Casseroles & Comfort Foods

Southern Fried Chicken (Without the Guilt!) Power Air Fryer XL Review

June 14, 2017 by Laura Tucker 54 Comments

I received a Power Air Fryer XL™ as compensation in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed here are 100% my own!

When you think of southern style food, what are some of the first things that come to mind? Casseroles? Sweet tea? What about fried chicken? If you automatically thought of something battered and fried, you’re definitely not alone! It’s no secret that we love our fried foods here in the south. Heck, we even fry our vegetables! Just walk into any local diner around here and you’ll find that the majority of the menu items are fried – and if they’re not, the cooks will be more than happy to fry it for you!

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How to Host a Kid Friendly Fiesta Fry Bar!

June 5, 2017 by Laura Tucker Leave a Comment

“This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of McCain Foods. The opinions and text are all mine.”

With the summer months officially here, it’s time to kick off your shoes, roll up your sleeves and enjoy these beautifully warm days with friends and family by your side! Even though the temperatures here in south Alabama keep climbing higher and higher, nothing is stopping me from creating memorable moments for my family to enjoy together! One of my favorite things to do during the long summer days is to get my creative juices flowing and put together a special food-filled evening that my entire family will be sure to enjoy.

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How to Freeze Yellow Squash

June 1, 2017 by Laura Tucker 12 Comments

This tutorial for How to Freeze Yellow Squash is simple and effective at preserving those beautiful golden veggies from the garden this summer!

Over the last 4 years since we moved out to the country, my husband and I have planted a vegetable garden in our backyard. Planting a garden is a true labor of love, but the fruits of the labor always make the effort SO so worth it. If for nothing else, I love summer because of all of the delicious fruits and vegetables that are so abundant during this time of year. One of my very favorite vegetables is summer squash. Two years ago we planted extra squash in our garden so I could make baby food for our daughter. Our squash plants always tend to do very well, and by the end of the summer it usually feels like we have squash growing out of our ears!

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Southern Style Salmon Croquettes

February 8, 2017 by Laura Tucker 1 Comment

Recently my husband and I were talking about meals that we used to eat frequently as a child that we still love to eat as adults. My mind immediately drifted back to my dad fixing us scrambled egg sandwiches and grilled cheese’s on a regular basis. I still make both pretty frequently (and luckily Kyle likes both of those!) I expected to hear him mention meals along those same lines, but my ears perked up a little when he told me that he used to love for his mom to make him salmon croquettes.

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Easy Weeknight Meal: Cheesy Polish Casserole

February 1, 2017 by Laura Tucker Leave a Comment

I’m always on the prowl for a quick and easy dish that my family will love. My husband and I are crazy about pasta, and earlier this month I caught a really good deal on some smoked Polish sausage at my local Publix. While thumbing through a local magazine that recently came in the mail, I noticed a recipe submitted by a fellow Alabama native for “Polish Casserole,” which just so happened to be a pasta recipe that called for, you guessed it, Polish sausage. Win/win for me!

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Easy Cheesy Breakfast Pizza

January 9, 2017 by Laura Tucker 2 Comments

This blog post has been compensated by Borden® Cheese. All opinions are mine alone. #BordenCheeseLove #CollectiveBias #Ad

Now that the hustle and bustle of the holidays are over, I’ve decided to make it a point to find a moment for myself where I can sit down, relax, and jot down a few important things that I want to prioritize a little more as we start the new year. There’s something so exciting and promising about staring at the very first page on the calendar and seeing a whole new blank slate in front of you ready to be filled with the things life hands us. I always love to write down my goals for the year in the very beginning of my calendar.

2017 is going to be a very big year for us. Construction has just begun on our brand new home, and my husband will be building many parts of the house on his own. Things are going to get very busy, very quickly this year. That’s why one of my biggest priorities on my list is to create more home cooked meals that draw our family together around the table.

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Venison and Sausage Chili

January 7, 2017 by Laura Tucker Leave a Comment

I’m just gonna be real with y’all for just a minute here. I have no idea how to handle cold weather. I don’t like it. My body does not adapt. I cannot compute. My bones lock up and my mind cannot even process how to handle snow. That may sound insane (and a little petty) to many of you that are from an area where snow is pretty common, but in my neck of the woods snow is super rare. In fact, it seems like the whole state of Alabama just shuts down when the weather forecast even hints at the possibility of snow.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I do like cooler weather. I don’t mind breaking out a light jacket to go outside and I definitely enjoy it not being humid outside, but the frigid coldness that we’ve experienced this weekend is pretty close to miserable to me. The only plus side to cold weather in my opinion is getting to curl up on the couch with a blanket and a big bowl of warm chili or soup. Food is definitely one of my primary love languages, and my Venison Sausage Chili speaks directly to my heart and warms it right up!

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Are You Ready for the Big Game? Bring the Heat with this Spicy Habanero Alfredo Pizza

January 3, 2017 by Laura Tucker 12 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #KingOfFlavor #CollectiveBias

If you’ve ever traveled down to the Southern states (or even if you’ve lived here your entire life,) you may have noticed one crucial rule that rings true for almost all of us:

Football is king

Our love for the game is strong and deep, and our passion for cheering on our favorite teams has roots that grow deeper than an old oak tree. Football here is essentially a way of life, and we know there’s nothing in this world quite as exciting as cheering on our team to victory with our friends and family by our side.

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The BEST Ever Meat Loaf Recipe: Venison Edition

December 2, 2016 by Laura Tucker 25 Comments

I’ve been on a huge sweets-kick here lately with the holidays being in full swing. I looked back at my recent recipe posts and realized that most of them were sugary concoctions, so I thought I’d throw a little savory into the mix and share one of my go-to, fool-proof recipes that my family absolutely loves. I love to prepare it on nights when I don’t feel like doing a whole lot of prep work in the kitchen, and when I need something that’s totally easy to pair any sort of side dish with.

This super simple meatloaf recipe only requires 4 ingredients, yet it’s loaded with flavor and is super moist & delicious! There’s nothing worse than a dry meatloaf, but this one is totally perfect every time!

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Brown Sugar Pecan and Cinnamon Apple Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

November 18, 2016 by Laura Tucker Leave a Comment

There’s just something about a big golden sweet potato with butter and brown sugar that gets me so excited. I absolutely love sweet potatoes, so naturally when November rolls around I start planning my entire Thanksgiving menu around them. You may have seen me recently post about how I like to spice them up every once and a while, but sometimes I like to stick with something a little more traditional, too.

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