White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies It’s National Cookie Day and ’tis the season to bake cookies. Especially soft and chewy ones that are loaded with cranberries and white chocolate chips. These cookies were inspired by a two recent recipes. First, from my love of the Sugar-Doodle Vanilla Cookies I made a couple weeks ago. That dough is made using good old-fashioned simple ingredients. There’s nothing fancy, or specialty about it but the resulting cookies taste exceedingly special....

Easy Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza This bbq chicken pizza is so good, SO easy, and ready in 15 minutes! And everyone, including kids, love pizza for dinner! This bbq pizza recipe is almost a guaranteed crowd pleaser, and it’s super easy to make. If you plan on making your own pizza dough from scratch, give yourself more than 15 minutes to make this recipe. Typically, pizza dough needs at least an hour to rise, so plan accordingly....

Easy Spicy Peanut Noodles Recipe Treat your taste buds to a burst of flavor with this spicy peanut noodles recipe. Tender rice noodles are coated in a spicy peanut sauce. It’s a super fast and easy recipe that’s ready in just 15 minutes! Boil the noodles, whisk together the peanut sauce, done. My homemade peanut sauce is made with creamy peanut butter, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, a bit of honey or agave for sweetness, the fragrant goodness of sesame oil, vinegar for tang, and sriracha + cayenne pepper for the spiciness....

I have a hot date with some old friends. I wish I was going to someone’s house who had all kinds of great food made so I could just graze and sample, without doing any of the work involved in cooking or in doing all those dirty party dishes. Attending parties, rather than throwing them, has huge benefit: You get to eat without the work. If you happen to be throwing a party and need any recipe ideas, here’s 25: Savory Sides & Entrees Cheesy Taco Casserole (Gluten Free with Vegan option)...

Today after the gym, Skylar and I went to Fashion Valley Mall. So I found some brand new Air Vomero 5’s in a brand new color they just got yesterday at the Nike Store. (The holey-toe shoes are also Vomero 5’s. Super light and squishy feeling shoes. If you like to squish with extreme cushioning, these are your shoes) No trip to Fashion Valley would be complete without hitting up Forever 21, ala Katie style Skylar was a trooper with me for 2 hours at the mall....

Easiest Pineapple Parfait Dessert My mom has been making this 4-ingredient, no-bake angel food cake dessert for about 30 years. It never gets old, it tastes like summer, it’s ridiculously easy, you don’t need a mixer, and you don’t have to turn your oven on. Big scores. It’s the kind of dessert that you can keep eating and eating because it’s fluffy, light, airy, and refreshing. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing....

comment icon 29 more comments And then it moved into, like, I can’t wait till the weekend for that so let’s make that again on Tuesday night for dinner. And now it’s just in the permanent repertoire! Unlike the AFC, it’s not really a nightly situation – this guy is heavy and rich and unapologetically extra, and once a week is about all I can handle. So I save it for a night when I am extra hungry and looking for a comfort food hug, and it delivers every time....

I have some recipes that may help use up your bananas: Caramelized Bananas Dehydrated Bananas No-Bake Vegan Peanut Butter Protein Bars No-Bake Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Coconut Oil Protein Bars Microwave Banana Oat Cakes Vegan Gluten Free Blueberry Streusel Muffins Vegan GF Cinnamon Raisin Banana Oatmeal Muffins Vegan Gluten Free Banana Nut Muffins Strawberry Banana Bread Peanut Butter Banana Bread (Vegan, GF) Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Bread Cake (Gluten/Soy-Free) Vegan Gluten Free Pancakes Vegan Banana Crepes Vegan Banana Wraps with Nut Butter Chocolate Coconut Princess Smoothie Vegan Banana Vanilla Softserve , also see my Recipes Tab for a half dozen other variations on a theme Dairy-Free Vegan “Ice Cream” Recipe Section Overnight Chocolate Brownie Protein Oats With additional Tips Here From yesterday’s post about Halloween, I loved hearing your stories of your fave Halloween memoriesand what you loved dressing up as when you were a kid....

Why we love this Pizza Dough: Easy – Takes just a few minutes to knead in my Bosch mixer (or by hand!) and then let it rise. The little bit of effort is so worth it. I also love this Wheat Pizza Dough recipe. Versatile – we use this dough to make all of our pizza recipes, whether we’re cooking them in our Ooni pizza oven, using a pizza stone (or a pizza steel is what I have) for oven baked pizza, or making grilled pizza....

Some weeks Fuji apples are on sale, some weeks it’s Jazz apples. Some weeks it’s mangoes, other weeks it’s oranges. I usually don’t care what exact types of fruits and vegetables I buy, just that I buy them. And plenty of them. And in an assorted variety. I was really excited to see that avocados were on sale for 67 cents each. I am going to make some Cheater’s Guacamole with the avos....

Homemade Blueberry Coffee Cake To make this blueberry coffee cake recipe, I used an easy, no-mixer cake that’s adapted my favorite buttermilk cake base that I’ve used for so many cakes including: Homemade Funfetti Cake, Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Bean Browned Butter Glaze, Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze, The Best Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, Caramelized Banana Upside-Down Cake and many more. There’s a reason this is a favorite cake base and that’s because not only is it a no-mixer cake that’s so fast and easy to make, but also because the cakes always turn out supremely moist, springy, and fluffy thanks to buttermilk, sour cream, and oil....

And my camera. My poor camera. I don’t know how these things happen. I really don’t. All I know is that this is one big ol’ plate of cozy pecan pancakes yumminess. If you read Pinch of Yum’s income report for November, you already know that I had a refrigerator box mailed to me last week. What you don’t already know is that the box was full of fresh, saucy steam-in-the-bag veggies from Paula Deen’s new Southern Dishes line....

That would be the case with this bag/backpack Even though it’s not going to win any fashionista awards, it has already won me over. I have a big honkin’ camera with a big lens that I like to keep attached And I have a few other lenses that I want to bring with on our trip. Never know what lens is going to be the right one for the task at hand and the lenses do me no good at home on my countertop so I’m bringing my stash with me....

I caught up on: Washing the sheets on our bed and Skylar’s bed I washed the rugs in my kitchen and bathroom. They were in major need. From crumbs, flour, and coconut flakes to hair and dust bunnies, I’m back in business. It only takes about two and a half hours for rugs to dry in the dryer. No biggie. I also went to a computer store where I thought I was going to be able to have the computer wizard there pop the new RAM chips I had ordered from Crucial into my Macbook since it’s been beach ballin’ and pinwheeling like crazy....

This spinach stuffed shells recipe is a family favorite Italian comfort food recipe that everyone loves! Jumbo shells are cooked until al dente, then stuffed with a mixture of ricotta, Parmesan cheese, spinach, and a blend of dried herbs. They’re topped with a generous layer of mozzarella and marinara sauce before being baked until golden brown and bubbling. Stuffed shells are easy enough to prepare for weeknight dinners, but they’re also great for dinner parties and holiday entertaining....

Chewy Chocolate Molasses Cookies Molasses cookies are some of my all-time favorites and normally I’m a purist with them, preferring just the robustly-flavored cookies as is. But I threw caution to the wind and added chocolate. Three times. At first, I was going to just going to add a bit of cocoa powder to the cookie batter to round out and complement the molasses, but my hands had a mind of their own and reached for the bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips....

Want more Italian recipes? Try Tomato and Basil Bruschetta, Classic Italian Risotto, or Chicken Parmesan. Why we love this recipe: Alex and I love making this recipe for Sunday lunch because it is a classic chicken preparation that lends itself to being shared leisurely with family and friends amid much chatter in a relaxing weekend moment. The flavors are intense, and the chicken should come out so tender that you don’t need a knife to cut it....

Want more chicken dishes? Try Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Chicken Tetrazzini, Chicken and Dumplings, or Chicken Pot Pie! Why I love this meal: Family Favorite – My kids love my mom’s Chicken Divan recipe as much as I did at their age. It’s the kind of healthier comfort food we crave in the cooler months. Healthier – Traditional Chicken Divan is loaded with cheese, sour cream, and bread crumbs, but I far prefer this lighter version!...

Chicken Enchilada Sliders Recipe Everyone loves sliders! But these Mexican-inspired pulled chicken sliders are extra fabulous! There’s juicy shredded chicken that’s tossed with spicy enchilada sauce, gooey melted cheese, and it’s sandwiched in between soft Hawaiian rolls. Before baking, I brush the Hawaiian bread with a melted garlic butter and Mexican oregano mixture. Whether you want to serve these as a New Year’s Eve party snack, a game day or Superbowl party, or as a quick and easy weeknight dinner, you’ll be ready to dive into these little sandwiches in no time....

comment icon 32 more comments Let’s get messy today with a runny egg yolk over spicy chili and a sweet cornbread waffle. Yeah? I won’t even judge if you if you have eggs yolks running down your chin and chili drippings on your shirt. Can I be honest with you? I am a total sugar-lover, so savory waffles are extremely out of the box for me. But then I found out that I lovvvve these, a lot....