Jolene's Recipe Journal

Hands down, fall is my favorite season. There's just something about the leaves changing and the temps dropping that inspires me to get into the kitchen.   This week I'll be joining some foodie friends to celebrate the flavors of fall and I'm kicking it off with Apple Cranberry Pecan Overnight Oats.  This post is sponsored in conjunction with Fall Flavors Week. I received product samples from sponsor companies to aid in the creation of my recipes. All opinions are my own. I started by toasting some chopped Millican Pecan Company pieces in a skillet.  Keep a close eye on them so they don't burn!  I moved them to parchment to cool.   Then I combined Dixie Crystals brown sugar with Taylor & Colledge vanilla bean paste along with a little water to make a glaze.   I added whole Millican Pecan Company pecans and tossed them until they were well coated.  I let them set on a piece of parchment.  I prefer to layer the ingredients in jars, but you can also just to

Quinoa has been one of my go-to side dishes for a few years now and I'm always looking for new ways to serve it up.  I found Cindy R's Quinoa and Black Bean Stuffed Peppers on the Taste of Home site.  The recipe calls for cutting the tops off of green peppers, but I prefer yellow and red instead.  I also cut them in half.  This meant I had to microwave them in two batches instead of one, and then I moved them to a 13x9 baking dish.     I used pre-rinsed quinoa, which is a huge time saver.  I like that this recipe uses some of my favorite pantry staples, black beans and salsa. I used whole milk ricotta because that's what I have on hand.   I topped them with Fiesta blend cheese.  If you want to up the general heat level, you can definitely go with a spicier blend.   Two pepper halves made a nice filling dinner.  I froze the remaining halves until solid and then vacuum sealed them for future meals. Thank you so much to Cindy for sharing her amazing recipe!   ************* Q

September is #WholeGrainsMonth and I'm celebrating with one of my favorites, quinoa! I eat a lot of brown rice/quinoa blends and other savory dishes, but I really wanted to find a way to sweeten it up.  I found this Spiced Blueberry Quinoa on the Taste of Home site.    I had bagged pre-rinsed quinoa which made this one a breeze to make.  I'm not a huge fan of almonds, so I used some pecans instead.  Next time I'll toast them or maybe glaze them. Full disclosure, I didn't measure the blueberries.  I had most of a pint left, dumped some in and then reserved some for the top.   I packed the cooled quinoa into jars for easy grab and go breakfast. I topped them off with some more pecans and blueberries. It's great cold or warmed back up and a nice change from overnight oats.  Thank you so much to Shannon C for sharing her recipe!     Spiced Blueberry Quinoa Print With Image Without Image Author: Jolene's Recipe Journal Ingredients 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed and well dra

Hard to believe that August is coming to an end but that means apple season is just around the corner! For this month's Muffin Monday I made Suzanne P's Dutch Apple Pie Muffins from Taste of Home.

    We are big fans of waffles so I jumped at the chance to join some of my fellow blogger friends to celebrate #NationalWaffleDay today!  Since I've made a ton of sweet waffles, I went searching for a savory option and found Stacey J's BLT Waffle Sliders on the Taste of Home site.    I'm going to be honest, the recipe calls for separating the eggs and beating them to stiff peaks and I did not.  I know that this may result in a slightly more dense waffle, but since it's for a sandwich I'm totally okay with that.     I used a cookie scoop to make sure they were all the same size. I split the batch evenly and did half of them as slider size and half as full size waffles.  I think those would be great topped with chili, so I'm going to freeze some of them for when the weather is cooler.   This would make a great brunch item because you can lay everything out and people can assemble their own based on their likes and dislikes. My guys don't do veggies, so they&#