Patriotic Desserts

No good 4th of July party is complete with out dessert - at least that is what Chicken Legs says!  Here are a few of my favorite patriotic desserts from years past:

4th of July Flag Cake

This is actually really easy to make and super festive!  Big WOW factor.

Berry Patriotic Strawberries

A fun way to eat fruit!

White Almond Sour Cream Cake

This cake tastes incredible!  It is my absolute favorite cake recipe.

 

Cheddar Cream Biscuits

This is another great "no-yeast" bread recipe.  These biscuits are so simple and oh-so-delicious!  These biscuits only have a few ingredients and taste amazing.  They are light, fluffy and super cheesy.  I could have eaten the whole batch myself!

These biscuits were so easy to make.  Just mix everything together and cut out.  There was no shortening to cut in - that kind of intimidates me.  These biscuits taste great with a dollop of honey butter.  We ate them with the Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs I posted yesterday.  We will be making these again next week for the 4th of July.

Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs

Are you looking for a fool-proof recipe for your 4th of July party?  Look no further.  These ribs are super easy and absolutely delicious!  It's been so hot here lately that I decided to try making ribs in the crock pot. The result was fall of the bone tender ribs.  They tasted amazing, and we didn't have to stand out in the heat to make them!

I bought the ribs at Costco, and they come with the membrane already removed.  That is a huge timesaver for me!  I took another shortcut and basted the ribs with Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce.  Delicious!!  These ribs are going to be the main attraction at our 4th of July feast next week!

Cracked Out Quiche

Some of the most popular recipes on the blog are my "crack" recipes - crack dip, crack potatoes, crack bread.  I was trying to come up with a new quiche for dinner and decided to put all the crack flavors in it - cheddar, bacon and ranch.  

This quiche was SOOOO delicious! It was so cheesy and packed full of bacon.  We almost ate the whole thing for dinner.  I think this is our new favorite quiche.  This was quick and easy to make. If you are short on time, you can make this the night before you want to bake it or you can make it and freeze it until you are ready to eat it.

Meow Monday

Sherbert

Jack

Fluffy

 

Spaghetti Rice

This recipe was inspired by my friend LaShaun. We were talking about food (we do that a lot), and she mentioned that her husband didn't like spaghetti noodles.  She said she always serves his spaghetti sauce over rice.  I thought that was very interesting. I remembered that I had a taco rice recipe, so I doctored it up and turned it into spaghetti rice!

This was really good and a fun twist to traditional spaghetti.  This makes a ton.  Fortunately, it is great reheated.  I had some for lunch the next day and it was just as good as the night before.  Serve this with a nice piece of garlic bread for a quick and easy weeknight meal!

Bubble Up Breakfast Casserole

I've made several bubble up casseroles - pizza, white pizza and even an enchilada bubble up casserole.  They are all fantastic.  I was looking for a new breakfast casserole for Father's Day and decided to try a bubble up breakfast casserole.  I cooked the sausage and whisked up the eggs the night before.  I stored everything in the fridge overnight.  I assembled the casserole first thing in the morning and baked it.  It turned out great.  It was definitely a crowd pleaser; Everyone raved about it.  I especially loved the all the melty cheese!  Give this a try for breakfast or even dinner.

Oven Toasted Ravioli

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes.  I get these every time we go to Provino's in Auburn.  I lcould eat everyone of these by myself.  No joke!

I don't do a lot of frying at home.  It is messy and makes the house smell like oil for days.  I always oven bake these raviolis and they turn out great!  They are quick and easy to make.  I used frozen ravioli, but refrigerated ravioli would be great too.  Serve these with your favorite marinara sauce or pesto for a simple and delicious appetizer!

Oven Roasted Pork Tenderloin

This recipe is all about the technique.  It might be the easiest pork tenderloin recipe ever.   Just season the pork and pop it in the oven.  It is fool proof!  I found this over at Sabbespot via Pinterest.  Gotta love Pinterest!  I used my homemade cajun seasoning on the pork tenderloin, but you can use any seasoning you wish or even the Italian BBQ Marinade that I posted last week.  The possibilities are endless!

Meow Monday

Fluffy

Sherbert

Jack

 

Individual Potato Gratin

I picked up this recipe at Williams Sonoma last weekend and immediately added it to our menu.  It looks fancy, but it was really simple to make.  I cheated and used some Simply Potatoes Homestyle Slices, but feel free to slice your own potatoes.  This tasted amazing!!  I was really impressed.  We seved this with the Italian BBQ Marinade that I posted yesterday.  It was an easy and fabulous meal!

Italian BBQ Marinade

This is one of the best pork tenderloins we've ever made.  We didn't have any leftovers; It was absolutely delicious!  The marinade was a little sweet from the BBQ sauce and a little tangy from the Worcestershire sauce.  I used Wishbone Italian Dressing and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce.  Make sure you use a BBQ sauce that you like because it is the dominant flavor in this marinade.  We also tried this marinade on skirt steak, and we both preferred it on the pork.  I plan on trying it on chicken this weekend for Father's Day.

Southwestern Quichiladas

Quichiladas are one of our favorite dishes.  We made another version of this dish last year (here) and loved it !  I changed it up a bit this time and took a Southwestern spin on the dish.  I used sausage and Rotel tomatoes instead of the original ham and cheese.  This was SO good.  We both absolutely loved it!  The dish is assembled the night before and baked the next morning or evening.  I love these kinds of meals!  We ate this for dinner, but this would a great dish to make for overnight guests.

Mexican Manicotti

This was a nice change to our usual Mexican night.  It was like manicotti but with corn tortillas and enchilada sauce instead of pasta and marinara.  We both really loved the cottage cheese and sour cream mixture.  It was so creamy and yummy!  To help cut down on the sodium in the dish, I used my homemade taco seasoning and enchilada sauce.  I also cooked the chicken the night before to save time after work.  Next time I might add some black olives, chopped tomatoes and cilantro.

Meow Monday

Fluffy

Jack

Sherbert

 

Sour Cream Noodle Bake

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and thought it sounded like a good way to use up the extra egg noodles I had from the Cheesy Chicken Casserole.  It didn't take long to make, and it tasted delicious.  It was creamy, cheesy and all around yummy!  Chicken Legs especially loved this.  He has requested it again next week.  I thought it tasted like a cross between lasagana and the Spasagna I made a while back.  Either way, we both really enjoyed this.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Crescents

I've made several different versions of these chicken crescents, and this might be our favorite.  These crescents only took a few minutes to assemble, and, in less than 30 minutes, we had chicken cordon bleu. I used frozen chicken tenders strips and didn't thaw them before I baked the crescents.  I just let the chicken strips bake in the oven with the crescents.  They were delicious!  They were even great leftover for lunch the next day. 

Cheesy Chicken Casserole

This Cheesy Chicken Casserole makes a great weeknight meal.  I used a rotisserie chicken and it only took a few minutes to mix everything together.  This makes a ton.  I divided the mixture between two 8-inch pans and froze one (uncooked) for later.  If you freeze this, just cover the dish with foil and bake for about 20 minutes, and then uncover and finish baking for an additional 20-25 minutes.   We both really enjoyed this dish.  It was super cheesy and delicious.  It was even great reheated for lunch.  Give it a try!