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You've heard all the chatter around not getting enough protein. If you scroll instagram, you've seen all the rage. Well, I am kind of here for it. I made this years ago & after how delicious it was last night, I am not sure how it feel off my radar. Just like most recipes I post, they can totally be changed to your liking. I did this with the idea of doing a play on a chicken caesar salad. I used grated parmesan, and garlic seasoning in the crust. When you're dreaming up your own play on this, feel free to swap out the cheese & seasonings. Just check out Pinterest for "salads with chicken" and you'll get a million ideas! The recipe below is for a small crust, I tripled this recipe for 2 adults and 3 kids. It took up an entire jelly roll pan. I thought it was way too much until there was barely any left. Josh announced he ate 13 pieces & McKinley 7, it was perfect! Plus, keep reading to find out how great the crust is left over. Ingredients for Crust: 1 Can of Chicken - Costco's chicken is our go to, but if you are ever dabbling in canning, do chicken. It will blow your mind. 1 Egg 1/3 Cup Grated Parmesan Garlic powder, salt & pepper to taste Ingredients for Caesar Salad: Finely chopped romaine lettuce Thinly sliced red onions, even better if they are pickled Grated parmesan cheese Caesar Salad French's Fried Onions for garnishing Drain the chicken & dry the chicken as best as you can. This sounds kind of gross, but the moisture will prevent the chicken from making a solid crust. Mix in the egg(s), cheese and seasonings of your choice. Once it's mixed together, plop it out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The best trick I found was placing another piece of parchment paper on top and rolling it out. I went about 1/4 inch thick. When we were chatting at dinner, I said I wanted to try and go thinner for a crispier pizza next time and Josh thinks we should go thicker for a "deep dish" style. I don't think you can go wrong with anything, just keep in mind the thinner you go the crispier it will get. Once you've rolled it to your liking, peel off the top parchment paper and poke holes all over with a fork. This will help air flow and prevent bubbling. Toss in the oven at 350 degrees. Doing a triple batch on a jelly roll pan, it baked for almost 25 minutes. I went for a crispy on the edges, but not crispy all the way through. Adjust cooking time to your liking. If you're doing a single batch, your cooking time will significantly decrease - start with 8 to 10 minutes. While the crust is baking, mix your salad ingredients together - including the dressing. Obviously I did a caesar salad, but again - you could do any salad mixture. Once the crust was done, I took it out and topped it with a thin layer of caesar dressing and random slices of provolone cheese. Put it back in the oven on broil just long enough for the cheese to get nice and melty. Take the crust out & let it cool a little. There is something about the thought of putting.a cold salad on a really hot pizza that I do not like. Once the crust was no longer piping hot, I topped it with the salad and cut it. You'll notice in the picture I left some of the crust empty for the kids demanding plain pizza. Well, before dinner ended - the rest of the salad topped almost all of the pizza. And, looking back, the little crust that was left over & not topped with salad was a great idea for left overs. Speaking of left overs, I took the little piece that was left and heated in a frying pan the next morning. If something has the potential to by soggy, we don't microwave. Do yourself a favor and heat it on the stove top! Then, I topped it with an egg, avocado and hot sauce. De-freaking-licious! Makes me want to make a plain crust for quick lunch options!!!

*THIS POST IS IN PROGRESS.. I AM GOING AGAINST EVERYTHING IN ME TO RELEASE THIS EARLY, BUT I WANT IT OUT THERE EVEN IN PIECES. KEEP CHECKING BACK SOON FOR MORE* My love of sourdough started a few years ago, but never really came to fruition because I had no idea what I was doing. And before you think "oh great, count me out," I am going to make sure you're successful from the start! Because. fast forward to July & August or 2022 when my sourdough starter - Doughlene - came to life I have been sourdough'n since & continue to become more and more obsessed. I feel like sourdough making requires a community. It's fun and exciting but also confusing to start and sometimes mind boggling along the way. You can't learn sourdough from just anyone - you truly need a sourdough community! My sourdough Adventure never would have happened if it weren't for these people and/or Instagram accounts. If you want to go down the lovely (and highly recommended) sourdough rabbit hole, you will want to follow these fabulous women. The Food Nanny - Lizzi is absolutely amazing and will offer you so much more than just Sourdough. She is also responsible for my obsession with Kamut flour & her dough hook is a must if you're into baking! Ashley from Turner Farms - She is queen of Sourdough & so many other recipes! And actually, Lizzi (The Food Nanny) & Ashley (from Turner Farms) teamed up and created the book "For the Love of Sourdough" which I highly recommend. And! And! And! If you're really interested in sourdough, they have a monthly subscription which has recipes to die for! We cannot forget Julie, or The Kneady Mama. She is the one responsible for creating Chuck! You can always message her on Insta or reach out to her via e-mail, thekneadymama@gmail.com Here are some of my other favorite Instagram accounts: BallerinaFarm, FarmhouseonBoone Before we get started - It's super important to note what you are going to need to be successful First and foremost, unbleached bread flour - organic is best. Why bread flour? It has a higher protein content which is the "food" that your starter will need to grow! If you're in a pinch, you can try and go with an organic unbleached all-purpose flour, but I personally swear by bread flour! Water, I am not picky here - I have personally had great success with using our regular kitchen sink water. If you're iffy about your sink water - you can definitely use filtered water. Next, a couple of mason jars! You will need a clean mason jar every day. So, at bare minimum you will want two mason jars to alternate for daily feedings - and eventually you will want a mason jar to keep in the fridge with your discard. Lastly, a kitchen scale. I would love to tell you that it's not necessary - because it truly is not. But I will also tell you that my starter really took off only after I was doing accurate measurements. Note, a kitchen scale does not need to be an investment - there are plenty of them out there that are reasonably priced like this one on Amazon. Okay, while this isn't a must - It's my favorite tool so I feel obligated to share it. This dough hook by Lizzi (TheFoodnanny) is my favorite kitchen tool when it comes to all things sourdough and baking! And, she has so many other fun things on her site! Ok, wait.... we also need to cover some basic sourdough terms! Sourdough Starter - a mixture of water and flour, that when continually fed will ferment and will be considered the sourdough aspect of any dish! Feeding - the daily act of taking fresh water & flour and combining it with a little scoop of yesterday's starter (or discard from the fridge). The fresh flour and water are food for your starter which will allow it to rise & grow again day after day! Mature starter - You will know your starter is ready to bake with once it rises (doubles+ in volume), gets nice and bubbly and then falls flat day after day. Leaven - Remember, when you have a mature starter, it will rise and fall every day. When you're ready to get baking you're going to make essentially a large "starter" which you will use when it is at its peak rise. This leaven will replace the need for actual yeast!! Discard - Again remember, when you have a mature starter, it will rise and fall every day. When it falls, it will no longer act as a leaven and instead will be considered discard. This term is tricky though because, you don't actually throw it away!! You store it in the fridge for delicious recipes that don't necessarily need to rise and/or you want to add a little sourdough to! Also, the discard in the fridge can brought back to life (used in a daily feeding with water and flour) to bring your starter back to life! Now... let's get started - Follow these instructions if you are starting from scratch! Place your mason jar on the scale and tare it to zero. If you are not using a scale - check the approximate measurements after he step Add 50g of lukewarm water to the jar (50g is equal to ~1/4 c) Add 50g of flour (50g is equal to ~1/4 c) Give the flour and water a really good mix. You want it to be on the thicker side. Remember, the flour is the food - don't short it! Make sure it's nice and thick! Plus, if it's too runny, you'll run the chance of mold. Screw lid on loosely - you want some air in and out! Place jar in a cozy spot - somewhere it's not too drafty! After ~ 24 hours, your starter will be ready for it's feeding! When you're ready to feed your starter, you will want to grab you second clean mason jar. Add 50g of lukewarm water to your clean mason jar (again, equal to ~ 1/4 cup) Mix in 10g of previous days starter (10g of starter is equal to ~ one big spoonful) Add 50g of flour (again, equal to ~1/4 cup) Mix together, and continue to repeat steps 7 - 14. Important note regarding the remaining starter - when you just get started, you can toss the remaining mixture from yesterday's starter. However!! when your starter starts to rise and fall daily - you will start to keep the discard. You will pour the discard into your third mason jar (with a lid) and keep it in the fridge. Everday, after each feeding you will continue to add yesterday's remainder to this jar. Favorite Tip when starting from scratch - have faith! Keep going. Keep going. Keep Going. You may be feeding your starter for a few days, or a few weeks or even a month before you see some action. Keep going. You may see some action on day two & then go days without any bubbly/rising action. This is normal. I promise you, just keep going. One day it will rise and fall & do the same the next day! Follow these instructions if you are kicking off your sourdough journey with Chuck. Questions regarding Chuck, you reach Julie on Insta or e-mail her at thekneadymama@gmail.com Place your mason jar on the scale and tare it to zero. If you are not using a scale - please see "No Scale" note at the bottom. Add 10g (or half of the packet) of dried starter into a clean jar. (the remaining starter can be stored in a cabinet or fridge for a backup) Add 10g of lukewarm water into the jar. Mix until milky white Let sit to help break apart dried pieces (10 to 30 minutes) Once starter has sat, add 40g of lukewarm water to the jar. Note, your total current weight of the water and starter should equal 6https://www.instagram.com/the.kneady.mama/0g. Add 50g of flour and give it a good mix - if you're not using a scale, 50g is about a quarter cup. You're aiming for a thicker pancake consistency. If it does not seem thick enough, add little spoons of flour into the jar until you have achieved a thick like batter. Place lid on lightly - not air tight Place jar on something that will hold warmth (such as a potholder) After ~ 24 hours, your starter will be ready for it's feeding! When you're ready to feed your starter, you will want to grab you second clean mason jar. Add 50g of lukewarm water (~ 1/4 cup) Mix in 10g of previous days starter (~ one big spoonful) Add 50g of flour (~1/4 cup) Mix together, and continue to repeat steps 7 - 14. Important note regarding the remaining starter - you can toss the remaining mixture from yesterday's starter. However!! when your starter starts to rise and fall daily - you will start to keep this the discard. You will pour the discard into your third mason jar and keep it in the fridge. Everday, after each feeding you will continue to add yesterdays remainder to this jar. Your starter will be ready to bake with when it continues to rise and fall for a day or two. Because Chuck is dehydrated from a mature starter - this may only take a couple of days! Did you know whether you are starter from scratch or starting with Chuck there are so many factors that play into your starter and bread making. The temperature of your house is one! If it's too cold, your starter will slow down and be sluggish. If it's too warm - your sourdough will be crazy active! The moisture or dryness of the air. Your elevation. Everything plays a roll and the best part about learning sourdough is learning what your starter and bread like. Some days will be great and other days will be a flop. That's all normal and quite honestly the fun part about sourdough. Ok, my starter is mature, what do I do now? Coming soon...

This is the perfect salad to make ahead for a good lunch or grab and go and bite. I'll list out the ingredients & the amounts but don't be afraid to just whip a smaller batch together. If you have a head of broccoli on the fritz and some left over chicken - go with your gut on amounts and just whip it together. I promise, you cannot fail making this. "Always have on hand tip" is the precooked bacon. We love the Kirkland's bag from Costco. So convenient! Ingredients: 4 Cups of Broccoli chopped Half of a Red Onion, Chopped 12 oz of Canned Chicken (or whatever chicken you have on hand) 10 Strips of Bacon, Chopped 1/2 Cup Mayo 1/2 Cup of plain Greek Yogurt (or, skip this and do 1 Cup of Mayo) 1/2 tsp Garlic Salt Large Dash of Pepper 2 Tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar 2 Teaspoons of Brown Sugar (you can do less or more based on your taste preference) Directions: Combined your chopped broccoli, red onion, bacon & chicken. In a separate bowl, mix together your dressing Pour the dressing over the chopped ingredients and stir it up. Notes for the Bored: You can always swap the Apple Cider Vinegar & Brown Sugar duo for Lemon Juice & white sugar. But, the apple cider vinegar and brown sugar duo is so delicious. In fact - Mayo, ACV and Brown Sugar are my go dressing for almost all macaroni salads in the summer! Canned Chicken. We occasionally used to have some on hand when we bought the big package from Costco. That was until a friend (shout out to Eileen) gave me a can of her own canned chicken. While it looks like brains in a mason jar, it doesn't even compete with store bought chicken. Thanks to Eileen's patience & mentoring me on canning - I have a few of my own cans! If you have dabbled in canning, go for chicken because you will not regret it!

Ok, I feel kind of silly writing this post because of the simplicity. And, if I am being honest, silly because I just got done bashing ice cream makers (sorta) in my No Churn Homemade Ice Cream post. Did anyone else go through a phase where they had to have all of the attachments for their Kitchen Aid Mixer? And by phase, I've been going through it for probably ten years now... but that's just a minor detail. Yes? No? I have to have follow friends going through this same phase! Anyway, one of the attachments is an ice cream bowl. If you have it, it works perfectly. If you have a different churning machine, it will also be perfect. Ingredients (silly part) ... Yogurt - our favorite is the plain old vanilla yogurt or the honey vanilla yogurt. But you could easily play around with flavors and/or use Greek yogurt! Lastly, Mix-ins. Our favorite was fresh strawberries and a drizzle of honey! Directions (silly again) ... Churn the yogurt until it resembles ice cream. With the frozen bowl and Kitchen Aid mixer it takes about ten minutes. Once it's done, scoop it into dishes and throw on or mix in all of your favorite toppings. If you want to add some fun honey flavors, check out what Junky Janko Market has for honey!! Note... if this is frozen, it just turns completely solid so not a good "make ahead" option.

I started to laugh a little when I titled this. I do love organization & I am pretty organized. But the title should also incorporate Hot Mess. Because I am not just organized, I am also a hot mess. Nothing in this post is really mind blowing - it's just too big for a Facebook post, so here we are. After having kids, and quite frankly having a husband - organization became a little more difficult. More stuff and more hands to mix it up. McKinley now at 11, is super organized, so she can't take much of the blame. But the other two tiny sets of hands are the nightmare to my organization. And again, so are the jumbo man hands. After reorganizing the same places, it dawned on me. I need to create an organization system that is easy to follow. And what's easier to follow than labels. And... probably more importantly, minimizing the amount of stuff. I am way better at this now, but boy oh boy do we have a lot of room for growth in this area! So, I thought I would share some of my favorite home organizational products. These items are the perfect clean, crisp look for closets & cupboards. Keep in mind, I am no organization expert...just someone who tries & enjoys it! First up, these Y weave baskets are amazing for things that you use often. They come in a bunch of different sizes. The one pictured is the medium size. They are perfect for organizing your "grab and go" things - things that you don't want to dig for. We have medium sized ones in our pantry with like items - boxed dinners (Mac and Cheese). I have the smaller ones in my bathroom closet with frequently used items. One for my face products & a medium on for all of our body lotions and oils. They come in large ones - think like the size of canvas bins, that are perfect for larger closets. I have a puzzles in jumbo sealed bags and they all go in the "puzzle bin" My next & probably favorite are these storage boxes by bright room. You can get the small (which is just shorter) for $3, the medium height is $4 and the tallest is $5. Pretty reasonable! These storage bins can be found just about anywhere. We have a small one for each, crayons, markers, colored pencils. We have the medium sized one for all other craft items (pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, etc.) And because they are clear, it's super nice to be able to see inside of them. And even though they are clear, I wasn't taking any chances and I still labeled them. I also have a medium sized one in a lower kitchen cupboard with all of our cookie cutters. Our master bathroom is chucked full of these - extras of everything sorted in bins alike! One has sun screen, one has all our finger nail polish. Seriously, they stack nicely, they look neat, they are literally perfect for just about everything! Let's talk labeling. Around here, even if it's all alike items - the jumbo man hands in this house toss anything and everything there because *he wasn't sure* what all went in there. The solution for this is labels. If you want to label bins that are visible I recommend these. If you need a bunch of labels, you can snag pre-printed label sheets for specific areas - like these for the pantry. If you are going to do a label over haul, I totally recommend getting the Cricut Joy! I did the Cricut joy because I went overboard on labels. I went as far as to put removable labels on Lyncoln and Dakota's dresser drawers with pictures of what went in their drawers. Not only can they help put their own laundry away, so can dad!

I always talk about how I love recipes from when I was little, and this is one of them. As a kid, I loved drinking Grandma Mary's Hot Chocolate. And without a doubt, this definitely made it to my Recipe Binder. But the funny part, I never realized that this recipe wasn't actually my Grandma Mary's. In fact, my mom doesn't really remember where it came from. Apparently someone else had a grandma named Mary, and her recipe was shared. And it is just a coincidence that I also had a great-grandma named Mary - who never made homemade hot chocolate! Either way... this is the best hot chocolate. But warning, it makes A LOT. Like so much that we mix it in a medium sized bin. You could also use a brown paper bag...but you might need two to mix it well. It is also a little expensive to make! Which makes it the perfect recipe to make with family or friends. You're each assigned an ingredient or two, and you all bring your own half gallon mason jars to store it in! Or, this would be really cool gift to give during the winter months! Make the batch, put it into quart or half gallon sized mason jars and start gifting away in the holiday season all the way through winter! Ingredients: Two 22 oz Non-Dairy Creamer One 32 oz Powdered Sugar 64oz of Powdered Milk One 32 oz Nestles Quick Directions: Mix all ingredients thoroughly! To serve: Fill mug 1/2 full with homemade hot chocolate mixture. Then add your hot liquid to the brim - you could use milk or water! Stir. The key here is that you need half of the mug your mixture, it seems like a lot but it's just the perfect amount! Bonus - we also used this recipe to fill our homemade hot chocolate bombs! So if you ever jumped on that bandwagon, you can use this recipe for filling! Fun Fact: Original recipe called for 20 quarts of powdered milk. Immediately, I was like that's not right. We later figured 20 quarts was equaivalent to 80, 1 cup servings! After a quick google, this Great Value Nonfat Dry Milk explains everything!

McKinley, Dakota and I like sushi. Pause. Sushi that's plain jane... like California Rolls or a good Tempura, specifically shrimp. It's still Sushi right? So... while this "Unrolled Sushi Bowl" sounds fancy - there isn't anything fancy about it. And actually, I often use this as a "round two" recipe after we have salmon. So with that, this isn't really a "recipe" but more so an inspiration for a simple, delicious dinner (especially if you have leftovers) Fun fact about me, I am not a huge fan of rice. I like it in a sushi roll (and in this dish) but that's about it. However, after learning how to make the most perfect Jasamine rice in the microwave from my favorite pampered chef lady (Shout out to Dawn), I have become a little more of a fan! And another fun fact (because that last fact wasn't really fun) I had no idea that you could change a power setting on a microwave! How to cook the most perfect Jasmine rice: I used the 3-Quart micro cooker from pampered chef (I bought the set but you can also just buy them individually). You always use a 1 (rice) to 2 (water) ratio. I generally do 1 and 1/2 cups of rice with three cups of water. With the lid on the micro cooker, you cook it at full power for 5 minutes. After that, you cook it at half power for 13 minutes. It is perfect every single time! Fill up your bowl with rice and top with whatever is in favorite sushi roll. Like I said, we go for this a night or two after having salmon. So we topped ours with salmon, carrot matchsticks, julienne cucumbers and avocado. Of course, we do a few shakes of coconut aminos along with a healthy drizzle of a yum, yum sauce. You can buy this just about anywhere, but you know me... it's always better when its homemade. The Pampered Chef Recipe has been our go to! Tell me in the comments what you would put in your "Unrolled Sushi Bowl" P.S. I am not affiliated with Pampered Chef in anyway. I just love their products & share my favorites!

This is the second time in the past week I have spent (way too much) time on a dish that I wasn't even sure we were going to like. The first time around was homemade gnocchi. I had never had it before and of course my thought process...why not spend a couple hours making it? Thank goodness, it was freaking delicious and a hit for the family! This time around, it was White Chicken Chili. I asked Josh if we liked it, and he reminded me that a girlfriend Jade dropped a bag of it off after we had Lyncoln - and we in fact did like it. That was all I needed to go for it on my own. And quick shout out to the people who drop food off for other people - is there a great way to show your friend love? If you look up white chicken chili there are so many recipes, especially many in crock pots. I put a few different recipes together to our liking and came up with this recipe. I served it with "street corn" tortilla chips for dipping alongside of homemade cornbread. Truth be told, both the chili and cornbread were delicious, but I probably wouldn't do the combo again. But the chips and chili combo are a must! All this talk about White Chicken Chili and this recipe is called Green Chicken Chilli. What kind of confusion is this? Well, the recipe is more in line with the traditional white chicken chili except the peppers in the recipe make it green. But don't let that scare you. One, I am not a fan of most "green sauces" so I must note this is not like any other green sauce I've ever had. Two, the recipe is not spicy! If you're looking for more heat, just amp up the jalapenos! We all know my picture taking skills are at about a zero, so don't judge this recipe based on the picture. I promise you it's so much more delicious that how it appears. But do feel free to judge away and that no-so appetizing swirl of sour cream. I need help - jeesh. Ingredients 3 Tablespoons of olive oil 1 Medium Yellow Onion, Chopped 6 Cloves of Garlic, Minced 2 Poblano Peppers, Seeded and Finely Chopped 1 Jalapeno Pepper, Seeded and Finely Chopped (add more if you want to amp up the heat) 2 Teaspoons of Cumin 1 Teaspoon of Chili Powder A large Pinch of Salt & Pepper 1 Rotisserie Chicken, Chunked and/or Shredded 6 Cups of Chicken Broth (this stuff is my go-to) 1 Brick of Cream Cheese, softened 2 Cans of Butter Beans, drained 8 oz Salsa Verde Optional Toppings: Shredded Cheese Avocado Sour Cream Directions: Heat olive oil in a large pot (I used my favorite Dutch Oven). Add the onions and cook for about five minutes. Stir in the garlic, peppers & seasonings. Cook for another 10 minutes, or until peppers are tender. I used this from Pampered Chef to chop my onions - simple, quick and amazing! Add in the chicken broth & salsa Verde and simmer for 30 minutes. This is optional, but I used an immersion blender to blend it together to hide the pepper evidence from my family (mainly, Josh). I think it gives the chili more of a soup consistency which I love! Add in the softened cream cheese and simmer until it is melted and incorporated. This tool from pampered chef is my favorite for mixing! Once the cream cheese is completely melted and mixed in, you can add in the shredded chicken & beans. Continue to simmer until the chicken and beans are heated. Once it's served, top with your favorite toppings And, don't forget chips for dunking - they are so good! Note: I have zero affiliation with pampered chef, just sharing what I love!

This isn't your mom's homemade pizza from back in the day. Well, maybe it is. But it isn't the homemade pizza from my childhood - no offense mom or dad. Pizza back then was pizza crust out of a tube smooshed into a 9 x 13. And don't get me wrong it has nothing to do with the tube crust. There is always a time and a place for the tube. The problem was that it created a doughy pizza crust. And I am not here for that... thin & crispy all the way. Actually, sometimes semi crispy is a mood too. But soft doughy pizza is not a mood. You might want to come back to this when you're really in the mood because it is going to be jammed packed with all my pizza thoughts! First, you need a solid crust. This is my go-to crust using regular flour. Ingredients: 1 and 1/3 cup of warm water (think of warm like a baby's bottle warm) 2 and 1/4 teaspoons of yeast 1 tablespoon of sugar 2 tablespoons of olive oil 1 teaspoon of salt 3 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and an absolute must, yellow cornmeal for dusting the pan and an option I love, Seasonings! Feel free to mix in some seasoning that match your pizza dreams. You can never go wrong with a good Italian seasoning! Directions: Whisk the warm water, yeast and sugar together. You can start this process by hand in a mixing bowl or in your stand mixer with a dough hook. I personally love doing it by hand. Cover the water, yeast and sugar and let rest for about five minutes. You are looking for the yeast to activate and getting foamy. If this doesn't happen after five minutes, it may take a little longer with the temperature in your kitchen (colder = longer) Once the yeast mixture has been activated, add in the olive oil and salt. Mix around. Add in flour. If you're doing this with the mixer you can mix it together on low speed. If it becomes too much you will need to take it out and knead the dough on a floured surface. If you're doing it by hand, you will want to mix it until is incorporated and a dough is starting to form. Then take out and knead on a flour surface for five minutes. Once you've kneaded the dough and created a soft dough ball, you can place the ball in a lightly greased bowl (the same one you started in works perfectly). Gently toss the ball around to make sure it is fully coated in oil. Place plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel over the bowl (I generally just use a plate on top of the bowl)! Let the dough rise for 60 - 90 minutes or until it's doubled in size. Remember, the colder your kitchen the longer it takes! When your dough has doubled, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Favorite part! After the dough has doubled in size, punch it down to let the air out. Divide the dough in half for two 12-inch pizzas (or divide it more for smaller pizzas). Roll the dough out on a slightly floured surface using your hands and rolling pin. Dust your pizza stone with cornmeal and transfer your round pizza dough to the stone. Using a form, poke quite a few holes around the dough to prevent air bubbles when baking. Bake for 5 - 7 minutes. This time depends greatly on your oven. At this point, you are just partially baking the crust. Starting to brown around the edges is ok, but you are not looking for a golden crust! Now that you have parbaked pizza crust, you have a few different options. But before we get into those options... here are a few notes about the instructions. If you don't have a dough whisk, you should consider getting one. They have them all over amazon, but I snagged this one from The Food Nanny. I can dream that one day Junky Janko Market will have one! I love mixing by hand, this is a recipe that you need to enjoy making. I personally think that the stand mixer takes a little away from that. Put a little love into the crust! I've made all sorts of sizes. Personal sized pizzas are perfect for the girls. A medium size for McKinley or I and then the shareable/Josh size. Make whatever size is best for your family! Yellow Corn meal is a must. Do not skip this. While it serves a great purpose of preventing the dough from sticking to the stone, the greater purpose might be the little (sweet) crunch it adds to pizza crust! Back to the three options you have now with parbaked crust: Make pizza right away. You've created your canvas, now get to assembling your favorite pizza. While skies the limit with pizza creations, one rule in this house is that olive oil and chopped garlic must be put onto the crust prior to red sauce. Homemade frozen pizza. In my experience, it's always worked best to let the parbaked crust cool and then flash freeze. Once the crust is frozen, you can assemble your pizza however you desire. Obviously, if you're going for a fresher style pizza - now isn't the time. Check option 3 for that! Once you've assembled your pizza wrap it up really good in plastic wrap and freeze away. Tip: I have also put the plastic wrapped pizza into gallon or jumbo size zip lock bags for extra protection. I will tell you that I made four frozen pizzas the first time around and Josh and I swore we would never buy a frozen pizza again. Seriously, whatever frozen pizza you have lived by in the past will not be a contender for homemade frozen pizza. Parbaked Pizza Crust. While these require a little more effort than taking out a frozen pizza and tossing it in the oven, they have their purpose. They are perfect for the fresher style pizza. You know, the ones with baby spinach and arugula! But in this house, they get the most love when they are used for "round two recipes." Parbaked pizza crusts are the perfect dumping grounds for your leftovers.... here are some staples around here. Left over taco meat turned into taco pizza Left over chicken turned into a barbecue pizza Hello mac and cheese pizza And... equally important, don't forget nights where you feel like stepping outside of the box. Josh wanted BLTs for dinner one night & instead I made a garlic aioli for the pizza base and topped it with cooked bacon and parmesan cheese. Once it was out of the oven, I topped it with shredded lettuce and a drizzle of olive oil. Final note: every aspect/step of your pizza should be seasoned. You can season the crust, season the base, season the toppings and top it at the end. And two things about seasoning. One, I am not talking about salt. Two, a little goes along way. You are just trying to elevate some ingredients, not trying to take over the dish/pizza. Here are some ideas: Dough - Italian seasoning Crust - olive oil and garlic Sauce - jazzing up your traditional red sauce with some basil Lastly, think about how you could top the cooked pizza, this is where you could add some salt - especially something like a flake sea salt. Or, if you want to be wild a drizzle of Mike's Hot Honey! As I keep typing "Final Note" I realize there is more to be said. If you're reheating leftover pizza in the microwave, you're doing it all wrong. Get a frying pan on the stove top with a medium to high heat. Let it heat up a little and then throw your leftover pizza in the pan. The hot pan and heat gives the pizza crust the opportunity to get crispy again. Once it crisps up nicely, put a few drops of water on the outside of the pan and throw a lid on. The steam will generate enough heat to melt your toppings. This is seriously a game change in the lef over pizza world!

Ice cream is the real deal. But the problem is that not all ice cream is created equal. When you have the option to choose a half gallon from the grocery store or this homemade goodness, I have zero doubts which one you will choose. And, while ice cream can seem complicated to make - this recipe couldn't be any simpler. Which is also why I stand by my zero doubts statement. Are you wondering how homemade ice cream can be so simple? The answer is in the title...no churn. Back in the day (ok, kind of a joke - but not really) most homemade ice cream was created using a base of egg custard. Which like most types of curds, is similar to walking on eggshells around a toddler who is on the verge of a meltdown. Once you got done tip toeing through the custard making, you had to have some sort of an ice cream maker that would churn the ice cream for a while! Now... don't get me wrong, this ice cream is delicious -however, it just requires more attention and time than I have. End ramble. Back to the title...no churn. This recipe only requires 3 ingredients, no heating & no churning. Plus, if you've been around here a while you know I love a recipe that is like a blank canvas. Is there anything better than being able to tweak a recipe to you and your family's liking? This is just that. I will tell you what we did, but... really, the options are endless. Let's kick off with what you need and how to make your blank canvas... Ingredients: 2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream 14 oz can of Sweetened Condensed Milk Vanilla Extract (or if you're fancy, Vanilla Bean or Vanilla Paste) Directions: Whip the Heavy Whipping Cream with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold in the can of sweetened condensed milk & vanilla. If you're going for the straight up vanilla ice cream, you will want to transfer the ice cream to a freezer safe dish. You don't want to risk freezer burn, so you will want to make sure whatever you are using has a decent lid. Think Tupperware, or if you're invested in ice cream making you can get an insulated tub! But wait, we're not done! If you want to jazz up your ice-cream you will want to mix in your goodies after step 2 but before step 3. Our favorite variations, which McKinley choose for her birthday party was 1/3 cup salted caramel ice cream topping, almost an entire bottle of magic shell & a bunch of chopped up candy Rolos. Note.... being from Wisconsin and surrounded by Culvers, it should be easy to come up with variations! If you need some inspiration, which I'm sure you don't because who would... but in case you do, go check out their flavor of the days and get creative at home!

It's fall which means everyone is posting about pumpkin. And, if you've been around here anytime... you know, I do not like pumpkin. I do not understand the hype. To fit into the fall crowd, this came to me one night while I was lying awake in bed. The execution was perfect, and this is how I know - McKinley isn't a huge sweets person, but she cannot keep her hands off of these. One morning she was going to take one to school, but the container was empty. They pretty much disappeared before our eyes. It was then we learned that Josh was taking them by the handfuls for his ride to work in the morning. Ingredients 2 Sticks of Butter 2 Cups of Light Brown Sugar 1/4 Cup Maple Syrup 2 Large Eggs 2 Cups All Purpose Flour 1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder 1/2 Teaspoon of a salt - a salt like this does wondering in your baking! 1/4 Teaspoon of Baking Soda 1/4 Teaspoon of Cinnamon Glaze 1 Cup Powdered Sugar 1/4 Cup Maple Syrup 3 Tablespoons Heavy Whipping Cream Flakey Sea Salt for Finishing - this is my favorite! Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 and line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper Now, the secret to the brownies... browning the butter. Heat both sticks of butter in a frying pan on medium heat until the butter has fully browned. The top with get foamy and you see some brown bits (of goodness) in the bottom of the pan. Let the butter slightly cool Measuring brown sugar into a mixing bowl and incorporate brown butter. Add in the Maple Syrup & eggs. Mix it all together Measuring in the remaining ingredients into your bowl. There is no need to dirty an extra dish (can you tell I hate dishes) Once fully mixed, you will be left with a very stiff batter, and this is perfect! Pour the batter into the lined baking dish & bake for 35 - 40 minutes. Do not over bake! Once they are done, take them out and let them cool. While they are cooling, you can make the glaze by mixing the powdered sugar, maple syrup and heavy whipping cream together in a bowel. I did a little bit of a thicker glaze, but if you want something a little runnier you can thin it with more heavy whipping cream. Once cooled, you can cut the brownies into desired size and spread them on a board. Drizzle glaze over the top & sprinkle with flakey sea salt. Serve away or, let the glaze set before storing. Store in an airtight container. You can keep them on the counter, but we love them straight out of the fridge! Notes: If you're in the market for a new 9x9 pan (or any pans for that matter), these pans from William Sonoma are my all-time favorite!

This is for all of the non-cornbread fans, like me. I do not like dry things and in my experience, that is always what cornbread has been. Similar to those southern biscuits. Count me out for my fear of choking on that dryness turned into a scary, throat blocking paste. Okay, seems a little harsh. And just maybe one of you could change my mind on a biscuit, kind of like I will change your mind on cornbread. How did we get to the name "better than cake cornbread?" While eating cornbread and white chicken chili at dinner one night, we each had our little slice of cornbread. Josh went in for a second piece which was equivalent to a quarter of the pan and announced (as if talking to a large crowd) this cornbread is better than cake. Note, don't stop reading after the instructions because there are some helpful hints to follow, along with the perfect butter topping for cornbread! Ingredients: 1 Cup of flour 3/4 Cup of Yellow Cornmeal (if you have white, that's fine!) 1 tsp of Salt (thanks to The Food Nanny this is my favorite "mix-in" salt 1/2 tsp Baking Soda 1 Stick of Butter, Softened 3 Tablespoons of extra butter (1 T for greasing the pan & 2 T melted for drizzling on after it's been baked) 1/4 Cup of Oil (I used Olive Oil) 1 whole Cup of Sugar 1/3 Cup (heaping) of Honey 2 Large Eggs 1 & 1/4 Cup of Buttermilk Preheat your oven to 375 degrees with your favorite skillet in the oven during the preheat. This is my favorite cast iron skillet set (& I used the 12"). In a mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. In a second bowl, combined all of the wet ingredients Combine the wet ingredients in to the dry ingredients. My favorite tool as of lately is this Dough Hook from The Food Nanny. If you don't have a dough hook you can use a wooden spoon - these are my favorite from Junky Janko Market (they stand on their own!) Mixing with a dough hook or a wooden spoon is essential as you're looking just to incorporate all of the ingredients. You don't want to over mix & lumps are ok! And... on a whole side note, when possible, skip the mixers and beaters. There is something special about using simple tools to mix up your food by hand! Alright, back to it. Once you've gotten your batter mixed together it's time to finish prepping the skillet. Take it out of the oven and use 1 Tablespoon of butter to grease the bottom of the pan. Immediately pour the batter in and place it back into the oven. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes - this will vary with your oven. You are looking for it to be just cooked through, do not over bake it or you'll have a dry cornbread! You can use the toothpick trick similar to how you would test to see if a cake is done. If poke the cornbread and have a few crumbles left when you pull it out - it's perfect!! Once it's out of the oven, it's time to drizzle the last 2 Tablespoons of butter (melted) over the top of the cornbread. Lastly, you can drizzle a healthy amount of honey over the top. Let it rest for a few minutes, so it absorbs the extra goodness and then dive it! Cornbread Notes: You do not need a skillet to make this - you can bake it any pan. Just remember, you only preheat the pan if it is cast iron. if you're using a 9x3, do not preheat the pan! Once you're done serving the cornbread, remove it from the cast iron skillet. You never want to store food in an iron pan unless you want that nice metal, iron taste. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. Don't have buttermilk? that's okay, mix 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice into 1 Cup of Milk and let it sit for five minutes. Now onto more goodness which goes perfectly with Cornbread... Honey Butter Ingredients: 1 and 1/2 Sticks of softened butter 1/3 cup of honey Variation: 1 Tablespoon of Heavy Whipping Cream If you're going for the straight honey butter, you can mix the softened butter and honey together by hand. If you're going for the more "whipped" honey butter add 1 T of HWC to the mixture and use an electric mixer to whip it together. Go an even extra mile and add in some mix ins. My first go around, I split the mixture above into two containers. I left one as is for the kiddos & and in the second container I mixed one finely chopped jalapeno for a delicious jalapeno honey butter. You could also do cinnamon! Really, the possibilities are endless!