Brunch

Watermelon Juice with Lime and Mint

June 22, 2021 by Lindsay 3 Comments

The best homemade mocktail for summer! Homemade watermelon water (or watermelon juice) blended with lime and fresh mint is the most refreshing, hydrating, electrolyte-packed drink to sip on. It's a homemade agua fresca in 15 minutes, done and done!

top view of watermelon water with mint leaves

For summer! A drink. A refreshing drink.

I loathe the Starbucks refreshers. I realize that's a harsh word considering I've never actually had one, but I can all but guarantee they're full of sugar and also refresh isn't a noun and shouldn't be made into one. Is my opinion.

But! This blended watermelon drink is actually refreshing. It is incredibly light, incredibly quick to throw together, and so very good for you.

I first had this years ago at the yoga studio where I worked; we called it watermelon tonic and it appeared all summer every summer. Watermelon and lime are a great combination, the ingredients are good and good for you, and fresh mint just screams summer to me.

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Easy Olive Oil Banana Bread

May 20, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Super easy banana bread with olive oil and just 7 ingredients! This is the best ever moist banana bread, Hawaiian style banana bread, that you'll make again and again. It's become a 100% go-to recipe for a meal prep snack for the week or potluck brunch item.

hawaiian style banana bread with olive oil

YUMYUMYUM.

I would like it to be known how freaking excellent this olive oil banana bread is. I've been adding olive oil to lots of baked goods recently, for the main reason that I Don't Usually Have Other Oil In The House. I don't know why, I just don't think to buy it regularly like other ingredients.

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Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls

April 13, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Yummy, EASY mini puff pastry cinnamon rolls made in a mini-muffin tin! These shortcut cinnamon rolls are perfect for a small dessert or snack for a baby shower or Mother's Day brunch. They have all the flavor of cinnamon rolls in flaky crust with no yeast, rising, or kneading.

What's it called when it's definitely baking in that we turn the oven on, but very low effort?

That's what I think of every time I use frozen puff pastry.

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Homemade Pimento Cheese

April 6, 2021 by Lindsay 1 Comment

This old fashioned pimento cheese recipe is absolutely perfect! I love to have pimento cheese homemade with lots of storebought ingredients (crackers, cheese, pickles, etc) for an easy cheese board at a party or for a snack plate dinner! This is extra delicious paired with some homemade focaccia for dunking.

OK SO.

Let us discuss the glory that is pimento cheese, since it's Master's Weekend and we live in the South. Since I started this blog I've made a LOT of pimento cheese, and have tweaked the recipe over the years to a combination that I absolutely adore.

Other people adore it too, and that's not something I say about a lot of the food I make, because I'm insecure. Pimento cheese homemade, though, is something that people of all walks of life really enjoy when it is good. Back when we used to cater this was one of our most-ordered recipes, hands down.

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5-Ingredient Ham and Cheese Quiche

April 1, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Easy ham and cheese quiche recipe with my favorite basic quiche recipe! Use your favorite melty cheese, some savory ham, and enjoy this brunch recipe that is done in just about an hour (mostly hands off). I serve this with my favorite green salad, but this is also a great addition to a Mother's Day Brunch or Easter Brunch spread!

Ooohhhh I'm loving this spring, friends.

Spring is a really nice time for a pandemic to think about ending, you know? We're still in it, for sure, but we're also seeing signs of life. A little more color, a little more vibrancy, all around.

Spring is a great time to bring out some new brunch recipes because Easter and Mother's Day just really go great with a nice brunch, you know? I LOVE a quiche for any kind of brunch (or lunch, or dinner), but ham and cheese quiche may very well be one of my favorite flavors.

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Cracker Barrel Hashbrown Casserole

July 14, 2020 by Lindsay 8 Comments

This copycat Cracker Barrel hashbrown casserole is the perfect cheesy, tangy, creamy hashbrown casserole from the popular chain restaurant! This can be made in advance and baked in the morning for brunch, or eaten as a side dish all week long! Pro Tip: This is really really really good with Cajun Glazed Bacon on the side!

Oh, hey.

Cracker Barrel Hashbrown Casserole Copycat Recipe from funnyloveblog.com

How are you doing on restaurant food? Back in restaurants? Outside? Inside? More takeout than you've ever imagined? Missing everything like whoa?

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Easiest No-Knead Bread In A Dutch Oven

July 1, 2020 by Lindsay 15 Comments

Mark Bittman's no-knead bread (easy dutch oven bread) is the easiest, most foolproof path to artisan-style bread at home with just 4 ingredients and a little time. No special equipment, no kneading, this is the best homemade bread ever!

Mark Bittman does it again! I have been waiting and waiting to show you this.

Much like my favorite pancakes that we make at least weekly, this homemade no-knead bread recipe was a real game-changer for me.

It of course started in quarantine, as so many carb endeavors have, but I waited a few months to write about it because I wanted to be sure it worked every.single.time.

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Chicken {tater} Tot Pie

April 1, 2020 by Lindsay 4 Comments

This chicken pot pie variation is made with a tater tot crust, is super easy to make, and is the best comfort food for weeknights or weekends! Midwesterners call this hotdish, any creamy dreamy casserole filling + a tater tot crust. The filling can be made in advance for meal prep and frozen tater tots take all the guesswork out of making your own pie crust for chicken pot pie.

Oh oh oh oh HELL YES.

I am so excited for you to eat this.

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Meal Prep Quiche

December 3, 2019 by Lindsay 2 Comments

Hello and welcome to the middle weeks!

There is still school. There are still chores. We're still working. But we're in the MOOD for holiday stuff, right? It's busier, there are more activities, more opportunities to not keep up the great habits we've spent all year building. Meal prep quiche is here to save us from takeout temptation.

This is another version of my absolute favorite quiche that I shared several weeks ago - the Kale Roasted Red Pepper Quiche that dreams are made of. Here, we have options because we need our quiche to be exactly how we want it every single time. Meal prep quiche is the best kind of quiche, basically.

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Kale and Red Pepper Quiche {vegetarian}

October 15, 2019 by Lindsay 3 Comments

Mmmmm, HELLO.

I shared last weekend that I made a bunch of quiches for a family gathering, and, not to toot my own horn, but they were suuuuuuper yum. I'm a sucker for a good quiche. The creamy eggy cheesy filling, some add-ins to make it your own, flaky buttery crust? All good things, yes they are.

My favorite quiche base recipe comes from my brother-in-law, Joe. I change the fillings and cheese every time based on who I'm serving and what I feel like, but the measurements stay the same and the possibilities are endless.

This particular super easy quiche features chopped kale, roasted red peppers, and crumbled feta. Nothing needs to be cooked in advance and the peppers come from a jar, so effort is minimal while the resulting quiche is nearly perfect.

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Brown Butter Pumpkin Blondies

October 8, 2019 by Lindsay 7 Comments

This recipe for pumpkin blondies is similar to the best ever brown butter blondies that we love so much, with added pumpkin and fall spices for an easy fall twist on this delicious dessert! We make these pumpkin blondies in advance - they keep great in the fridge for about a week or in the freezer for even longer.

Got you some seasonal ish, right here.

I am having a season of easy blondies recipes. Since Beck has been old enough to vaguely care about helping in the kitchen I find that I enjoy baking more and more BUT, baking tends to take a lot of time, and Beck's attention span is approximately 47 seconds.

So I'm always on the hunt for quick dessert recipes - things that don't have a ton of ingredients or use a mixer, that sort of thing. Like my absolute favorite brownies: those are worth her attention.

Cue: Brown Butter Pumpkin Blondies.

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Gluten Free 7-Ingredient Banana Cake

August 22, 2019 by Lindsay 4 Comments

I am not gluten free. But! A lot of people are, and all of the kinds of people in this world should be allowed to eat cake. Yummy cake. Intentional cake. Cake with chocolate chips on top of it that are slightly melted like icing.

This recipe came to me via Instagram; someone that I hadn't heard of before posted the recipe and it included almond flour which I HAPPENED to have a bag of in my freezer, among other gluten free ingredients that need a home.

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Summery Caprese Cobb Salad with Grilled Chicken

August 6, 2019 by Lindsay 1 Comment

A summertime recipe for cobb salad that includes grilled chicken AND corn plus caprese salad ingredients with fresh, juicy tomatoes, mozzarella, and a super easy basil pesto salad dressing that is out of this world delish. This is also a great meal prep kale salad!

Oh hello, here's a salad we can SINK OUR TEETH INTO. Finally.

I'm all about a main dish salad. I order them often in restaurants because I want to, not because I'm punishing myself for something or feel like I should. BUT, the salad's gotta be a good one. House made dressings, fun protein choices, crunchy things, etc. If salads on a menu don't look good, I'm heading straight for ordering a dinner entree during brunch because the smothered chicken is just always so legit, right?

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Mustard Nicoise Salad

March 26, 2019 by Lindsay 1 Comment

Oh, hey.

Here is a nicoise salad that is full of texture and interest, can be meal prepped or served warm/room temperature, includes veggies and carbs and protein, and has a to-die-for flavor base. So that checks a lot of boxes.

Salads-as-boring is kind of a tired old story, but maybe a truthful one nonetheless. I'm always looking for salads with lots of STUFF on them. One of my favorite things to order at delis is a salad sampler kind of thing, and nicoise salads are that way naturally.

I've seen lots of versions of nicoise salads - some with rice instead of potatoes, fresh tuna instead of canned, and lots of have olives and eggs. I don't like eggs and Jay doesn't like olives, so you understand why those two items are missing here.

The KEY to this salad is that we make one mustard base, then use it in different ways in the tuna, green beans, potatoes, AND salad dressing. This takes some steps out of the dish since we don't have to make all separate sauces, and each component tastes slightly different while also belonging together from the mustard.

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Make for Christmas: Breakfast Cookies

December 13, 2018 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Today! I want to start planning our Christmas menu because we have less than two weeks to go, AND start thinking of some items that would be good to have kind of...around...for snacking and random meals and something to prevent eating sugar cookies for breakfast.

Instead, breakfast cookies! And Beck in her jammies. Makes sense.

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French Onion Fillo Bites

December 11, 2018 by Lindsay 1 Comment

Omg Baby It's Cold Outside and also the controversy about that song. Currently not ok and also historically fine because that's how people used to be/talk/sing, I think. I've noticed that people have a really hard time with two emotions coexisting, probably will be a theme of mine in 2019, talking about that more.

So how are you? We had an awesome-but rainy birthday weekend for Beck, and then the snow wrecked havoc on our little city because we aren't really equipped to manage it. Lots of people lost power for over 24 hours and we are on day three of no internet, which is NOT IDEAL for 1. TV watching and 2. working from home, which we both do. But we are managing, thanks to severely reduced expectations and mobile hotspots.

Tonight, though, we are GOING TO SEE HAMILTON. And also it is going to be 50 degrees and we are going to have a fabulous dinner beforehand. I have been looking forward to this night for so very long, and I've already heard great things about the tour we're seeing. It feels like an awesome time of year to get to see such a special show - chilly and decorated downtown and everything feeling so very festive. Festive like these! French Onion Fillo Bites, and get off me about how to spell it. There are three (maybe more) spellings used interchangeably on the internet and the box of pastry cups I used say Fillo, so that's what we're going with. These are super simple and involve a wildly delicious caramelized onion filling topped with sharp cheese. That is stuffed into premade pastry cups (that I love using this time of year) and baked, and everything gets ooey gooey and just makes the most delicious one-bite snack. I love these for parties or as a starter to a fancier meal, and honestly keeping some of the onion mixture around to spread on crostini wouldn't be a terrible idea at all. ...

Leftover Mashed Potato Cakes + Apple Syrup

November 20, 2018 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Continuing our leftover plan for the week! I feel like sometimes there are LOTS of leftovers of certain casseroles, especially heavier things. Maybe it's just our family, but if you make an 8-person casserole or side dish BUT there are 97 side dishes and people only eat a few spoonfuls of each thing....leftovers.

Like mashed potatoes! That we are going to fry into patties and top with stewed apples, latke-style. If these are inauthentic enough, feel free to re-purpose the idea for Hanukkah. Here's the recipe that I used for this batch of potato cakes.

Since Beck has gotten big enough to care we usually do a breakfast all together one or two days per week - usually on weekends when Jay is with us, but also sometimes Mondays call for pancakes made with all white flour and extra butter, and I'm not above that at all. I'm REALLY hoping to score some leftover mashed potatoes this week to make these on Saturday. They're super easy to make and you could definitely form them the night before and fry them right before breakfast, maybe throw some bacon in a skillet just for good measure.

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Leftover Cranberry Turkey Salad

November 19, 2018 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

YUM YUM YUM.

I've said it a gazillion times, but turkey is definitely not my favorite part of Thanksgiving. Appetizers and casseroles and wine are. Clearly.

I think that's because turkey can be underwhelming, or dry, and it DEFINITELY doesn't hold up as well in terms of leftovers like, say, some kind of buttery cheesy casserole does. Leftover turkey can be chewy and tough and just bland, but I'm NOT here to celebrate food waste, ever. So we had to do something wonderful with leftover turkey.

Add mayo, obviously was the answer. This turkey salad is so different from roast turkey from Thanksgiving day, and the addition of cranberries livens up the flavor for such a fun different twist. This would be so yummy for a brunch sometime this weekend, or on crackers/with greens for lunch or a snack. Plus: it's pink!...

Blueberry Breakfast Cookies

October 23, 2018 by Lindsay 2 Comments

This is of many things currently in my freezer that I'm trying SUPER hard to not eat until after the baby is born, easier said than done. I've been trying to make a thing or two each week to put in the freezer before the baby is born. Mostly I've done sauces to use in quick meals, I froze a bit of slow cooker pork for tacos, and some oatmeal-heavy breakfast-meets-dessert stuff is high on the list for the sake of not just eating a half loaf of bread each morning AND because oatmeal is supposed to be great for lactation but I don't usually run for bowls of straight oatmeal so. Cookies instead!

This particular inspiration came from the fact that I had some frozen blueberries leftover from my sister's inlaw's yard this summer (riddle me that). Part of all this freezer cooking is that we are using up stuff that was already languishing, so I used something from the freezer to make something for the freezer, which is pretty much like saving for retirement, right? Tres meta.

This recipe came straight from Sally's Baking Addiction, and I doubled it and added chocolate chips because chocolate is probably definitely important for lactation.

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Quick + Easy Focaccia

October 18, 2018 by Lindsay 8 Comments

I couldn't wait. As promised, after we watched the first episode of Salt Fat Acid Heat (why are the episodes not in the order of the words in the title?), all I could think about was making focaccia. Ok maybe more all I could think about was eating focaccia, because the filming of the episode was so lovely and the language used with the imagery was just so compelling, I NEEDED to experience salty, oily-in-a-good-way bread ASAP.

The obvious hiccup being that I 1. don't bake and 2. have literally never made anything with yeast. Ever. And if we're being honest, 37 weeks pregnant with a messy house and full-time toddler and part-time job is really not the time to get all LET'S TRY NEW THINGS. Having a second child is new enough. Eating bread was the goal. Luckily, I had a package of pizza dough in the fridge that had all but tripled in size in the few days it had been in my fridge. Tripled! I bought it on a whim thinking that I'd make pizza for Beck as a treat, but I hadn't done so yet or told her about it, so I took to the interwebs to see if other people make focaccia with pizza dough.

THEY DO.

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