Welcome to the weekend, my friends! The sun is shining, it’s chilly outside this morning, and I’m starting some soup in the crockpot. I’m hoping to get out for a hike this afternoon and soup with grilled cheese sandwiches sounds just about perfect for dinner tonight.

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Crunchy toasted Brioche topped with jam and almonds creates an irresistible pastry called Bostock. As simple as it sounds (and is to make) once you’ve tasted it, I’m willing to bet that you’ll be telling everyone about it.

With spicy sausage, tender noodles, and a melty cheese topping, this Lasagna Soup recipe has all your favorite Italian ingredients simmered together in one pot.

This Steak Stir Fry with mushrooms and onions delivers all the flavors I crave in a great restaurant steak. Lucky for all of us, that steak has been transformed into a quick stir fry that can be made even on the busiest of nights.

Have you tried a Hashbrown Bowl? Crispy browned hash browns and crisp-tender asparagus are paired with plenty of bacon and topped with a fried egg. This is my idea of breakfast heaven.

The sweet, juicy burst of blueberries complements the subtle tang of buttermilk in this delightfully moist and tender Blueberry Buttermilk Cake.

Creamy, rich, dark chocolate mint ice cream is generously filled with Andes Mints to create this scrumptious Andes Mint Ice Cream.

I made this No-Bake Nutella Pie several times over the summer and I find myself craving it again now. This pie is what happens when you have a half-eaten package of Oreos and a large jar of Nutella and you’re craving something sweet. This dessert is a Nutella lover’s dream come true.

What I’m CRAVING: My friend Ashley’s Asian Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry caught my eye yesterday and now I can’t stop thinking about it. I love a great stir fry, so this one needs to happen soon.

My FAVORITE THING this week is my foam roller. Learning how to use a foam roller a few years ago was a game-changer for releasing tight muscles and improving range of motion. This is the best roller I’ve found – and lucky for me, also the least expensive! If you aren’t familiar with foam rolling, here

Fall Chicken Stew with Quinoa and Butternut Squash

This “New American Heartland” fall chicken stew recipe is bulked up with quinoa and butternut squash. The dish is hearty and filling, and a perfect fall or winter dinner recipe.

When the cold weather sets in, I always want to make cozy, warm comfort food, but those are often not the most healthy recipes (i.e. beef stew, I love you forever, but you’re not healthy haha!). This seasonal dish is healthy, full of vegetables, protein and nutritious grains and it will warm you up from the inside out.

I’m making a loaf of easy herbed focaccia bread to dip in this scrumptious fall chicken stew!

What Do I Need to Make Fall Chicken Stew?

You’ve heard of kitchen sink cookies, and I seriously thought about naming this kitchen sink stew because you seriously add almost everything but the kitchen sink! Ha! But kitchen sink stew doesn’t sound appetizing at all. Here are the ingredients you will need:

• Chicken Broth
• Rotisserie Chicken: I like to use rotisserie chicken just to keep things quick and simple, but you can definitely cook your own chicken if you want. Grilled chicken breasts or left over roasted chicken would work great. I prefer to include for chicken breast and chicken thigh meat if I can for the most flavor.
• Vegetables and Herbs: Butternut Squash, Yellow Onion, Diced Tomatoes, Kale, and Flat-Leaf Parsley
• Flavor, Seasonings & Spices: Garlic, Kosher Salt, Dried Oregano, Ground Cumin, Nutmeg, Orange Zest and Black Pepper
• Grains: Quinoa (Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains Blend)
• Olive Oil

The measurements for all the ingredients can be found in the recipe card down below. Keep scrolling for all the details!

Substitutions and Variations

One of the things I love about stew recipes is how customizable they are! This recipe is perfect for adding to or swapping out. Here are a few ideas:

• You can add cubed potatoes (red potatoes or yukon gold) or sweet potatoes or swap them for the butternut squash.
• Use couscous or orzo instead of the quinoa.
• If you aren’t a kale fan, try spinach instead!
• Of course the veggies are totally up to you – peas, carrots, celery, etc.
• If you want to make this stew vegetarian, omit the chicken and use vegetable broth instead of chicken stock.

How to Make This Chicken Stew Recipe

To get the depth of flavor you crave in a good stew, it takes a couple of steps starting with r

Creamy, rich, dark chocolate mint ice cream is generously filled with Andes Mints to create this scrumptious Andes Mint Ice Cream.

Mint Chocolate Ice Cream

If you’ve been churning ice cream with me for long, you know that I love a great mint ice cream. Peppermint Candy Cane Ice Cream is a Christmas-time proof of that.

However, this Fresh Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream is a softer, fresher mint flavor that just might blow your mind. It reminds me of a dressed-up version of the Andes mint that comes with the check at a restaurant.

Designed to mimic store-bought varieties of Classic Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, this flavor captures the timeless combination of refreshingly cool mint and indulgent chocolate chunks with that vivid green hue we all know and love.

Andes Mint Ice Cream

You’ll need the following ingredients for this recipe:

• milk
• dutch process cocoa powder
• sugar
• kosher salt
• semi-sweet chocolate chips
• heavy cream
• vanilla extract
• peppermint extract *
• finely chopped Andes Mints
  Read more

Copycat Chick-Fil-A Nuggets and Sauce [+Video]

Craving the signature taste of Chick fil A nuggets? Skip the drive-thru and the price tag and try this easy homemade recipe with a delicious homemade sauce for the perfect copycat dish.

When our girls were little, Cade would take them on daddy daughter date nights periodically and the girls always picked Chick-fil-A as the place the wanted to eat dinner. I used to love Dairy Queen as a kiddo so I get it. Plus it’s a daddy date so I’m not invited.

When I was little I guess I used to get out of bed a lot and wake up super early. Which is funny because I HATE, DESPISE, DETEST, and VEHEMENTLY PROTEST waking up. I looooove to sleep and take naps. Love it. Anyway, my parents made me a chart when I was like 3 I think. Every day I didn’t get out of bed I got a whale stamp (remember how stamps weren’t all cool yet? It was just an old black ink pad and whale) on the date and after a week I got to go to Dairy Queen. What a treat!

So, I started researching Chick fil-A chicken copycat recipes and experimenting with recipes. Every recipe I saw had pickle juice so I was intrigued. This is a perfect copycat recipe! And my favorite part, it’s a fraction of the cost! Eating out has gotten so dang expensive!

How to Make Copycat Chick Fil A Chicken Nuggets Video

Ingredients for Copycat Chick Fil A Nuggets

There are few surprise ingredients in this list, but you’re just going to have to trust me! From pickle juice to powdered sugar, there’s a little of everything in these recipes, but each ingredients gets us the flavors we are after. Here is everything you will need:

Chick Fil A Nuggets

• Chicken Breasts: cut into bite-sized pieces
• Dill Pickle Juice
• Water

Breading

• Flour
• Powdered Sugar
• Paprika
• Chili Powder
• Black Pepper
• Salt
• Baking Powder
• Peanut Oil

Dredging Liquid

• Egg
• Milk

Chick-Fil-A Sauce

• Honey
• Yellow Mustard
• Dijon Mustard
• Hickory BBQ Sauce
• Lemon

With spicy sausage, tender noodles, and a melty cheese topping, this Lasagna Soup recipe has all your favorite Italian ingredients simmered together in one pot.

A steaming hot bowl of Lasagna Soup makes everybody happy at dinnertime.

Soup season is in full swing and I couldn’t be more excited. Since we moved to Ohio, I’ve been looking forward to meals full of all my favorite Soups and Stews as the temperatures drop.

I already have a feeling we’ll be eating many more bowls of this tasty soup on cold nights all winter long!

Easy Lasagna Soup

Lasagna soup is everything you love about a classic Italian lasagna simmered in soup form. My family loves lasagna with lots of meat in it, so I used both hot sausage and ground beef in this soup.

After browning the meat, I added onions, garlic, and tomatoes along with Italian Seasoning. After simmering everything in chicken broth and adding curly mafalda noodles, the soup finishes with the best ingredient of all: lots of cheese.

For the cheese topping, I use a blend of three different kinds of Italian cheeses. The mix of Ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozzarella cheese adds rich, creamy flavors to this soup.

A big scoop of the cheese topping on my bowl of soup made me very happy indeed. Every spoonful of soup was full of tangy tomato, hot sausage, perfectly cooked noodles, and gooey cheese.

Everyone in my family loves this Lasagna Soup. Most of us went back for a second bowl!

Read more