Loaded Baked Potatoes with Homemade Cheese Sauce

The baked potatoes get sliced in half, baked in the oven and then loaded with bacon, broccoli and homemade cheese sauce. A super, easy family favorite dish on your table in 30 minutes.

Loaded baked potatoes are a very popular in our house. I mean, who doesn’t love bacon, broccoli, and cheese stuffed in a baked potato? It’s a  glorious combination we just can’t get enough of. It’s also an easy dinner option to feed the family or to feed a crowd. I’d like to know if there’s one person out there who hasn’t had a baked potato bar at a family reunion, girls’ camp, scout camp, church function, etc. You get the point! Cheesy baked potatoes just make people happy!

What Do I Need to Make Baked Potatoes?

One of the best things about baked potatoes is that they only take 4 ingredients to make, and they are failproof! Here is what you will need for the potatoes:

• Russet Potatoes – wash them well, and slice them half
• Olive Oil – rub it all over the potatoes, this helps them get so nice and crispy
• Salt and Pepper – adds flavor

Ingredients for Homemade Cheese Sauce

You won’t believe how simple it is to make cheese sauce at home. The ingredients for the base sauce are most likely items you already have at home and the things you add to it are totally up to you…though broccoli and bacon are a dream team with this cheese sauce! Here is what you will need:

• Whole Milk – it has to be whole milk, don’t use any other type of milk
• Butter – unsalted, adds flavor and richness
• Flour – just simple all-purpose works great
• Sharp Cheddar Cheese – sharp cheddar adds that bold cheesy flavor that shines in this sauce
• Hot Sauce – adds a just a hint of heat and flavor you don’t want to miss
• Cayenne Pepper – feel free to add more if you want the cheese to be more spicy
• Broccoli – steamed and chopped into very small pieces
• Bacon – cooked until crispy and chopped into small bits
• Salt and Pepper – add flavor

The measurements for each ingredient and instructions for making this recipe can all be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.

What Potatoes Are Best For Baking?

Starchy potatoes such as Russet and sweet potatoes are best for baking or roasting. They work the best for the dry heat of an oven and end up with a fluffy c

Cheesy Bacon Ranch Corn Dip [+ Video]

This Bacon Ranch Corn Dip is out of this world addicting! Just wait until you bring it to the next BBQ or party and everyone’s begging for the recipe!

It is cheesy, creamy and crunchy all at the same time and it has bacon. Need I say more?! This dip only takes 15 minutes to prep and is perfect for feeding a hungry crowd!

How This Recipe Came to Be

A long time ago, years in fact, I had a really delicious corn dip at a bbq and it became quite embarrassing how much of it I ate. I couldn’t stop. Every bite only made me want more and more and all I could think was, I HAVE to have the recipe. Well, not everyone is into sharing their recipes, in fact some flat out refuse. It was a sad moment. And I totally forgot about it until now, and I had to recreate it! So bacon corn ranch dip is totally happening and it’s full of cheesy deliciousness.

What Do I Need for Corn Dip?

So let’s break it down, this cold corn dip involves ranch, bacon, and corn. In other words, it’s three safe foods for picky eaters. Is it just me or have you all noticed that even kids and adults who refuse to eat anything seem to be okay with these three foods?

Bacon is obvious, corn is so sweet and good — and even better if you grill it, but that’s not necessary— and ranch. I don’t know why ranch is a picky eater pleaser, but it does work! Here is a complete list of everything you will need:

• Corn – ideally you want fresh corn on the cob, but if it’s not corn season, then frozen corn works great
• Ranch Dressing – we prefer to make it from scratch or use a ranch packet rather than buying a bottle of ranch dressing
• Sour Cream – you can double the ranch dressing if you don’t have sour cream and want extra ranch flavor
• Shredded Cheese – we used cheddar and pepperjack for this recipe and you can use any combination of cheese you want
• Bell Peppers – you will chop these up and sauté them to soften them a little and add great grilled flavor
• Diced Green Chiles – drain them well, they add such great flavor and a little heat
• Green Onions – these add a beautiful pop of color and fresh flavor
• Bacon – cook your bacon ahead of time until it’s crispy and let it cool, head to our how to cook bacon post for all our tips and cooking the perfect bacon

The measurements for all the ingredients are listed in the recipe card at t

Cheese Stuffed Pretzels

Why are soft, salty homemade soft pretzels so dang good? Picture a golden chewy pretzel dotted with coarse grains of salt and…wait for it…stuffed with melty cheese! Bam!

Pretzels are going to take over the world. Or my blog. Probably both. We love our soft pretzels with cheese sauce, but I started thinking what if I put cheese on the inside? Nailed it! So good! For our sweet tooth people, we have our cinnamon roll pretzel bites that are heavenly and I just can’t stop thinking about variations of soft pretzels!

These cheese stuffed pretzels blow Annie’s in the mall out of the park. Dude, do not tell me you don’t secretly love those hot, salty, bready pieces of deliciousness dipped in oh, so very fake cheese. Gosh, I can taste it sitting here!!! Sometimes you just need one of those to get you through the shopping!

But these homemade pretzels are so much better! The outside is all chewy and salty and wonderful, and the inside is like pure squishy, soft flipping perfection, but then, oh my gosh, then you hit the cheese. It’s blasted wonderful! It’s so melty! And, and, it’s not fake cheese! It’s the real deal!!!! And when you tear a piece off, it like stretches with the bread like an awesome piece of pizza. HECK YES!

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Mexican Grilled Cheese Sandwich

This isn’t your average grilled cheese sandwich! We are combining 4 different cheeses with a flavored butter spread and an irresistible mayo to create a grilled Mexican cheese sandwich.

We live right by the mountains and have been loving grabbing the kids and heading up to the mountains to eat and hike or watch a movie. A full-of-flavor soup, like taco stew, is one of those hit-the-spot soups that warms you from the inside out but don’t stop there! Why not go crazy with a Mexican style grilled cheese full of cheese, a killer roasted jalapeno mayo and you guys, the cheesy butter spread on top… I may never leave my kitchen again!

What is soup if you don’t have something to sop up all that deliciousness with?! Taco stew, meet Mexican Grilled Cheese. Let’s fall in love.

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Classic Margherita Pizza Recipe

My go-to pizza at all pizza restaurants is a margherita. It’s my favorite…hands down. Logically I had to create my own classic margherita pizza recipe that rivals the pies I had in Italy.

I honestly feel like you can judge how legit a pizza place is on how good their margherita is. If they can’t make a good marg…pizza in it’s most simple, pure form…then I have little hope for any of their other ‘zas. Might be harsh, but it has worked for me so far!

The crust in this recipe is a Neopolitan crust which means that it is thin. We love it thin and chewy. This pizza crust recipe is flawless and the perfect compliment to the simple and delicate but bold flavor of a margherita pizza.

Ingredients for a Margherita Pizza Recipe

Recipes that are amazing have to be complicated and have a grocery list a mile long, right? Wrong! The crust has just 5 ingredients, the sauce has 2, and for the toppings, there are 3. It really couldn’t be more simple! Here is what you will need:

Dough:

• Baker’s flour (or 00 flour): essential to getting that chewy crust you want in a pizza, see section below for more details
• Water: it needs to be warm (105-115 degrees F) to activate the yeast properly
• Sea Salt: go for fine grain, adds flavor to the crust
• Sugar: feeds the yeast
• Instant Yeast: don’t use active dry yeast

Sauce:

• San Marzano Tomatoes: you can use crushed, whole, diced…whatever you can find…it all ends up in the blender
• Sea Salt: adds flavor to the sauce

Toppings:

• Fresh Mozzarella: you can use as much or as little of the cheese as you want
• Fresh Basil: I like to leave the leaves whole and scatter them over th