Homemade Pizza Sauce Or Marinara

This post is long over due. I've made it like a million times but never seem to snap a photo.

Homemade Pizza Sauce is so easy to make there's no reason to buy pre-made pizza sauce ever again.

A good sauce is an essential for Homemade Pizza and a staple in our house.

Not only is this sauce delicious for pizza but we love to use it to dip our fried mozzarella sticks and Homemade Easy Cheesy Garlic and Herb Breadsticks.

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Homemade Nacho Cheese Dip

Homemade Nacho Cheese Dip is super easy to make appetizer recipe in under 10 minutes without any processed cheese from scratch.

Nacho Cheese Dip is a favorite in our house whether it's over the top of Fully Loaded Nachos, for dipping chips, or Soft Pretzel Bites.  

 It's a favorite for Tailgating parties, weekend snacking and of course Super Bowl! I love that I almost always have everything on hand to make Homemade Nacho Cheese Dip and it has all real ingredients like sharp cheese.

Pickled Jalapeños add a delicious heat with a little bit of tang that makes it addicting. If you don't like spicy food you can find tamed pickled jalapeños that are pretty mild. 

Here's how to make Homemade Nacho Cheese Dip:

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Hawaiian Rolls Recipe

Soft pillowy Hawaiian Rolls are a sweet buttery dinner roll made with pineapple and brown sugar. Hawaiian Dinner Rolls are a favorite for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The leftover rolls are perfect for day after Thanksgiving sliders filled with leftover turkey fixings like turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. 

Other delicious Bread Recipes that are worth checking out include soft pillowy Potato Rolls, crusty French Roll Bread, and Cloverleaf Rolls.

I am totally smitten with these soft pillowy Hawaiian Rolls. There's just something about a lightly sweetened roll that makes the angels sing, and my heart warm. 

These are a copy cat of those delicious Hawaiian Rolls you find at the grocery store, but even better because they come fresh and warm from the oven.

I know some of you are scared of our little friend called yeast, but I promise you it's really not as scary as it seems. Tips when making yeast breads: 

1. Make sure non of the ingredients are too warm, if I don't have a thermometer handy the easiest way I find to make sure the milk isn't too hot is by pressing my wrist against the outside of the bowl like when the kids were little, and you would check their bottles to make sure they weren't too warm if it burns it's too hot and let it cool.
2. Make sure your yeast is fresh. If the yeast doesn't become foamy the rolls won't rise.
3. Having enough patience to let the dough rise, especially the final rise where the rolls double in size to become nice and fluffy.

See nothing to be scared of with these rolls. As my kids would say easy peasy lemon squeezy. 

Here's how to make Hawaiian Rolls:

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Eggless Chocolate Banana Snack Cake

Eggless Chocolate Banana Cake recipe is a favorite way to use up ripe bananas made into a deliciously moist chocolate cake.

I was trying to decide on something easy to make for dessert the other day and came across this Chocolate Monkey Snack Cake from Cozycakes Cottage.

I knew it was meant to be. I had a freezer full of bagged banana's needing to be used and this recipe requires no eggs or butter. Double high five on that because I had just run out of butter and it's super easy to make. 

But most of all how could I not make Eggless Chocolate Banana Monkey Snack Cake for my monkeys?

With 3 guys (4 if you count Buddy the beagle and just for the record I totally feel I should be able to count Buddy because he is always in some kind of trouble) the house sometimes feels like living in a monkey house. 

You never know when some crazy wrestling match will break out between the boys and when footballs on watch out our house becomes super loud with lots of jumping up and down, whooping and hollering. They also seem to like to swing and hang from trees when ever possible.

At this very moment the boys are continually singing,  "Did you know a cashew comes from a fruit?"

Only because they've moved on from, "What does the Fox say?" Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow.. Sorry instant response.. Dang I thought I had finally rid my mind of that song. 

If you happen to see me in the produce isle singing: did you know a cashew comes from a fruit just keep walking I'm not crazy I'm just raising boys.

This recipe was adapted from Betty Crocker and Cozycakes Country Cottage to make a large cake to feed my house of monkeys and a few other adaptations.

Here's how to make  the recipe for Chocolate Banana Cake:

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Gluten Free No Bake S'mores Granola Bars

I love S'mores Granola Bars with the little chewy bits of marshmallows and chocolaty goodness.

These are so easy to make and a great treat to add to the kids lunch box.

The secret to these are to press them together really tightly or the edges will be a little bit like chunky granola.

Not that it's such a bad thing because it's the perfect excuse to indulge in chocolaty granola for breakfast over your yogurt.

However if you do press your No Bake S'mores Granola Bars together tightly and you don't have loose crumbs you could always just break a bar up over your greek yogurt for breakfast.

I may or may not have participated in this kind of behavior on a few occasions.

I also may or may not have hidden a secret stash of granola bars to satisfy my own chocolate cravings.

I refuse to answer on the grounds I may incriminate myself and other parties.

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Savory Pear Salad with Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Pomegranate

Pear Salad with Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Pomegranate is one of our favorite winter time salads. It's drizzled with a simple White Balsamic Vinaigrette to pull all the flavors together. This Savory Pear Salad is a regular for Thanksgiving and Christmas in our house. It's a refreshing flavor combination that is simple to make.

Baby Salad Greens with the juicy sweet pears and the sweet and sour pomegranate seeds adds the perfect base for this salad recipe. The walnuts add a crunch and the pungent salty blue cheese a delicious contrast to the sweet fruit. The White Balsamic Dressing pulls all the flavors together. I usually use Gorgonzola because it is a milder Blue Cheese for those that might be on the fence or not big Blue Cheese fans but if you love the stronger flavors feel free to use a stronger cheese.

Colt and I started making Savory Pear Pomegranate Salad with Gorgonzola and Walnuts and a white balsamic vinaigrette years ago when Lorna was about a year old. We had wanted to enjoy a Valentines Day dinner date but choose to stay in.

Sometimes to lay the kids down to sleep and put a little makeup on when they were little was so much easier then trying to find a sitter and worrying if they were ok through out our date. Our menu usually consisted of delicious flavor combinations we would order if we had gone out and the Savory Pear Pomegranate  Salad with White Balsamic Vinaigrette was born out of a necessity to step away as Mom & Dad, to become Husband & Wife in the comfort of our home.

The sweetness of the pears with the sweet and sour pomegranate combined with the buttery bite of the gorgonzola, earthy rich crunch of walnuts with a light creamy white balsamic vinaigrette to round out the flavors and pull the salad together as one of our all time favorites. It was this flavor combination that made Colt start to love bleu cheese.

This salad pairs deliciously with grilled chicken for a light dinner or lunch.  Pear Pomegranate Salad is also a delicious side dish for Thanksgiving and Christmas when pears are at their peak.

Here's how to make this delicious Savory Pear Salad Recipe:

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Alphabet Vegetable Soup

Homemade Alphabet Vegetable Soup is a childhood classic. Leftover soup can be frozen for an easy lunch later. Alphabet Soup is easy to make and budget friendly. Everyone in our house loves it regardless of age.

I made this Alphabet Vegetable Soup last night because it's always a family favorite and it's been so cold outside..

I love that it's loaded with veggies, perfect for meatless Mondays and a great way to use up any leftover veggies in the fridge.

The kids love to play with the letters and seem to forget just how much vegetables they're consuming.

We spent the better half of dinner playing with our food and building words.

After all we are big kids at heart! 

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Gluten Free Crock Pot Clam Chowder

If you are looking for the BEST Gluten Free New England Clam Chowder recipe there is no need to look any further. Bonus points for it being made in the Crock Pot but you could always prepare it on the stove if a Crock Pot isn't available. I used the potatoes to thicken the chowder leaving it naturally gluten free and easy to make for those who might not have specialty gluten free flours on hand. The best part is the potatoes make a delicious thickening agent and better than the alternatives. 

Other Gluten Free Soup Recipes you might love include Chicken Enchilada Soup, Moroccan Beef Vegetable Soup, and Thai Chicken Coconut Soup just make sure to use gluten free products.

Did you have a wonderful weekend?

I made this Gluten Free Crock Pot Clam Chowder and Colt's been on vacation the last few days and we were able to have some much needed family time. Our niece came over to spend the night with us last night, and we went to see Frozen. It was such a cute family movie, well worth seeing in the movie theater.

Our sweet niece woke up at about 2 am with a tummy ache and couldn't sleep.  So she climbed into bed next to me, boy I don't know how I forgot just how miserable it is to share the bed with a little one. I slept in the middle. She somehow pushed us over to about 1/4 of the bed and hogged the rest.

Colt had to get up to move her over twice so we could try to reclaim our bed.

Eventually at some point she headed back to Lorna's room and went back to sleep because we snored too loud.. Ha..Ha.. I guess we won the battle of the bed.

The only down side was we were all to tired to get up in the morning, and snoozed through the alarm.

As much as I miss having a little one around the house it was a great reminder how much I love that my kids sleep through the night in their own beds.

This Gluten Free Crock Pot Clam Chowder is so easy to make and a perfect fix it and forget it meal whether your struggling through sleep deprived nights or busy days. It requires so little effort and is full of flavor. I've been making Chowder like this for as long as I can remember and actually prefer it without any added thickener because the mashed potatoes make for a naturally thick creamy chunky soup.

According to Colt and the kids it's the best ever but I'll let you be the judge of that. I can promise this will satisfy the gluten free and gluten lovers alike, no one will miss it. 

Here's how to make this easy Gluten Free Crock Pot Clam Chowder.

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Waffles with Strawberries

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous New Years!

We were lucky enough to visit with some of our closest friends, eat great food, like these Brown Butter Brookies and play a few games. Then we returned home to find one my recipes was published in Foodie: Game Day Eats Edition! How awesome is that!

On another note way back in September  Colt threw out our 15 year old waffle iron when all the waffles kept sticking and his patients grew thin, no matter how well he greased it and we were blessed with a new waffle iron for Christmas. I can't believe we haven't had a waffle until now! It feels like forever! 

What a perfect excuse to update the pictures for the blog and indulge in these perfect waffles. I can't tell you how much I've missed these. So light and crisp, perfect to smoother in strawberries and whip cream. The perfect start to any morning. 

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