you triple chocolate banana bread

June 8, 2015 by Abby

Better for you triple chocolate banana bread has no butter, oil, or added sugar- except for the chocolate, of course- while still delivering big on flavor. With sweet, moist bananas and three kinds of chocolate, this bread tastes decadently indulgent.

Several years ago, when we were still living in Oregon, I had a favorite better for you banana bread recipe. When we came back from the beach a couple weeks ago with several overripe bananas, I went in search of that recipe, only to discover that the website had been removed.

Removed.

The author of my absolute favorite all-time best ever better for your banana bread deleted her blog without consulting me. The nerve.

Not to be deterred, I decided I was up to the challenge of re-creating the recipe. After all, I’ve made my share of quick breads– a lot of quick breads– and I remembered the basics of the original recipe.

It took two tries to get things just right, but I had no shortage of willing recipe testers. My sources tell me that this one is a keeper.

[Read more…]

blueberry lemon pound cake with lemon glaze

June 1, 2015 by Abby

I don’t remember fully appreciating the culinary combination that is lemon and blueberries when I was younger. Sure, I loved a good glass of lemonade, and I never turned down a blueberry muffin. But neither flavor was my favorite, and I certainly didn’t willingly pair the two together.

That’s all changed. Now, I actively seek out foods that marry the lovely sweet-tart flavor of berries and the refreshing citrus zest of lemons. And if that food is also topped with a rich glaze flecked with ribbons of lemon zest? Well, then I have to make a pan. Or two.

The original version of this recipe called for more sugar and butter than I felt was necessary. I’ve been known to bring the butter when the recipe really calls for it, but in this case, I felt certain that the whole thing could be lightened up without sacrificing moistness or flavor.

Don’t get me wrong; this recipe is in no way light and healthy. It’s just lighter and healthier than the original version.To make it that way, I took out a stick of butter and used Greek yogurt instead. I also reduced the sugar by a half cup.

The pound cake, on it’s own, is buttery and moist and studded with juicy blueberries. It can hold it’s own as a stand alone treat. But when adding a glaze is an option, I always choose it. Which is why these little guys were finished off with a glaze of powdering sugar, lemon zest and juice, vanilla, and milk. The glaze is just rich enough to stand out against the moist cake, but not so decadent as to overpower it. They play well together.

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