Welcome to the weekend, my friends! We’ve been in Arizona for the past couple of days, getting ready for our annual family camping trip, and I sure am looking forward to the cooler weather up in the mountains. Want a peek at some of our past camping trips? You can find them all here. 

With 7 siblings and a whole lot of nieces and nephews now, camping has proven to be the easiest way to get us all together in one place. Not everyone makes it every year, but even when our crowd is smaller, it’s still a whole lot of fun.

ON THE BLOGS this week:  The best ever BBQ Meatloaf is here to add variety to your dinner table! Take an easy meatloaf recipe and make it even better with the addition of tangy barbecue sauce and bacon.

Jalapenos and cheddar cheese make this Jalapeno Popper Potato Salad a guaranteed win. With a creamy, spicy dressing and smoky bites of bacon and egg throughout the salad, it’s a crowd favorite.

Crisp broccoli florets mingle with savory bites of smoky bacon, tangy cheddar cheese, and zesty red onion in this awesome broccoli salad. Each bite offers a delightful balance of textures and a terrific combination of rich, creamy, and savory notes.

Juicy, salty kielbasa sausage and tender-crisp cabbage is a match made in food heaven. With the addition of some chopped onions and garlic, this Sausage Stir Fry becomes a simple one-pan dinner the whole family loves.

A quick and easy, flavorful side dish is only a few minutes away with this Bell Pepper Rice recipe. Combining jasmine rice, fresh bell peppers, and chicken (or vegetable) stock, this rice is a staple in our house.

Crispy tortillas, sweet corn, and gooey cheese combine to create these flavorful, hearty Mexican Street Corn Quesadillas. Whether served as a midday snack or a last-minute dinner option, the whole family is sure to love these quesadillas.

Fluffy Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes layered with sweet strawberry compote, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream are a breakfast dream come true.

Creamy Cookie Monster Ice Cream filled with chunks of Oreo and chocolate chip cookies is a hit with all cookie-loving kids and adults!

What I’m CRAVING: Watermelon Margaritas are calling my name. Fresh watermelon meets Serrano peppers along with a splash of tequila to make this unforgettable drink. They’re a little bit spicy and a litte bit

Creamy cookie monster ice cream filled with chunks of Oreo and chocolate chip cookies is a hit with all cookie-loving kids and adults!

Blue Cookie Monster Ice Cream

What is cookie monster ice cream? Sweet vanilla ice cream is absolutely loaded with cookie chunks to create this ice cream. It’s cookie monster’s version of cookies and cream ice cream and it has been a win with everyone who tries it.

Not a fan of food dyes? Just skip the blue coloring. The ice cream tastes every bit as delicious with or without it.

I highly recommend serving this ice cream in cones, preferably Oreo or chocolate chip cookie ice cream cones if you can find them in the grocery store, for the ultimate cookie monster ice cream flavor!

Cookie Monster Ice Cream

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

• heavy cream
• milk
• sugar
• kosher salt
• vanilla extract
• blue food coloring OPTIONAL
• chocolate sandwich cookies
• chocolate chip cookies

The most popular question I get is whether it’s possible to make ice cream without a machine. The answer is YES. You can make ice cream without a machine. Find the full directions here!

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Jalapenos and cheddar cheese make this Jalapeno Popper Potato Salad a guaranteed win. With a creamy, spicy dressing and smoky bites of bacon and egg throughout the salad, it’s a crowd favorite.

Jalapeno Popper Potato Salad

I’ve been playing with the idea of combining the spicy flavors of jalapeno poppers with the creamy goodness of potato salad for some time now, and I’m glad to say that this recipe is a hit.

While traditional jalapeno poppers are made with cream cheese, we weren’t big fans of the cream cheese flavor in the first recipe attempt I tested for this potato salad.

So, in lieu of the cream cheese, I’ve bumped up the cheddar cheese here and the potato salad earns two thumbs up from everyone now.

If you want some extra heat, toss in a generous portion of sliced jalapenos in addition to the finely chopped jalapenos in the dressing. I typically add an additional 2-3 tablespoons of sliced jalapenos to our salad.

Be aware that the heat in this salad will increase after resting overnight in the refrigerator. When I tasted the salad again after storing it for the night, my tastebuds were surprised – and this officially became my oldest son’s favorite potato salad due to that extra heat.

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The best ever BBQ Meatloaf is here to add variety to your dinner table! Take an easy meatloaf recipe and make it even better with the addition of tangy barbecue sauce and bacon.

Meatloaf with Bacon

We all know the saying, right? Does bacon make everything better in your world too? While you can certainly make this without the bacon, and it’s admittedly tasty that way too, we love it in this bacon meatloaf.

I love the comforting familiarity of meatloaf. That said, it doesn’t have a reputation for being the most exciting of dinners. This meatloaf with bbq sauce is anything but boring.

You only need a handful of ingredients to make this bacon meatloaf and the result is every bit as delicious as the more complicated traditional recipes.

Oh! And guess what? I have also made this with pre-cooked and crumbled bacon and it works beautifully that way.

BBQ Meatloaf

Once you assemble the ingredients, this BBQ meatloaf recipe takes hardly any time to prepare and most of the cooking time is hands-off. The barbecue sauce provides terrific flavor for the glaze and it is something I always have on hand – making it a very simple meal to pull together.

We are big fans of meatloaf here and this barbecue sauce glazed meatloaf is a new favorite. I first tried a bbq sauce glaze on meatloaf with this very simple five ingredient meatloaf recipe.

That recipe quickly became a go-to super fast meal to pull together, but I’ll tell you now that adding just a few more spices and seasonings takes it to a whole new level. And bacon, let’s not forget the smoky awesomeness that a handful (or three) of chopped bacon delivers.

Serve slices of BBQ meatloaf with mashed potatoes and your favorite vegetable sides, like grilled corn, sauteed Brussels sprouts, or asparagus. Get juicy, flavorful, tender meatloaf on the table tonight with this easy bbq bacon meatloaf dinner!

Leftover meatloaf can be wrapped up and kept in the fridge for up to 2 days. Leftover meatloaf is wonderful served on bread or rolls the next day for BBQ meatloaf sandwiches.

My kids have even been known to sneak a slice of leftover meatloaf str

Thai Peanut Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Crisp cold lettuce wrapped around saucy flavorful turkey…and you have our favorite Thai peanut turkey lettuce wraps! A healthy and delicious appetizer or light dinner.

I love these turkey lettuce wraps!  Years ago I was living in Chicago and we all went out to PF Changs for dinner. Everyone was ordering the lettuce wraps and I was like, “meat in lettuce??… yeah sounds really great…blah!” And then I tried them and they were awesome!!!!!!!! I was totally thinking it would be lame, but it was delicious.

This is one of my favorite meals to make in the summer months when you want a light easy meal!

Ingredients for Turkey Lettuce Wraps

A quick and easy recipe is just what I need in the summer time! It always seems like we are running to a soccer practice or rushing in from being at the pool, and simple and delicious is my summer jam! Here are the ingredients that you will need…

For the Filling

• Ground Turkey: You can go as lean as you want, but know that the leaner the turkey, the drier the filling will be.
• Celery: diced up nice and fine
• Carrots: You can shred your own carrots or buy them already shredded.
• Red Bell Pepper: You could use yellow or orange too, but I wouldn’t use green.
• Onion: minced up small
• Garlic: adds flavor
• Slivered Almonds: adds the most amazing crunch to the wraps

For the Sauce

• Peanut Butter: You want creamy and it adds all the great peanut flavor to the sauce.
• Brown Sugar: adds a depth of flavor and richness to the sauce
• Sugar: adds more sweetness to the sauce
• Hoisin Sauce: a thick, dark colored sauce that is both sweet and salty
• Oyster Sauce: a thick, dark sauce made from oyster extract that doesn’t taste fishy despite the name and adds an earthy flavor
• Rice Vinegar: made from fermented rice and adds acidity
• Soy Sauce: adds great umami flavor to the sauce
• Red Pepper Flakes: adds heat to the sauce
• Lettuce Leaves: you want whole large leaves with no tears in them

Scroll down to the end of the post to find all the measurements you will need of each ingredient.

How to Make Lettuce Wraps

You only need about 30 minutes to make this flavorful recipe. It’s as simple as browning the turkey, sautéing the vegetables and whisking together the peanut sauce. Here are the basic steps…

1. Brown the turkey until it is almost totally cooked. Remove to a bowl.
2. Whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce in a separate bowl.
3. Add all the vegetables to the skillet and sauté until tender. Then add the meat back in.
4. Add the sauce and let it all simmer together for a few minutes.
5. Spoon the meat mixture into the lettuce leaves and sprinkle with slivered almonds and sliced green onions.<