Hosting family means we’ve been making a lot of good food to feed a crowd and we had a handful of recipe wins I thought I’d share with you guys today in a recipe roundup of sorts to show a little love to my fellow bloggers who shared some of these delicious dishes!
Recent Recipe Wins
Breakfast Recipe Hits
My brother-in-law made huge batches of these yogurt pancakes for our crew twice during their stay and we were all thrilled because they were fantastic! They remind me of the Greek yogurt pancakes I used to make on repeat based on a recipe from the Pioneer Woman that we loved so much but somehow completely forgot about over the years. A big-time bonus: These pancakes reheated well in the toaster oven. I’m hoping to try freezing them because I think they could be a great easy weekday breakfast option for our crew during the school year.
German pancakes are all kinds of nostalgic for me as they’re a dish my mom would make for breakfast on special occasions. Now our boys love them too (okay, so maybe it’s the powdered sugar we sprinkle on top that they love) and this recipe came up when I searched for a blender version of the pancakes. They came together in a flash and are more filling than traditional pancakes thanks to all of the eggs! We served them with fresh berries, maple syrup, a sprinkle of powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice (trust me on the lemon juice)!
Lunch Recipe Hits
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Egg Roll in a Bowl (Peace Love and Low Carb)
This was another old standby we’ve loved in our house for years that I’ve made for my family before so I knew they’d all love it again. It was a deliciously light lunch and I served it with rice on the side to help the recipe go a little further. I also added extra ginger to the recipe which I do for pretty much any recipe that calls for ginger because we’re a ginger-loving crew.
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Air Fryer Chicken Thighs (Pinch of Yum)
I’ve mentioned this recipe a time or two on the blog and for good reason. It’s just so freaking good. I’ve come to the point where I have a giant batch of this seasoning mixed up in a small glass jar I keep in our pantry so I can make the chicken thighs easily and used it to whip up an easy lunch for our group last weekend. Everyone gave the chicken a thumb’s up and requested the recipe. One important note: I do NOT use smoked paprika in my version because I don’t like smoky flavor but I just swap that out for more regular paprika and it works great!
Dinner Recipe Hits
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Zucchini Stir Fry (Well Plated)
We have an abundance of zucchini in our garden right now and joked with my family that we’d be serving them zucchini for breakfast, lunch and dinner during their stay. That was only partly true but recipes featuring the summer squash did seem to pop up on our dinner menu a handful of times throughout the week. This zucchini stir fry recipe was one I threw together when we arrived home from the pool one evening and didn’t have a ton of time to get dinner.
My alterations: I used coconut aminos in place of the soy sauce, maple syrup instead of the sugar and completely omitted the cornstarch. And I didn’t add the water but added a handful of peanuts and cilantro at the end before serving. (I also served it with brown rice on the side to stretch the recipe a bit for our larger group.) Sooo I guess I changed more than I realized but we loved my take on this recipe a lot and I’d make it exactly the same way again!
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Roasted Beet Salad with Honey-Dijon Vinaigrette (Once Upon a Chef)
We had a bunch of roasted beets on hand from a bulk order from Costco so I searched the internet for a way to use them and stumbled upon this salad. It was so, so easy to make and such a hit! I used arugula in place of the mixed greens and olive oil in place of the vegetable oil and added extra walnuts and a hefty sprinkle of salted sprouted pumpkin seeds. I’m keeping this salad in mind for the future because it came together so easily and got rave reviews from all of the adults in our group. (The kids didn’t touch it. Ha!) I also think this salad would be wonderful with some grains sprinkled in (I’m imagining farro or wheatberries) for a little chewiness. Yum!
Yep, this recipe again! There’s a reason it’s the recipe from my blog we make the most often for dinner in our house: It’s a flavorful crowd pleaser and everyone loves it! When I want to make a recipe I feel very confident all of our guests will love (as long as they are not vegetarian or vegan), this is the one I turn to because it’s always a slam dunk. We made these chicken thighs on the Fourth of July along with burgers, hot dogs and brats!
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Zucchini Lasagna (Healthy Recipe Blog)
Talk about a labor of love! This recipe was not fast and took quite a while to make, especially with 6 young kids running around at dinnertime and causing lots of interruptions, but all the effort was worth it because it was wonderful. The recipe uses zucchini in place of traditional lasagna noodles and our group all agreed we truly did not miss the noodles because it was THAT flavorful! My changes: I made 1.5 times the amount called for in the beef and ricotta layer and also added about a cup of cottage cheese to the
Dessert Recipe Hits
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Broma Bakery)
My sister arrived in town a few days after her 35th birthday and we knew we wanted to celebrate Leslie by making one of her favorite sweet treats: Warm chocolate chip cookies and homemade ice cream. I made a batch of my homemade funfetti ice cream and we paired it with a new-to-me recipe for brown butter chocolate chip cookies that the boys helped me prepare before her arrival. Our expectations for these cookies were sky-high based on how much we loved the cookie dough before baking and I’m happy to report they were fantastic and well worth the extra effort to brown the butter and refrigerate the cookies before baking.
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Zucchini Cake (Sally’s Baking Addiction)
Yup, more zucchini! Ha! But this time we enjoyed it in cake-form thanks to a recipe I found on one of my favorite dessert blogs. The only change I made to the recipe was to use mashed banana in place of the applesauce because that’s what we had on hand. It definitely gave the cake more of a zucchini-banana flavor but we all loved it but the brown butter cream cheese icing really stole the show!
Questions of the Day
Have you made any new-to-you recipes you loved? Any big-time crowd pleasers?
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Do y’all ever do take out? Order pizza? I wish I had the energy (and motivation let’s be real here lol) to cook from scratch every night but I don’t. We usually do take out or order pizza once a week and it feels like such a treat (and a gift to not have to plan,, prep, cook, clean and listen to complaints about how someone does not like dinner). I think it’s amazing you cook every night and seem to get such joy from it- and a little envious about your kids being such good adventurous eaters.
That roasted beet salad looks delicious. 😋
Oh yes!! we ordered pizza one night and grabbed dinner at the pool as well and definitely do mealtime shortcuts, too!! These were just some of the recipes we made that we really liked, but not every meal was homemade!
Oh, and please know that our boys definitely do not eat everything we eat! If you look back at some old blog post where I share recaps of our weeknight dinners, I highlight what they eat and it’s definitely not mirroring our meals every night!
A win for me was your delicious dressing on your chopped summer salad! I used the leftovers on other salads and it’s sooo good! We also tried a new peach ice cream in our ninja creami and loved it! fresh peaches, sugar, honey and a little milk & a little plain Greek yogurt. Delish!
Oh I’m so glad you liked it!! Thank you for taking the time to let me know! And that ice cream sounds so incredibly good!!
We picked blueberries with my granddaughter on Sunday. Mommy and Daddy were going to pick her up and stay for dinner. I was trying to think of a blueberry dessert that wouldn’t heat up the kitchen too much, because we’re having a heat wave. Then I remembered the perfect solution: lemon yogurt topped with fresh blueberries. Easy Peasy and no heat released!! Delicious.