Brown Butter Spaghetti Squash Recipe

Tonight was “see-what-you-can-make-for-dinner-with-whatever-is-in-the-fridge” and this brown butter spaghetti squash recipe was the result. It is seriously one of my absolute must-haves for fall! Buttery squash with a hint of nuttiness from the pine nuts and savory goodness from the squash, gosh it’s good!

You could easily substitute any veggies or meat that you like-or leave the meat out for a vegetarian meal.

When I was younger one of my friends decided to be a vegetarian. I was shocked! I grew up in a meat and potatoes home. My mother was from Idaho and my father from Oregon so we ate meat with every single dinner. That was the farm way. It was not however her way. I didn’t understand what a vegetarian was really other then you didn’t eat meat. That was enough to stop my inquiries as who could possibly eat dinner without meat? I don’t think it was a nutritious decision at all either.

As soon as she went vegetarian she also went overboard on the candy. No joke. She wouldn’t eat meat so she ate quite the plethora of candy instead. Whaaaaa? I think she missed the boat there a bit, but I’m quite certain she is back to meat eating. And even if she wasn’t, I’ve personally discovered that eating vegetarian for a few meals a week is actually quite awesome. Our bodies actually love the whole “meat sparingly” concept. Fancy that. 😉 We have several plant based and vegetarian recipes on the blog now, and they are some of my favorites!

Read more

Easy Biscuit Chicken Pot Pie

Imagine that creamy, crave-worthy chicken pot pie filling that you can’t resist and top it with golden, flaky buttermilk biscuits, and you have the most delicious family-friendly dinner ever!

It feels like a lot of our days are busy lately but there’s just nothing that can take the place of family dinner. Our chicken pot pie recipe remains one of our most popular recipes on the site, but I know how intimidating a pie crust could be so I’ve come up with a biscuit version. And not only that, but the semi homemade version comes together in no time!

I’m going to give you both a homemade and semi homemade version because when I first started cooking this, I used the canned soups I learned on. It taught me what veggies work and the perfect biscuit-to-filling ratio. We all have to start somewhere, and I’m a huge fan of teaching simple methods and then moving into completely homemade.

You will find two recipe cards at the end of the post, one for each version. So you can pick the one that fits your schedule and desires.

Read more

Nothing says summer quite like a good burger! This time we are teaching you how to make a perfect smash burger and there’s one secret that is life-changing.

Look, I don’t know why smashing a burger, literally the one thing you should NEVER do to meat totally works in this recipe, but it does. Ok, I do actually know why, it’s because it caramelizes every single piece of that patty thus making for more flavor in each bite, but the point is, it doesn’t make sense and so therefore you should absolutely eat it. 

It’s kind of like that crazy wedge salad story; it’s simple and therefore it’s the beeeeeest!

Cade and I discovered smash burgers when we were in our first few years of marriage and I think it’s actually what kind of turned me from burger hater to burger enjoyer and now lover. I still loooove a crispy chicken sandwich, don’t you get me wrong, but a smash burger will always make my mouth water. 

They are juicy, buttery, and have those crispy edges that are the star of this burger show. And the best thing about this is that smash burgers are simple and cook so fast…exactly what you want to feed the fam on a busy summer weeknight or to feed a crowd for your 4th of July festivities!

Ingredients for Smash Burgers

There’s nothing crazy going on with these ingredients. The crazy comes in the cooking technique, so your ingredient list looks like this:

Burger Patties

• Canola Oil
• Burger Buns
• Butter
• Ground Beef (60/40) – this probably sounds crazy, but just ask your butcher and trust me on this one…all the flavor comes in the higher fat content!
• Salt
• Pepper

Toppings

• American Cheese
• Lettuce
• Killer Burger Sauce
• Pickles
• White Onion

The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card down below.

Garlic Bread Chicken Parmesan Sandwich

Tender chicken parmesan sandwiches with crispy chicken, marinara sauce, melted mozzarella, and pesto all loaded on buttery garlic bread.

I know, you don’t think you need a recipe for a parmesan chicken sandwich, right? You would think that you could just stick our absolutely delicious recipe for chicken parmesan in a hoagie and all would be well, but you would be wrong. We’ve got a few secrets that are very important.

These chicken parm subs were so so yummy. If you live in Utah you may have visited a sandwich shop called, Moochies. It’s delicious, sloppy, fattening and perfect. I decided to make our own version of the chicken parmesan sub from there and oh my! It was really quite yummy.

All of the different flavors used in this sammy really come together and make what could look like just another ordinary sandwich into something worth drooling over. Fresh bread, meat sauce, delicious, melty cheese and the secrets.

Ingredients for Chicken Parm Subs

These ingredients are pretty straightforward. Maybe the only surprise will be the pesto, but we love the extra layer of flavor

Ultimate Italian Sausage and Peppers Rigatoni

The ultimate Italian sausage and peppers rigatoni with caramelized onions and peppers, crispy pepperoni and juicy grape tomatoes. Just wait until you try it!

This pasta was entirely inspired by pizza. If it’s good as a pizza, it’s meant to be pasta and vice versa in our book. Cade could eat pizza every day of his life and be quite happy, and pasta is quickly taking hold on his heart as well. So if you think this is good we highly encourage you to bust out our Little Italy Pizza recipe too. Like, this weekend, for sure.

Cade and I love good food and the older we get it’s interesting to see how our tastes are changing. Cade never was into dessert and now he’s got a huge sweet tooth. I never was all that into peppers and onions and now anything savory hits the spot for me far more than treats. Which means this Ultimate Italian Sausage Pasta is one of our favorites, followed by a skookie for Cade. Ridiculous…

Ingredients for Italian Sausage and Peppers Pasta

Continue scrolling to the end of this post to see the measurements of each ingredient in the recipe card. This is a list of the ingredients needed:

• Rigatoni Pasta – the ridges on the outside gather the sauce beautifully creating extra saucy flavorful bites
• Italian Sausage – you can get mild or spicy depending on your need for heat
• Olive Oil – mild in flavor and helps cook down the peppers and onions
• Onion – we prefer a yellow onion, sliced thin
• Bell Peppers – red, yellow