DwardCooks

I’ll be back in 2025. Taking a quiet holiday to spend with our family during this time.

Today is the first official day of fall, so it is officially casserole season.

This is one of the easiest dinners you can make—especially if you’re using a rotisserie chicken. It's a creamy, almost Thanksgiving-like casserole with stuffing crust and it's pure, grandmotherly comfort food.

Like some of my favorite grandma casseroles, it has cream of chicken in it. I have directions to make it from scratch OR how to use the canned stuff.

This was actually requested by my youngest. In school, they’re learning about the seasons and she’s been counting down the day until the first official day of fall. She woke up at 5:30am and woke me up excited about fall. I think she thought all the leaves would magically change over night, but she insisted we celebrate fall. We collected leaves on the way to school, listed our favorite things about fall, and talked about our favorite fall food. While her first request was a full thanksgiving dinner, the second request was much more doable. This casserole comes together in about 20 minutes if you have cooked chicken on hand—including making the cream of chicken from scratch. It’s easy to make ahead and it makes killer leftovers too.

Find my Chicken Stuffing Casserole recipe at dwardcooks.com and don't forget to like, comment, and save!

For those that track calories or WW points:
322 calories for 1.5 cup 215 for 1 cup
) 5 for 1.5 cup 4 for 1 cup
7 for 1.5 cup 5 for 1 cup

With back to school season, wild blueberry compote and my Greek yogurt waffles are my go-to recipes for stocking my freezer for east mornings.

My kids love wild blueberries. We usually have two bags in our freezer between their fruit smoothies and this wild blueberry compote. 90% of the annual wild blueberry crop is frozen every year so you’ll find them in the freezer section of most grocery stores.

My kids love this compote in yogurt, oatmeal, and as a topping for waffles. I am freezing this in ice cube trays for an easy individual portion for a quick and sweet breakfast topping for busy school mornings.

Wild blueberries have lower sugar than typical blueberries, 72% more fiber, and twice as much antioxidants. They’re a delicious and nutritious way to start the day.

Wild blueberry Compote Recipe:
-2 cups wild blueberries
-2 tbsp water
-2 tbsp maple syrup (or other sweetener)
-½ lemon
-pinch of cinnamon
-pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container in your refrigerator or freeze.

How are you building your ✨ideal✨ barbecue plate?

For me, I’m doing beef burger (with maple bacon onion jam), dark meat (bbq or Buffalo), extra Mac salad, slaw, and peach cobbler. Not pictured, an extra charred hotdog with cheese is a must for any bbq plate.

Tell me in the comments!

Pictured in each slide:
-Lean beef burger with maple bacon onion jam
-original turkey burger
-grilled chicken drumsticks
-chicken seasoning blend grilled chicken breast
-lightened up potato salad
-healthy deli style macaroni salad
-simple vinegar slaw
-grilled corn elote with chipotle mayo
-peach cobbler
-blueberry cobbler

If you are new to my blog, all of these recipes featured are easy, delicious, family friendly, and lightened-up. Find them all on dwardcooks.com

New blog post: Summer Fruit Salsa with Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips

In a recent survey about summer recipes, a few people asked about healthy summer desserts they could bring to a party. Now, I love a good summer cobbler (you can find a peach and blueberry cobbler on my blog), but sometimes the simplest is the best.

We have a few summer get-togethers in the coming weeks, and this is one of my favorite things to bring. My summer fruit salsa is a crowd pleasing summer dessert or appetizer perfect for these hot summer weeks. On my post, I have the simple “barely a recipe” recipe for the salsa and my homemade cinnamon sugar tortilla chips. I even included different ways you can include your kids in the cooking process if you have curious chefs at home.

This travels well, it is simple enough the kids can help, and everyone loves it. Each time I bring it to parties, people rave about it. It’s simple enough that I make a smaller batch of salsa all summer for my kids during the week—being real with you, I still make the same amount of tortillas because they’re amazing. You need to add this to your summer barbecue rotation.