This bacon ranch pasta salad is perfect for any potluck, cookout, or back yard BBQ! This ranch pasta salad recipe is loaded with bacon, tomatoes, peas and topped with a healthy ranch dressing. Make extra - this pasta salad disappears FAST! Does your idea of a summer side dish consist of a creamy, delicious pasta salad? This Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad recipe is fantastic for all of your summer cookouts, potlucks and neighborhood get togethers! Made with simple ingredients, this delicious ranch pasta salad recipe comes together with minimal prep. It's great to make ahead as a side dish served with grilled chicken, burgers, chops and sausage. What do I need to make ranch pasta salad? Here's a quick-reference grocery list of the ingredients you'll need to make this … [Read more...]
Bacon Lovers Baked Beans
BACON LOVERS BAKED BEANS The classic baked beans recipe got an awesome upgrade! These Bacon Lovers Baked Beans and loaded with 1 pound of crisp, delicious bacon along with three types of beans, peppers onions and an amazing sauce. Made in the oven or slow cooker, this easy side dish is a must-have for any cookout, pot-luck, tailgate party or picnic! It's nearly cookout season you guys!! It might be my favorite time of year - things slow down a bit, lawn chairs come out, and friends and family gather together to enjoy great company and food. Anytime there is a cookout, picnic, barbecue or pot-luck, you've got to have an amazing assortment of sides, and baked beans MUST to be one of them! But, it cannot be just any baked beans recipe - my recipe for Bacon … [Read more...]
Roasted Butternut Squash Medley
One of the most flavorful, delicious ways to prepare Roasted Butternut Squash! Roasted with apples, bacon, pecans and shallots, this savory and slightly sweet side-dish is easy enough for a weeknight meal, and fancy enough to accompany your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner! Roasted Butternut Squash Medley with Apples Bacon & Pecans Have you had roasted butternut squash recently? As soon as fall rolls around, this delicious and flavorful squash begins to appear in the grocery stores and farmers markets. It is a fantastic golden vegetable that pairs perfectly with beef, pork and poultry, but especially turkey! That's right - when roasted with a few other sweet and savory ingredients, this butternut squash becomes an amazing side dish that will be a … [Read more...]
Shrimp & Bacon Alfredo Pizza
The ultimate pizza for Alfredo lovers! Loaded with tender shrimp, crisp bacon and lots of cheese, this pizza is the perfect way to enjoy all your favorite flavors on one delicious slice! Do you and your family love homemade pizza? I have to say that we cannot get enough! We also love making different variations of our favorites - this Shrimp & Bacon Alfredo is the brainchild of one of our many pizza experiments! White pizza (any pizza that uses a white or Alfredo sauce instead of a red pizza sauce) is one that my family, especially my 7-year-old son, absolutely loves! There is something about the sauce that creates this amazing canvas for the toppings! The Alfredo sauce melts right in with the mozzarella cheese and creates one gooey, cheesy … [Read more...]
Shrimp Bacon and Corn Chowder
Shrimp and his best friend bacon team up together in this amazing soup! Loaded with flavor, this soup is a must-have on a cold fall or winter night. Its the ultimate comfort food! I know I've said it before, but its worth noting again; I'm pretty much always looking for and trying new dinner recipes. They need to be easy to make, quick to prepare, include simple ingredients and on the healthier side for my family. Can you relate? Once I come across something that's easy for me to prepare and my family enjoys it, I consider it a dinner victory! This Shrimp Bacon & Corn Chowder is my latest dinner victory! This soup is fabulous in so many ways! The ingredients are simple, and items that I usually have on hand in my pantry and fridge. The celery, onion and garlic … [Read more...]
Smokey Apple & Bacon Quesadillas
Sweet and savory. For me, this is one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations. I'm always trying to come up with new, easy and flavorful things to make for lunch or snacks, and my son is a big fan of quesadillas. So I decided to mix it up a bit, and come up with a sweet, crunchy, savory quesadilla that would work as a snack, lunch or even breakfast. This Smokey Apple & Bacon Quesadilla is perfect!! The smokey aspect of this quesadilla comes from the creamy, delicious smoked Gouda. I absolutely love this cheese! It adds such a great smokey, savory flavor to just about anything you're cooking. (PS - It's my favorite cheese to top a burger!) Paired with the crisp, slightly tart Granny Smith apple, and thick-cut crisply cooked … [Read more...]
White Pizza with Bacon and Tomatoes
A pizza-lovers dream! Loaded with cheesy Alfredo sauce and topped with fresh, delicious tomatoes, onions, basil and savory bacon, this pizza is perfect for pizza night or for an easy dinner solution any night of the week! Is it me, or do I have the only kid in America that doesn't eat pizza? Isn't pizza one of those foods that kids go crazy for? My husband and I love it, but our 6-year-old son would rather go without eating than grabbing a slice. Therefore, it has become a small mission of mine to create a pizza that my son will enjoy just as much as his parents. I decided to make a pizza that uses an Alfredo sauce, instead of a red sauce (which is what he says he doesn't like.) Topped with some seriously delicious toppings: cheese, bacon, red … [Read more...]
Deviled Egg Potato Salad
Looking for an amazing potato salad recipe? This amazing Deviled Egg Potato Salad is absolutely amazing! Made with a fantastic mustard-based dressing, this bacon and egg potato salad will be the perfect side dish for your summer cookouts and back yard barbecues! There seems to be millions of potato salad recipes out there. Everyone's aunt and grandma has one that they swear by. I'll be honest, I've never been super impressed with potato salad....until I made this one! A good potato salad recipe must have three superior components - a quality dressing, the right potatoes and eggs. For this bacon and egg potato salad, we add crisp-cooked bacon for another component that brings the flavor to a whole new level! In this post, I'll show you what potatoes are best for potato … [Read more...]
Thin Crust Smokehouse Pizza
Smokey bacon, ham, red and green onions and plenty of cheese top this delicious thin crust pizza! The perfect dinner option for any night of the week! Well, I don't know about you, but we've had quite the winter! Multiple snow days for my son, (so many they are having to make up days on previously scheduled holidays!), lots of snow, and some treacherous, albeit, quite beautiful icy days. Here in the mid-atlantic part of the country, when the forcast calls for snow, even just a little bit, people get a little nuts! They storm the grocery stores packing their carts full of milk, bread, toilet paper and beer, planning for the worst. Today we had another snow storm. This storm was easily the biggest of the season, and as far as snow fall is concerned, we got around … [Read more...]
Twice-Baked Chicken, Bacon & Ranch Potatoes
Leftovers - love 'em or leave 'em? I go back and forth all the time. I mostly love them. I learned, very early in my life, to cook for a crowd. I am one of four kids, so growing up I was usually helping cook a large meal that would feed at least six people for dinner. Portions were large, as my brothers could easily eat enough for two people. Now that I have a small family (just three of us), I tend to still cook like there are six people in the house. Over the years, I have learned to gradually scale back the amount of food I cook, but there is usually still way more food for just one meal. Thus, leftovers! The part of "leftovers" that I love is the fact that there is no food prep involved for making another meal. Yesss!!! That equates to a major time savor. And any … [Read more...]