Busy Day Ground Beef and Potatoes

This simple and delicious one pot recipe features ground beef and potatoes cooked together with flavorful seasonings for an easy and hearty meal. Perfect for a busy weeknight dinner!

This is a recipe Cade and I would make when we first got married and lately I’ve been in the biggest cooking rut. It’s not even that I don’t want to cook, it’s just that nothing feels inspiring and nothing sounds good. So, I’ve been going back to my roots and making some simple comfort foods that everyone will eat and take no brain cells from me.

Ingredients for Ground Beef and Potatoes

Onion and peppers taste good when you pair them with classic ground beef and potatoes! We add a few seasonings and you have an easy ground beef dinner recipe they whole family will love. Here are all the ingredients you need:

• Canola Oil: helps cook the potatoes until golden and crispy
• Yukon Gold Potatoes: you can peel them or not and dice them into 1/4-inch cubes
• Ground Beef: I usually go with 85/15 for good flavor. You can use more lean ground beef if desired, or substitute it with ground turkey or ground chicken.
• Onion: just a yellow onion works great
• Red Bell Pepper: you could also grab a yellow or orange bell pepper
• Worcestershire Sauce: adds rich umami flavor
• Ketchup: adds flavor and a touch of sweetness
• Liquid Smoke: adds smokiness
• Dijon Mustard: adds flavor
• Seasonings: Smoked Paprika, Garlic Powder, Dried Oregano, Kosher Salt and Ground Black Pepper
• Parsley: adds a fresh pop of flavor

How to Make Skillet Ground Beef and Potatoes

You only need one pan to make this family-friendly meal! Grab your cast iron skillet and let’s get cookin’!

1. Brown the Potatoes: Add oil to a large cast iron skillet and heat over high heat. when the oil is shimmering, reduce the heat to medium high and add the potatoes. Season them with salt and stir to coat. Let them cook until browned, stir often until the potatoes are tender.
2. Cook the Ground Beef: Remove the potatoes from the skillet and add the ground beef and break it up to cook.
3. Sauté the Onions and Peppers: Push the meat to the sides of the pan and add the onions. Stir until they soften and then add the bell peppers and cook until soft. Drain any grease if needed.
4. Combine: Add all the rest of the ingredients (including the potatoes) to the large skillet and continue to cook until the potatoes are tender.
5. Season: Give the dish one last hit of salt and pepper until you get the flavor you want. Serve it hot and top it with some fresh parsley.

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Welcome to the weekend, my friends! It’s chilly outside, and this feels like an excellent day for a waffle brunch. We like all kinds of waffles – from sweet to savory (I’m looking at you today, ham and cheese waffles), so it’s unlikely I’ll have any complaints from my family if I break out the waffle iron. And since I happen to have some leftover rosemary in the fridge? There’s also certain to be a batch of the best ever sausage gravy to pour over some of the waffles. (Can you tell I woke up HUNGRY today?!)

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Creamy cheesy polenta is love at first bite! Buttery, soul-satisfying, and creamy, this cheese-laden polenta is perfect served alone or topped with any braised meat, vegetables, or stew. 

Hands down, my favorite way to serve polenta is with chile verde. This Mexican pork and tomato chile verde and classic pork chile verde are what my comfort food dreams are made of these days.

Want to turn a simple head of cabbage into a side dish that will actually be enjoyed? This Cajun cabbage recipe does just that. It is bright and tender-crisp, with a kick that will have your taste buds smiling.

‘Tis the season and these thick and soft iced pumpkin cookies are an awesome way to welcome fall. The oatmeal in these cookies helps add a bit of nutty chewiness to these pumpkin cookies.

And if you love cozy fall flavors, this pumpkin sheet cake with brown butter icing is about to rock your pumpkin-spice-loving world.

If you can’t get enough of the fall flavors, this sweet potato ice cream is about to blow your mind. Once you take a bite, you’ll understand. It turns out that sweet potato ice cream tastes like frozen pumpkin pie.

What I’m CRAVING: I’ve spent this week craving soups and the breads to dip in them, so tonight’s dinner plan is a big pot of this creamy vegetable soup and a basket of easy drop biscuits. 

And if I wind up getting just a little more ambitious while I’m in the kitchen, Tricia’s Bakewell Tart is on my must-make-soon list. If you adore almonds and almond-flavored things as much as I do, it should probably be on your list too.

My FAVORITE THING this week is my ne

Creamy Garlic Parmesan Broccoli and Cauliflower with Bacon

This indulgent Creamy Garlic Parmesan Broccoli and Cauliflower with Bacon makes the most amazing side dish. It’s a one skillet recipe filled with tender cauliflower and vibrant broccoli simmering in a creamy garlic sauce topped off with gooey cheese and crispy bacon! I can’t wait for dinner!

Upgrade your vegetable game with this delicious and easy recipe for creamy garlic parmesan broccoli and cauliflower topped with crispy bacon. Perfect for an easy side dish or even as a meal on its own.

Ingredients for Creamy Garlic Parmesan Broccoli and Cauliflower

There is so much flavor and creaminess packed into this dish, it almost seems like you aren’t even eating vegetables! Haha! Not that eating vegetables is bad! I love vegetables! But load them up with bacon and garlic and all sorts of cheese and even my picky kiddos eat them! Here is everything you need:

• Bacon: I found thick bacon worked the best, but it adds a lot of grease so make sure you follow the recipe and remove some before adding the butter.
• Butter: I prefer unsalted so that I can control the saltiness a little more.
• Onions: Regular yellow onion is great.
• Broccoli and Cauliflower Florets: The stars of the dish!
• Garlic: adds flavor
• Kosher Salt: adds flavor
• Aleppo Pepper: Aleppo Pepper is a must on top. That tiny fleck of sweet heat takes this dish to a whole new level. It’s not spicy, but it adds that wonderful flavor like a spice would.
• Heavy Cream: adds all the rich creaminess to the sauce
• Lemon Juice: adds a pop of freshness that takes this dish to a new level
• Mozzarella Cheese and Parmesan Cheese: We tried other cheeses like monterey jack and cheddar but the flavor was off with the garlic.

How to Make Creamy Broccoli and Cauliflower

Let’s walk through each step of making this indulgent vegetables dish…

1. Cook: Fry the bacon until crispy in an oven safe pan over medium heat. Once cooked, remove the bacon from the pan to a plate lined with paper towels. Drain most of the bacon grease.
2. Preheat: start the broiler
3. Sauté: Melt the butter in the skillet and add the onions. Cook it until transparent stirring occasionally.
4. Add: Place the broccoli, cauliflower and garlic and season with salt and pepper and toss everything together. Cook until the broccoli is bright green and fork tender.
5. Simmer: Pour the cream in and then reduce the heat to medium low and let it summer until the sauce thickens.
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If you can’t get enough of the fall flavors, this sweet potato ice cream is about to blow your mind. Once you take a bite, you’ll understand. It turns out that sweet potato ice cream tastes like frozen pumpkin pie.

Sweet Potato Ice Cream

The natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes, combined with that warm cinnamon spice and brown sugar, makes this dessert feel like fall in an ice cream scoop.

I have to tell you, the texture of this ice cream is unreal. It’s velvety smooth, creamy, and perfectly scoopable. It’s great on its own, topped with whipped cream, sprinkled with pralines, or served with a slice of pie.

Unusual Ice Cream Flavors

I know, I know, sweet potato ice cream? What’s next? Pickle ice cream? Mac and cheese ice cream? Jalapeno ice cream? Wait. I already made those.

Creamy sweet vanilla ice cream filled with crunchy, nutty Grape Nuts? Yes, please! Grape-Nut ice cream has been an absolute win with family and friends.

Creamy smooth ice cream bursting with buttery popcorn flavor? Is that too crazy an idea? Absolutely not. One taste is all it will take to make a popcorn ice cream believer out of you too.

Oh. My. Word. When I had the initial idea for this flavor, it was loosely inspired by my love for this caramel popcorn ice cream sundae. I had no clue at the time just how fantastic that ice cream idea would turn out to be.

And to finish off the, yes, we did that and you really need to try it list, how about a tray of ice cream nachos? I’m telling you, the kids go crazy over them.

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There aren’t many things that can beat a big pot of pork chile verde simmering on the stove. It fills the house with the kind of aroma that makes you hungry long before it’s ready.

Made with pork shoulder, roasted tomatillos, poblano and jalapeno peppers, Pork Chile Verde is hearty, New Mexican comfort food. When it all comes together, the result is melt-in-your-mouth pork coated in the most delicious green chile sauce you can imagine.

Pork Chile Verde

It does take a little time, but that’s part of the beauty of chile verde. This is a recipe that rewards patience. It’s the kind of dish you make when you want your house to smell incredible all afternoon. Most of the time is hands-off, while the pork simmers in a broth infused with onions, garlic, cumin, and oregano until it’s fork-tender.

Towards the end of that simmering time, you’ll pop the tomatillos and peppers under the broiler to bring out their smoky, slightly sweet flavors. Toss those roasted vegetables into the blender along with the cilantro, and turn it into the chile verde sauce that is going to transform that tender pork.

Chile Verde Pork

You’ll need the following ingredients to make this recipe:

• 4 pounds boneless pork shoulder
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large yellow onion
• 6 cloves garlic 
• 2 teaspoons ground
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 3 cups water
• 1 tablespoon chicken base
• 2 pounds fresh tomatillos 
• 4 fresh poblano chiles 
• 2 fresh jalapeno peppers 
• ½ bunch fresh cilantro

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