Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pierogi Bake

Pierogi. Delightful pockets of potato, cheddar, and other various fillings...and what can make these even better than they already are? Bacon. Bacon makes most things in life better. While perusing Pinterest, I ran across this very tasty looking recipe from Table for Seven. With a box of frozen pierogi in the freezer, I had to jump at the chance to make this recipe. However, anyone who knows me, knows that I tend to sway from the recipe card. This was no exception.

I added a Ranch twist to this delightful dish. I hope you'll find it as simple and satisfying as I did. Enjoy!

Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pierogi Bake

You'll need:

1 16oz box of Potato and Cheddar pierogis

1/3c reduced fat cream cheese

1/2c low sodium chicken broth

3 strips of low sodium, pre-cooked bacon

1/2c shredded cheddar cheese

1/2-1tbsp ranch seasoning mix

Begin by preheating your oven to 400. Spray an 8x8 casserole dish with cooking spray

and layout the pierogis.



They will over lap just a little.

In a small sauce pan on medium heat, begin melting the cream cheese. As it melts, add the chicken broth. Stir in the ranch seasoning. It doesn't look pretty at first, but...

if you whisk it until smooth, you'll find a beautiful, creamy sauce comes to fruition.

Evenly pour the sauce over the pierogis.

Sprinkle the cheese and bacon over the top of the pasta.

Bake until the cheese is melted, the bacon is crisp and the pierogis are heated though (20-30 minutes).

Enjoy!!!



I hope you'll also enjoy some of the other recipes I've now posted in my

For the Love of Food section.





Five on Friday: Things that Will Make You Smile

Hello! Hello! It's time for another Five on Friday! I'd love it if you'd join me and others for this week's five.

 

[one]

We had some family pictures taken a couple weeks ago, along with some adorable one year photos of G. Thanks to Shay White Photography, here are a few of my favorite...

[two]

In light of some frustrating and discouraging circumstances facing our school division right now (especially next week, keep us in prayer), this little video was sent out to our faculty and staff. I laughed out loud multiple times! Three cheers for educators!

[three]

Upon visiting one of my favorite little cupcake shops on Tuesday, I saw that they had new art work displayed. I instantly fell in love with this picture! It would go perfectly in our soon to be playroom.

The artist's name is Raven Smith. I hope you'll check out her work. It's adorable! 

[four]

We will be breaking ground on our garden in the next few days. We're trying to decide what we want to plant this year. We're scaling down on the size of the garden a bit...which is still better than not planting one at all. We had to opt out of one last year because I had just had the baby. With the late frosts this year we're already feeling behind. I did pin this handy planting guide to my Diggin' In The Dirt board on Pinterest. It will definitely help guide us in our plant choices this year.

[five]

As you could tell from G's pictures, her bangs have gotten quite long. The thought of cutting them just broke my heart...but alas, a mom does what she must. I did a quick trim this week so that the poor child could see without hair in her face. I won't say that I am considering this her "first official hair cut" but the trimmings did make their way into her baby book.

Hello One-derland! Part 3: The Party

Happy! Happy! Happy!

Well, I've posted about the good times that led up to prep time...now let's get to party time!!! Everyone, including my husband (who was in charge of bringing our daughter) was running behind for the party. That's what happens when you have kids. Upon everyone's arrival we prayed and then people began to eat from our festive food table. Once they were settled in, I took the opportunity to grab some photos of our sweet guests.

Once folks had been able to eat a bit, we began having G open her presents. Attempting to have a one year old maintain interest in every present can be very difficult. We did our best to keep things moving. We had a blast assisting her with her gifts. The light of delight on her face as gifts surfaced lit up the room.

 We can't thank everyone enough for all of their generous giving. We have one blessed little girl.

After the gifts were opened, we moved right into the cake. I made G a smash cake covered in sprinkles. At first she just poked and prodded while occasionally tasting her tiny fingers. With a little assistance, she discovered there was cake underneath and well, that cake did not stand a chance. She is a pro!

We enjoyed every moment of G's first birthday. We still can't wrap our minds around the fact that she is now a year old. All the months of thinking back to how I was pregnant or how close I was to delivery this time last year have passed. I now look forward to all of the wonderful things to come.  My love for her grows daily and I am certain that things will only get better from here.
      

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward." Psalm 127:3

Hello One-derland! Part 2: Party Prep

As promised, here are some behind the scene things from G's first birthday party. I love that I can now share some of the treasures that I've been harboring on a secret Pinterest board. A lot of prep work went into her party even though I tried to keep it pretty simple. I went with a Spring theme so that I could incorporate a lot of fun festive colors without having to put Easter eggs everywhere (since her birthday was the day before Easter).

The Food:
I wanted to keep the food simple. We were having her party mid afternoon so a meal wasn't quite necessary, but we'd be cutting it close so I wanted people to have something to hold them over. With the help of my mom and sister, I put together a tray for the "Veggie Patch" and made turkey and ham tortilla wrap pinwheels. Super easy. Really good.

My mother-in-law brought a fruit tray that we displayed as the "Fruit Field" on the food table.

We also had "Peanut Bunny and Jelly" sandwiches for the kids (and adults). My sister spent some time making PB&J sandwiches and then used carrot and bunny shaped cookie cutters to make cute shapes with the sandwiches. They were a big hit!

One of my favorite components of the food table was what we served to drink. Besides bottled water, I mixed together this delicious "Carrot Juice" punch. Don't let the name fool you. No veggies were harmed in the making of this punch.

The Cake:

Of course I was going to make her cake. Although I haven't decorated a cake in over a year and a half and I may be a little rusty, I had to give it a go. At first I thought I'd just make cupcakes, but then I saw this adorable cake and had to try it.

It began with G deciding on the color of her cake. I knew I would do a basic vanilla but thought I'd add a touch of color. I presented G with several food coloring bottles and she chose the turquoise. Her cake then became a white/turquoise marble vanilla cake. The icing was my homemade butter cream. Now for the fun part...the decorating!

I shaped the bunny bottom and feet out of Rice Krispy cereal. I then covered them in the fondant and used toothpicks to help hold the pieces together.


I filled in the top with chocolate candies and used KitKats to border the cake.

Her smash cake was also a treat to put together. While it may be years before she appreciates all the love put into these cakes, I must say that I enjoyed putting forth the effort.


The Decorations:
There were several things I wanted to do for her party, but time and budget dictated what I could muster. I put together this adorable carrot garland.

I also made up these cute carrot party favors. I found the bags on sale at Jo-Ann Fabrics and with my coupon I got them for next to nothing. I filled them with animal shaped cheddar cheese crackers.

 

 

I made up this sign to put next to the party favors.

I fell in love with this book idea for her party. I found a book to commemorate her first year. The idea is that people will write special notes to her throughout the book and it will become a keepsake that she'll treasure for years to come. I made this sign to put next to the book. I placed these on the gift table so that people would be sure to sign it.

Another fun touch was added to the food table. I found the idea for these super cute napkin/utensil rolls. Who wouldn't love to put their paws on these?

The most taxing, both surprisingly in cost and time, were the topiaries I chose to make for the centerpieces. I'm still not sure what I did wrong, but the topiary ball would not stand up on the dowel rod...even though it was fully supported in the flower pot. So...to spare my sanity, I scaled them down a bit. Over 360 suckers later, here is my version (the original version can be found here).

 

 

Everything came together so nicely and I can't thank my mom, sister, husband and best friend for all of their help to make this come together. You can check out the events in my Hello One-derland! Part 1. I'll be posting little delights from her party soon!

Easter 2014

 

::via::

 

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love the sights and sounds of Spring! Easter has always been filled with fun family gatherings and sweet treats. However, before any baskets are opened or eggs are gathered, we've always reflected on the Heart of Easter...the death and resurrection of my Jesus.

 

::via::

 

While I celebrate my salvation all throughout the year as I live to serve my Savior, I do enjoy the festivities of the holiday. This year was G's first Easter. You can catch a glimpse of her first egg hunt here.

 

My family came in on Thursday but had to leave really early on Easter morning. My husband also had to go into work. I was blessed to have my best friend come in for G's birthday. She made plans to stay through Monday, which worked out really well. She celebrated G's first Easter with us and her extended stay allowed for some much needed catch up time. We typically go to the "Sonrise" service but with everything we had going on that morning, we opted to go to the main church service instead.

 

G with Aunt LaLa

We went to church and then enjoyed a nice lunch out afterwards. We came home and relaxed for the remainder of the day. It's nice to have someone you can sit in a room with and be okay with the silence. Love her!!!

 

Here are a few pictures from G's first Easter. While I know I'm biased, I must say she is one beautiful little girl. I am forever in awe of how lovely she is and just how much of a blessing she continues to be in our lives.

 



Hello One-derland! Part 1

G is 1!!!

 

 

In May 2011 we began our TTC journey. After battling PCOS induced infertility, we finally welcomed two pink lines. We were ecstatic! At 37 1/2 weeks our little girl made her way into the world. Our lives were transformed in an instant. Her first cry was the most beautiful sound in the world. She had her father's face and the most perfect little fingers and toes. Our sleepy little platinum blond has since grown into a spunky, independent red-head. She may look like her daddy but she has her mommy's personality. As we mourn reflect on the passing of her first year, we look forward to what is to come. God has been so good to us. He remained faithful even when we felt like we were not. He listened to our silent prayers at the moments we could not utter them or did not know what to pray for. Through it all, He continued to prove His love for us and gave us more than we could ever ask for.

 

2013

2014

 

Plans for her party began a few weeks ago. I slowly began gathering items. I fell in love with several bunny themed items, although I was determined not to have her party look "Eastery". I wanted to avoid an Easter egg overload. I instead just went with a Spring theme that incorporated fun colors and of course, a bunny or two.

Although the timing wasn't prime for many due to Easter being the next day, we decided to have her party on the day of her actual birthday. Her day began with hugs and kisses from her aunt and Granna who came from Georgia to celebrate with us.

 

 

 

We then gathered her things and her Easter basket and headed out to our pastor's house for our church's annual Easter Egg Hunt and the telling of the Easter Story. Here are a few pictures from that morning.

G with her daddy...ready to hunt eggs!

She could not decide if she liked her eggs in or out of the basket better...

Our little birthday bunny!

Our pastor always shares the Easter Story prior to the Egg Hunt

 

 I then left G and my hubby to head to the church fellowship hall to begin decorating for G's party...I'll be posting party prep and birthday celebration pictures soon!!! Keep an eye out for Hello One-derland Part 2!