Homemade BoBerry Biscuits

My coworker was talking about making homemade apple fritters all week, and they sounded so good I decided to make some, too. I searched Pinterest for my favorite apple fritter recipe, but you know how it first shows you all the results and then you have to click on "your pins" to find the recipe you saved? Well, right next to all the yummy apple fritter recipes was a recipe for blueberry fritters!

They looked awesome, so I decided to give them a try. Only problem was, the recipe called for 2 eggs and I had no eggs, because I used them all for some delicious egg salad the day before. Bummed, I decided to go back to my apple fritter recipe, only to discover it called for an egg, too! Double-bummed, I went back to Pinterest and saw the blueberry fritter recipe again, which reminded me of the BoBerry Biscuits they sell at Bojangles.

If you don't know what Bojangles is, well, I am so sorry!  Bojangles is a Charlotte, NC-based fast food restaurant with franchise locations pretty much everywhere south of the Mason-Dixon. They specialize in chicken and biscuits, and sticking with the theme, for dessert they offer their amazing buttery biscuits, speckled with blueberries and drizzled with glaze. I decided to search for a copycat recipe for those, and low and behold, I found one--and it didn't even call for eggs!

These turned out great and took about as long to make as it would've taken me to drive to my local Bojangles and buy some. I used some frozen blueberries, but fresh or even dried would be just fine.


Homemade BoBerry Biscuits

Prep time: 10 min  Bake time: 10 min
Serves 12

2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups buttermilk*
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbs shortening
1/2 cup butter, cut into 1/4 in cubes
5 oz blueberries

Glaze
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
4 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 450F.

Combine dry ingredients. Cut in shortening and butter. Add buttermilk and stir till just combined.  Fold in blueberries.  Add additional flour if dough is too sticky.

Place dough on floured cutting board, rub rolling pin with flour, and roll dough out to desired thickness. (I like 3/4 inch)

Use a cookie or biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits.

Bake for 8-10 minutes till desired brownness.

Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over biscuits. These are great warm or cool!

*If you don't have buttermilk and can't be bothered to go get some, just add 1-2 Tbs of lemon juice or vinegar to a cup of milk and let it sit for 5 minutes till it starts to curdle. Voila! You have buttermilk.

244 calories per serving.  Click here for more nutritional info and shopping list!

Crunchy Pretzel Pecan Strawberry Salad

It's strawberry season at last! I've been eagerly awaiting its arrival for weeks, and I had grand plans to kick it off with this yummy-sounding salad.  My favorite strawberry farmer told me 2 weeks ago that he should have tons of berries by this week. I don't know what it was that made me give him a call to verify before making the short drive to Early Farms, but I was totally bummed to learn that some kind of infestation had destroyed his entire crop in the short time since we last spoke. I sympathized with him for a few minutes while trying to decide if I even wanted to try this recipe with anybody else's berries. I had been salivating over it for several days, though, so I decided to pick up some still great, but slightly less amazing, berries from another fruit stand nearby. They weren't sweet as candy like my favorites, but with all the goodies in this salad, it really didn't matter. The pretzel/pecan crunch topping is absolutely amazing, and I may have eaten a significant amount of it straight from the pan. Fortunately, there was still plenty left for the salad.

Crunchy Pretzel Pecan Strawberry Salad

Prep time: 5 min  Bake time: 7 min
Serves 10

1 cup pretzels, crushed
½ cup pecans, chopped
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup butter, melted
3 cups strawberries, diced about a quart)
8 oz cream cheese, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz whipped topping

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix together crushed pretzels, chopped pecans, brown sugar and melted butter. Spread on a large baking sheet with sides (I used my jelly roll pan) and bake at 400°F for 7 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool and then break it into small pieces.

Beat together softened cream cheese, granulated sugar and vanilla.  Fold in whipped topping.

Before serving, stir the diced strawberries and sugared pretzels and pecans into the cream cheese mixture.

430 calories per serving.  Click here for more nutritional info and shopping list!

Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza

It is no secret that pizza is my absolute favorite food. I crave it WAY more often than my husband wants to have it, so when I do get it, I usually just want the traditional tomato sauce version. However, there are a ton of great variations out there that don't taste anything like regular pizza, so I can make them all I want and no one can complain!

This is a simple but delicious white sauce pizza with incredible flavor. It does call for precooked chicken and bacon, but the bacon only takes a minute and leftover cooked chicken is pretty common around my house, probably around yours, too. With those on hand, this comes together faster than Dominos can deliver!

Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza
Prep time: 5 min  Bake time: 15 min
Serves 4

1 (13.8 oz) can pizza dough
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup chicken, cooked and shredded
2 tomatoes, thinly sliced

For the Garlic-Ranch Sauce:
2 Tbs sour cream
3 Tbs mayonnaise
2 1/2 Tbs milk
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp dill
1/8 tsp dried parsley
dash of onion powder
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 450ºF.  Spread out pizza dough on a pizza pan or sheet pan.  Mix all ingredients together for the garlic-ranch sauce. Spread mixture over the top of the pizza dough. Sprinkle 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese over top, followed by the chicken, bacon, and tomatoes. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.  Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly.

684 calories per serving.  Click here for more nutritional info and shopping list!

Cheeseburger Soup

Everybody in my family loves a hot, hearty soup to warm them up on a cold winter day. Whodathunk it would be 75 degrees on December 27th? No worries, with the A/C on it was nice and chilly inside and the soup went down just fine.

This has all the yummy flavors of a cheeseburger, with a few veggies thrown in for good measure.  I served it with some fresh baked rolls and everybody went back for seconds.  Next time I'll serve it with pickle spears on the side!

Cheeseburger Soup

Prep time: 10 min  Cook time: 30 min
Serves 8

1 lb ground beef
3/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup shredded carrots
3/4 cup diced celery
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
4 Tbs butter, divided
3 cups chicken broth
4 cups diced peeled potatoes
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup flour
8 oz Velveeta cheese, cubed
1-1/2 cups milk
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup sour cream

In a 3-qt. saucepan, brown beef; drain and set aside. In the same saucepan, saute the onion, carrots, celery, basil and parsley in 1 tablespoon butter until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the broth, potatoes, tomatoes and beef; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt remaining butter. Add flour; cook and stir for 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. Add to soup; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in the cheese, milk, salt and pepper; cook and stir until cheese melts. Remove from the heat; blend in sour cream.

432 calories per serving.  Click here for more nutritional info and shopping list!

Gingerbread Caramel Bars

I really love how different seasons have their own special flavors, like pumpkin in the fall and peppermint and gingerbread for Christmas. It makes them more special when you wait all year for them! I love gingerbread anything and I collect gingerbread recipes all year, so when Christmas rolls around it's always a struggle to decide which one I'm going to make.

This recipe is very similar to a chocolate chip caramel bar I made a few weeks ago that was DIVINE, so I was pretty sure this was going to be awesome, too.  It was chewy, gooey, caramel-y, and had a delicious gingerbread flavor. Everybody who tried it loved it!  Next time I might pretty up the squares with a little swirl of decorative frosting, but it definitely doesn't require any extra sugar.  It is tooth-rotting sweet but oh so good!

Gingerbread Caramel Bars
Prep time: 15 min  Bake time: 30 min
Serves 25

1 (15.25 oz) box yellow cake mix
1 egg
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
(or just add more molasses to light brown sugar)
1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp ginger
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
5.5 oz caramels (about 20 caramels)
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

Combine cake mix, egg, molasses, butter, sugar, flour and spices and mix until smooth. Batter will be thick and sticky.

Line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper, extending the paper up the sides of the pan.
Add half of the gingerbread batter to the pan and spread evenly. Batter will be sticky, so it might help to drop spoonfuls into the pan, then spread.

Melt caramels in a microwaveable bowl until mostly smooth, with a few chunks left.  Add melted caramel to sweetened condensed milk and combine.  Pour caramel mixture over the gingerbread dough in the pan.

Drop spoonfuls of remaining dough over the caramel layer, spreading a bit to mostly cover the caramel layer.

Bake at 350 for 30-33 minutes.  Allow to cool in the pan, then cut into squares.

199 calories per serving.  Click here for more nutritional info and shopping list!