Families With Grace

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Tag: Dinner

Easy baked quesadilla recipe

Posted on by Stacey A. Shannon

Crispy, delicious quesadillas made in your oven

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I love easy recipes that are customizable for what my family likes. I’ve got a couple of particular eaters in my house. This easy baked quesadilla recipe fits that category.

Before we had kiddos, I came up with this recipe for my husband and me and I continue to make it now. This recipe is pretty straightforward and simple but you can switch it up to include whatever your family likes.

Preheat the oven to 400-degrees (F) and prepare your baking sheets. You can spray them with non-stick cooking spray or line them with sheets parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

I prefer to line my baking sheets for easier clean-up. I also like the parchment paper because then I can use a marker to write the first initial beside the quesadilla of who it belongs to since they are all different in some way.

Once you’re all set up then get out your tortillas. I use two tortillas per quesadilla, but you could also use one quesadilla folded in half.

Tortillas are where the baked quesadilla recipe starts. You could use wheat tortillas. I used flour. And you can pick the size. I made smaller soft taco-sized tortillas for my son’s quesadillas. I used the larger burrito-sized tortillas for my husband, daughter and me.

To help them crisp up nicely in the oven, I spritz one side of each tortilla with margarine spray. You can also use melted butter and your spray bottle to spritz the shells or lightly brush it on. I do around 10 squirts for the large burrito-sized shells. I spray the bottom first and then spray the top shell after I place it on top when the filling is in.

The spray margarine is the easiest for me to use, but you can also work with melted margarine or butter. Non-stick cooking spray works as well, but not quite as great.
Once the tortillas are sprayed, I use my clean hands and smear the margarine around a bit so most of the shell has a light coating.

With the buttered side face down onto the cooking sheet, put the filling in your quesadillas. Get creative with what your family likes. My son’s was just cheese. My husband’s had bacon and onion with a small amount of cheese.

This is my son’s quesadilla filled with only cheese. I use mostly Mexican cheese blend but also add in some Italian cheese blend.
My husband’s quesadillas are filled with precooked bacon cooked until it’s crispy and not too much cheese, because he doesn’t like cheese so much.

My daughter and I opted for a chicken bacon ranch version. It was so incredibly good. To make it easier, I used precooked refrigerated chicken, precooked bacon cooked to a crisp in the microwave, ranch dressing, tomato, onion and roughly chopped baby spinach.

The chicken bacon ranch quesadillas were quite delicious! Mine is on the left, because I like cheese much more than my daughter.

Put the quesadillas into the preheated oven and bake them for 6 minutes. Pull them out and flip them over. Put them back in the oven for another 6 minutes. Check and see if they are golden brown around the edges. If so, they are finished. If not, leave them in there and check again in 2 minutes.

Fresh from the oven!

Use a pizza cutter (or sharp knife) to slice the quesadillas and serve them warm. We always eat sour cream with ours, because our family LOVES sour cream!

Easy baked quesadillas

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • Flour or wheat tortilla shells soft taco or burrito size, depending on how big you want your quesadillas to be, 2 per quesadilla
  • Spray margarine can also use melted margarine or butter or, in a pinch, non-stick cooking spray
  • Shredded Mexican blend cheese
  • Shredded Italian blend cheese
  • Quesadilla fillings such as bacon, chicken, ground beef, steak, onions, peppers, tomatoes, etc.

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 400-degrees.
  • Prepare baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray or line them with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
  • Get out one tortilla shells per quesadilla. Cover on side of it with the margarine or butter. (For spray margarine, I use 8 to 10 squirts and smear it around with my clean hands.)
  • Please the shells buttered side down onto your prepared baking sheet(s).
  • Put your filling ingredients onto the top of the shells. Top them with cheese. I use 3/4 Mexican blend or colby jack cheese and 1/4 Italian blend or mozzarella cheese. The amount of cheese varies based on the size of your shell and your family's preferences.
  • Then add whatever ingredients your family prefers. I love chicken bacon ranch using precooked, refrigerated chicken, precooked bacon cooked until crispy in the microwave, shredded cheese, ranch dressing, tomato, onion and roughly chopped spinach.
  • Place another tortilla on top. Lightly cover it with margarine or butter, just as you did the bottom shells.
  • Place into your preheated oven for 6 minutes.
  • Pull out the quesadillas and carefully flip them over.
  • Bake for 6 more minutes or until the edges are a nice golden brown.
  • Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to slice and serve hot. We usually serve ours with sour cream because we love it!

30 Recipes you need this holiday season

Posted on by Stacey A. Shannon

Whether you’re looking for appetizers, sides, easy dinners or desserts, we’ve got the holiday recipes you need!

Just like everything else in 2020, the upcoming holiday season promises to be a different one. Whether you’re suddenly taking on preparing all the holiday meals or joining with a few others to celebrate, chances are you’re going to be cooking over these next couple of months.

So, I’ve pulled together 30 recipes for appetizers, sides, easy dinners for busy nights and desserts to help make your holiday season easier.

You’ll find some delicious food and recipes that may have you drooling on your keyboard or phone! You’re going to want to Pin this post so you can come back to it time and again.

I knew I couldn’t come up with everything on my own, so I turned to some of my blogger friends to help me share mouth-watering recipes you and your family are going to love!

Appetizer recipes

These recipes can legitimately be appetizers, but they can also be left out as snacks for people to nosh on while they wait for dinner to start or in between meals. And, honestly, they can often make easy weeknight dinners when you are busy during the holiday season!

Anything with pizza in the name is sure to be a crowd pleaser. This veggie pizza recipe from Cassie at Get Your Holiday On has a buttery crust and is stuffed full of fresh veggies and a special sauce.

Similar to the veggie pizza, this delicious BLT pizza recipe would be great as an appetizer, snack or even dinner. You can customize it based on what your family likes. It tastes good served warm, room temperature or cold.

Pizza flavors are always a hit with my family, and I’d guess that’s true for most families. These pepperoni pinwheels are easy to come together and make a great appetizer, snack or dinner. Using canned pizza crust makes them even easier!

If you’re combining bacon, ranch and cheese, you know you’ve got a hit on your hands. This bacon ranch cheese bread starts with frozen bread dough to make it easier. It’s a terrific for snacking!

You can’t get an easier appetizer or snack that tortilla chips and salsa. To kick it up a notch, try making your own salsa using this pantry salsa recipe. It’s super easy and will impress people to know you made salsa from scratch in the middle of cold weather!

An easy, flavorful mild salsa recipe that can be made with ingredients from your pantry. It's a perfect addition to taco or nacho nights! #salsa #salsarecipe #easyrecipe #pantrysalsa

Side dish recipes

If you’re looking for an alternative to canned, jiggly cranberry sauce, Heather from The Supermom Life has you covered with this recipe for fresh cranberry orange relish. Served cold, this simple recipe features fresh cranberries and oranges. Check out the adorable way she garnished it as well!

Stuffing is essential to holiday meals. It can be tricky, though, for those who are gluten free, have allergies or are vegan. Rebecca from Strength and Sunshine, which specializes in delicious gluten-free and allergy friendly recipes, has a Gluten-Free Vegan Stuffing recipe that will have all your dinner guests asking for seconds!

If a recipe includes bacon and even onion, then I’m pretty much on board! Heather from The Super Mom Life has a recipe for collard greens that will make you want to try them if you never have. She serves them up regularly at holiday dinners for her family.

Another delicious stuffing or dressing recipe comes from Heather of the Super Mom Life. This dill stuffing recipe can be used to stuff a turkey or be made as a separate dish.

Potato gratin goes by a variety of names from scalloped potatoes to party potatoes. I don’t really care what they’re called. Anything with potatoes and cheese has my tastebuds excited! Emma from Emma Eats & Explores has a slight twist on this dish by using sweet potatoes instead! Easier to digest, fewer carbs and more vitamins, sweet potatoes offer a healthy and delicious alternative. This cheesy sweet potato gratin recipe is creamy, crispy and cheesy. It’s sure to be a hit!

Getting kids to eat veggies can be a challenge. But Cassie from Foster to Adopt has a way to make veggies fun. These baked broccoli chips are great as a side dish or for snacking at the holidays. They are low carb and a yummy, easy way to eat veggies. It’s a win all around!

Easy dinner recipes

One-pot dinners are always a great for easy dinners during busy times — like the holiday season. Even better are ones that don’t need a lot of ingredients! Mindy from Mindy Jones Blog has an easy 3-ingredient chili recipe to keep you warm and full on cold, busy nights.

I could (and do!) eat breakfast food any time of day: breakfast, lunch or dinner. So this next recipe could be an easy dinner or a nice warm breakfast to get your day started off. It’s perfect if you find yourself with extra guests for breakfast as well. This hearty and sweet apple sausage hash casserole from Jenny at Wholesome Family Living can be made ahead and is freezer friendly.

If you’re looking for twist on tacos for an easy dinner, check out this taco cornbread bake. It has all the flavors of tacos in a warm bake that is easy to serve up to your family on a busy night. You can easily double the recipe and feed a crowd.

One pot dinners are super easy. Having fewer dishes to clean is always a good thing! And this one pan autumn chicken dinner from Tabatha at A Joy Fueled Journey is perfect for busy weeknights in the midst of the holiday season. The chicken and veggies cook all together for a yummy and filling dinner.

If you’re craving comfort food for an easy dinner but want to make sure it’s healthy and satisfying to both your vegan and meat-eating crowd, this Vegan Cauliflower Lentil Loaf from Rebecca at Strength and Sunshine will hit the spot. It mimics classic meatloaf but is gluten-free, nut-free and soy-free.

Recipes for the slow cooker that you can put together and then forget about are great for busy seasons. This slow cooker potato soup is one such recipe. By using frozen hash browns, it literally takes about five minutes to put together and results in a warm, hearty dinner. You can double the recipe and fed a huge crowd with it.

Dessert recipes

Is monkey bread a breakfast or a dessert? I don’t know and don’t even care. I just know it’s delicious! Kate from My Joy in Chaos has this ultimate homemade monkey bread recipe you and your family will love. This make-ahead monkey bread is a full platter of fluffy dough bursting with cinnamon sugar and coated in a homemade caramel sauce.

Chocolate and mint are delicious. And the holidays are a great time for making cookies. Combine all of that together and get a mouth-watering peppermint chocolate chip cookie that Lorie from lemons + zest has perfected. It’s a soft, chewy cookie packed with candy canes and chocolate chips that Santa will love — and so will your family!

Speaking of cookies (which are totally my thing during the holiday season), these peanut butter cookies are easy and delicious. They are soft on the inside with just the right amount of crisp to the outside.

I would be remiss if I didn’t share this toffee cookie recipe. The perfect mix of chewy and crunchy, these cookies are the most requested item I make. Just beware that they are kinda addicting!

For a classic fall flavor, these apple pie bars from Jenny at Wholesome Family Living are a nice alternative to a traditional apple pie. They are sugar-, dairy- and gluten-free apple pie bars that can also be made vegan. They’re ideal for folks who don’t like a lot of crust because they have a more filling-to-crust ratio!

One of the best kind of recipes for the busy holiday season is one that is quick, easy and doesn’t require many ingredients. That describes this whipped pudding pie recipe perfectly! With only four ingredients, you can pick any flavor of instant pudding mix to use. Butterscotch, chocolate or mint chocolate work incredibly well for cooler weather. And, you don’t even have to use your oven for this one. So easy and so delicious!

With only 4-ingredients and no baking required, this whipped pudding pie is super easy and can be made with so many different flavor combinations! #Recipe #EasyRecipe #Pie #PuddingPie #WhippedPuddingPie #Dessert

Mmmmmmm. Chocolate! I love chocolate, you guys! And this recipe for chocolate chestnut pots from Emma at Emma Eats and Explores is a deliciously rich and decadent treat. It would be a scrumptious ending to any meal.

Whether you love everything pumpkin spice flavored or not, pumpkin pie is surely a staple throughout the holiday season. Katie from The Curated Mom has a recipe for mini pumpkin pies. Seriously anything in mini form is so fun to eat — and it feels like it’s less calories by doing so!

Speaking of pumpkin, my favorite way to enjoy pumpkin and its flavors is through pumpkin bread. It makes me happy. While I’m listing it under desserts, because it surely can be a dessert, our family has it for breakfast, snacks and dessert!

Another great pumpkin option that goes beyond pie is pumpkin pie truffles. This recipe from Jenny at Wholesome Family Living combines yummy pumpkin with decadent chocolate for a flavor explosion your family and friends will love.

Sometimes the best recipes are less recipe and more hack. If you can start with a box mix that’s easy and then kick it up a notch, why not?! This one hack can make a brownie mix so fudgy good that everyone will ask you for the recipe. It’s up to you if you tell them how easy it is!

Another “hack” sort of recipe uses a boxed cake mix. If you’re making a cake or cupcakes, check out these four easy tweaks to make a cake mix taste better than a bakery cake.

And then, of course, you’re going to need to top your cake or cupcakes. This quick and easy buttercream will make you swoon. Even my non-icing liking family members (who I completely don’t understand) love this icing!

8 Pizza recipes your family will love

Posted on by Stacey A. Shannon

A round-up of the best pizza recipes

If I want to guarantee my family, including my two particular eaters, will gobble up dinner, I know making something pizza will do the trick! (Things taco/nacho-related are also a hit.)

But I don’t want to make, serve or eat the same thing all the time. So shaking it up a bit works really well. With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of pizza-related recipes that your family is sure to love.

These easy pizza subs I shared back in August are not only easy to make, but they are easy to customize based on what your family members like and they taste delicious!

Heather from The Super Mom Life has another take on pizza with these party pizzas made from English muffins. They are also easily customizable to your family members’ preferences and delicious!

If you want to get a bit more adventurous in the kitchen, this mock napoleon pizza recipe from Shayla at Singing a New Song is a great one to try. The thin crust pizza is best made in a wood-burning, stone oven, but since you probably don’t have one (and neither does she!), she’s found a way to make it taste nearly as good as you’d get at a swanky Italian restaurant.

Famlee of Four has a list of five easy and fun pizza recipes that your family will love for pizza night. With options like barbeque chicken pizza, cheeseburger pizza and meatball pizza, there are some great ideas for how to use leftovers and switch up flavors that even your kiddos will like!

If you’re in the mood for traditional pizza flavors, but are low on time or wanting something just different, check out these pepperoni pizza pinwheels that I shared in January. I just made them again last week. My daughter made them with just a bit of help from me with cutting and my family gobbled them up. Win-win!

While pizza flavors are awesome, there are also some delicious pizza options that aren’t in traditional flavors. This easy veggie pizza from Cassie at Get Your Holiday On uses crescent rolls for a crust and you can use whatever veggies your family likes most. It’s great for an appetizer or carry-in dinner as well!

Another non-traditional pizza that also uses a crescent roll crust is the BLT pizza that I shared back in September. It’s super easy and super delicious!

And if we’re talking pizza, we can’t neglect a dessert pizza! This fruit pizza from Mehgan at Planning for Keeps is a great option with a sugar cookie crust topped with cream cheese icing and fruit.

And if you’re like Sarah from Mom with a Map who told me that pizza is her love language, you’re probably going to want to check out her post about the top five places in America to get pizza named from by the foodies at the Food Network! The best part is you don’t have to clean the kitchen after you eat!

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