This No Knead Cinnamon Raisin Bread bakes up perfectly in a Dutch Oven with a short, two-hour rise time! A Dutch oven traps the steam inside while the bread bakes, resulting in a tall, fluffy loaf with a perfectly brown crusty crust. This cinnamon raisin version adds raisins, rehydrated with warm water to make them extra plump and juicy, with cinnamon and sugar mixed directly into the dough. It couldn’t be easier to make, even for beginner bakers!

The basic recipe for Dutch Oven No Knead Bread has consistently been Bowl of Delicious’s most popular recipe for years now, and for good reason! My super detailed, fast, easy, and hands-off approach yields an amazing result every time.

You all have been asking for variations on the basic recipe for a while now, so here you are! I’m wicked excited about this cinnamon raisin version of my crusty artisan no knead bread recipe.

In this recipe, the raisins are rehydrated with warm water before adding to the dough, making them more plump and moist. Any raisins on the surface of the bread won’t dry out with baking. The dough also has a little sugar in it, making it slightly sweet but not too sweet (with the option of adding more sugar if you wish).

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Ever wonder how to make your own homemade croutons? It’s so easy! Just grab some bread – whole wheat, whole grain, white, rosemary, brioche… any will do – cube it up, toss with oil and seasonings, and bake. These homemade croutons come out crispy crunchy every time and last for days!

OK guys making your own croutons is officially the easiest thing ever. Plus, they’re made with three ingredients you very likely have in your house right now at this very moment. It’s such a great way to use up any leftover bread you have.

Plus, they’re tastier and MUCH cheaper than store-bought!

Another great thing about these is you can make homemade whole wheat croutons by using whole wheat bread, which is a great way to add a little more nutrition into your life.

And you can make this with fresh bread OR hard, stale bread.

Ingredients for Homemade Croutons

• Cubed Bread
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper
• Optional: Other seasonings of choice, like garlic powder, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, etc.

How to make Homemade Croutons

1. Cut some bread into cubes.

...GET THE RECIPE for How to make Homemade Croutons (from whole wheat, white, or any leftover bread)!

These are the BEST refried beans ever! Once you make homemade refried beans with bacon and onion, you’ll never go back to the canned stuff again. Best of all? It only takes 15 minutes and 6 ingredients to whip up. They’re packed with rich, savory, smoky flavor and can be used as a side for a Mexican-inspired meal, on tacos, on nachos, as a dip… or however you usually use refried beans!

These truly are the best refried beans ever. They’re bursting with flavor- smoky, spicy, simple, fresh, and decadent. And while these are made with bacon and bacon grease for extra decadence, you can easily make them vegetarian or vegan if you prefer.

Homemade refried beans are best when eaten hot and right away, but you can also make these and save them for later.

In this post I’ll explain how to make the BEST refried beans ever, and be sure to check out the video! This is such a yummy, hearty side dish that’s packed with plant-based protein. You’re going to love it.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Pinto Beans – I used canned, but you can cook them from dried beforehand if you prefer.

...GET THE RECIPE for The Best Homemade Refried Beans!

It’s so easy to make homemade bread crumbs out of almost any leftover bread you have – a crusty sourdough loaf, hot dog or hamburger buns, dinner rolls, sandwich bread, and more! Don’t let those bread ends or leftover stale bread go to waste. Just cube it up, blitz it in the food processor, and you have fresh bread crumbs! Want dried bread crumbs? Just bake them in the oven for a few minutes and you’re good to go.

Once you realize how fast it is to make your own homemade bread crumbs, you many never go back to store bought again. In mere minutes you can have fresh bread crumbs ready to go. And with only a few more minutes, you’ll have homemade dried bread crumbs that will stay good for a couple weeks in the pantry!

And you only need ONE ingredient – you guessed it! Bread, of almost any kind.

Why you should make your own bread crumbs

Whenever I make something I can easily buy at the store from scratch, I always weigh the pros and cons. Is it worth it for a busy person such as yourself to make your own bread crumbs at home?

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This is the BEST recipe for homemade tartar sauce, perfect for serving with fried seafood, crab cakes, salmon burgers, fish sandwiches, and more! This tartar sauce features chopped dill pickles (and pickle juice instead of lemon), honey for a touch of sweetness, soy sauce for a punch of umami, and freshness from dill and green onions.

I celebrated my second vaccination dose (YAY!) this week with my first fried clams of the year. They were great, but boy was the tartar sauce lacking. Too thick to dip, and it tasted like straight up mayo without any depth of flavor. And I realized: I haven’t shared a homemade tartar sauce recipe yet!

Homemade tartar sauce is SO much better than what you’ll usually find at restaurants or in a bottle. This version is packed with interesting flavor and texture. It’s the perfect thickness for dipping, but not so thin that you can’t spread it thickly on a fish sandwich or salmon burger.

Sweet relish is often used in tartar sauce, but I opted instead for chopped dill pickles (which are nice and crunchy!) and added honey for sweetness (prepared relish often has lots of preservatives and added sugars).

...GET THE RECIPE for Homemade Tartar Sauce!

It’s easy to make your own homemade Italian Style Seasoned Bread Crumbs with just three ingredients – plain breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, and salt! Use these Italian bread crumbs in any recipe that requires them, from breading chicken or seafood to topping pasta bakes or using as a binder in meatballs or meatloaf.

If you’re like me, you don’t like having a million things in your pantry. I just don’t have the space to hold 8 different kinds of rice and 5 different kinds of flour. And I certainly don’t want more than one canister of bread crumbs taking up room! I prefer a more minimalist kitchen (which is why I’m such a fan of five-ingredient recipes).

So I only have plain bread crumbs (and sometimes plain panko breadcrumbs). When I need seasoned bread crumbs, I make my own. It only takes two minutes, and I can control what seasonings I add and how much salt as well.

I love using homemade Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs for almost any recipe that requires breadcrumbs. In this post I’ll explain how to make them, how to make your own Italian seasoning if you don’t have a pre-mixed jar, what kinds of breadcrumbs to use, how to store them, and recipes you can use these homemade seasoned breadcrumbs in.

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Ras el Hanout is an aromatic, warming, and fragrant Moroccan spice mix that’s perfect to use for chicken, roasted vegetables, soups and stews, and other Moroccan-inspired recipes! It can be hard to find at stores pre-mixed, so here’s how to make a batch using seven common spices.

Ras el Hanout is a Moroccan spice blend that, in my opinion, it should be in everyone’s kitchens. It’s so versatile, and great both for plant-based recipes and meats like chicken or lamb. It’s so fragrant, and packed with warming spices such as cinnamon, cumin, allspice, and ginger.

There are many different recipes out there for Ras el Hanout. This recipe uses seven common spices with the perfect balance of warming, aromatic, and slightly spicy flavors. In this post, I’ll explain how to mix a batch up yourself to keep in your pantry, what recipes you can use it in, where to buy it, and a little history behind what Ras el Hanout is!

What is Ras el Hanout?

Ras el Hanout is commonly known as a Moroccan spice blend, but it can be found all over northern Africa in varying forms.

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Making Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix is not only tastier and cheaper than buying the store-bought stuff – it only takes 5 minutes, and you probably already have the 5 ingredients you need! Use this homemade pumpkin spice recipe for pies, cookies, oatmeal, lattes, or even chili.

I love using pumpkin pie spice mix in the fall, and if I’m being honest, year-round! But those tiny, overpriced jars of pumpkin pie spice you buy at the store are easy to go through quickly.

Making your own homemade pumpkin pie spice mix can save you money, and is also good for the environment (no tearing through all those tiny plastic containers!). And this pumpkin spice mix has 5 ingredients – all warm, aromatic, fragrant spices that are the perfect thing to elevate any fall-inspired recipe.

Ingredients in Pumpkin Pie Spice

• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Nutmeg
• Allspice
• Cloves

All of these spices should be ground, but you can grind them yourself if you prefer (see more about this below).

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Homemade BBQ Sauce takes only 5 minutes to make with pantry ingredients you probably already have, so it’s a great way to save money, and it’s absolutely delicious! This thick barbecue sauce recipe has tang from apple cider vinegar and mustard, sweetness from brown sugar, with a base of ketchup and a secret ingredient for a salty, savory punch. Use it as a dip or in any favorite BBQ recipe!

OK I’ll just tell you- the secret ingredient is soy sauce! Many recipes use Worcestershire sauce in homemade BBQ sauces, but I never have any around, so I used soy sauce instead.

The soy sauce is used instead of salt, and it’s a great vegetarian substitute for Worcestershire sauce in barbecue sauce (Worcestershire has anchovies, so it’s not vegetarian). So you can rest assured this homemade BBQ sauce recipe is vegetarian (vegan, too!).

Use this BBQ sauce when making oven baked bbq chicken or oven bbq salmon, or as a dip with homemade chicken nuggets. You can even use it as a pizza sauce on bbq chicken pizza!

...GET THE RECIPE for Homemade BBQ Sauce!

Homemade tortilla chips baked in the oven with just a little olive oil and salt cook up to crispy perfection! Squeeze a little fresh lime juice when they come out for a boost of flavor, and serve with your favorite salsa, dip, or use them to make nachos. All you need is some corn tortillas and 15 minutes!

If you have some corn tortillas hanging out in your fridge, this is a great way to use them up. You can have delicious, golden, crispy, thick homemade tortilla chips in only a few minutes.

I love store-bought tortilla chips out of the bag. But homemade chips taste different than the kind you buy at the store, and they’re a real treat. If you’ve never tried them, now’s the time!

Homemade tortilla chips are made with cut up corn tortillas, with a little oil to coat and salt to season. I like squeezing on a little fresh lime juice for extra flavor when they’re done baking.

They aren’t quite as crispy as store-bought chips, but still crispy enough, with a slightly chewy texture that makes them taste more hearty.

...GET THE RECIPE for Homemade Baked Tortilla Chips!

This Homemade Salsa recipe comes together in 5 minutes with the simplest, healthy ingredients. This Texas Mexican restaurant style salsa has the perfect consistency that’s not too chunky and not too thin- perfect for dipping chips, serving on tacos, or using in your other favorite Tex-Mex recipes!

Mexican restaurants in Texas do salsa really well. It flows freely (both in quantity and the fact that it costs nothing!) with fresh tortilla chips. It’s always packed with fresh flavor and has the perfect consistency.

So here’s how to make your over own Texas restaurant-style red salsa in only 5 minutes with the help of a food processor!

This recipe uses canned whole tomatoes, rather than fresh. It’s a shortcut that doesn’t skimp on flavor and, in my opinion, is actually better than using fresh tomatoes.

You can enjoy this low calorie, healthy, fat free salsa with tortilla chips, on tacos, in burritos, spooned on top of scrambled eggs… or any other way you use salsa!

Ingredients and substitutions

• Canned whole, peeled tomatoes – you may substitute diced in a pinch (drain them first as indicated in the recipe) but I think whole are best for the texture of this salsa.

...GET THE RECIPE for Homemade Salsa!

Making your own Homemade Taco Seasoning takes only 5 minutes and you probably already have the spices needed in your pantry! It’s so much cheaper than buying a pre-made mix, and it’s a great way to add healthy, low-calorie flavor to your favorite Mexican-inspired recipes.

This DIY taco seasoning mix is perfect to add to chicken, beef, or shrimp in tacos or enchiladas. Or, you can add it to any Mexican-inspired pasta, rice, or other dish. It’s a versatile way to add healthy flavor to food!

When you use lots of spices, you can pump up the flavor of food without the need for too much added fat.

And it’s so nice to have a few go-to spice mixes ready to go in your pantry so you can whip up recipes in a jiffy without the need for measuring each and every spice.

This taco seasoning recipe includes salt, which means you won’t need to add much, or any, salt to the recipe you’re making. You can always leave the salt out of the mix if you prefer to control it on a case by case basis.

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Making Homemade Quick Pickled Jalapeños is so fast, easy, and delicious, you’ll never want to buy store-bought again! These are sweet and spicy, flavor-packed from garlic and oregano, and you only need 10 minutes of hands-on time.

Whether you have a bunch of jalapeños growing in your (or your neighbor’s) garden, or you find a bulk package at Trader Joe’s, one of the best things you can do with them is pickle them.

This recipe doesn’t require any canning or preserving– it’s an easy way to pickle jalapeño peppers quickly, and they’ll last for months in your fridge!

You can use them on tacos, on sandwiches or burgers, on nachos, or in any number of recipes. But honestly, they’re so delicious, you may just want to eat them straight from the jar!

In this post I’ll explain how to make quick pickled jalapeños, tips for making them less spicy, and give recipe suggestions for how to use them.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Jalapeño peppers – you can use this pickling method for other pepper varieties, like Serranos or other chiles.

...GET THE RECIPE for Quick Pickled Jalapeños!

Ever wonder how to make a homemade honey mustard sauce? It’s so easy with only four ingredients and 5 minutes! This honey mustard can be used as a dipping sauce, salad dressing, sandwich spread, or even a marinade.

You probably already have everything you need to make this easy recipe. A little mayonnaise, mustard, honey, and vinegar and you’ve got yourself a homemade, better than chick-fil-a honey mustard sauce!

I love that this version doesn’t have any preservatives or additives, like many store-bought or fast food honey mustards.

This honey mustard is perfect as a dip for homemade chicken nuggets or oven-baked chicken tenders, but it’s also a great sandwich spread, salad dressing, or marinade for grilled chicken or pork.

It stays good in the fridge for weeks, and you can use any kind of mustard you want!

How to make homemade honey mustard sauce

Just whisk some mayonnaise, mustard, honey, and apple cider vinegar together in a small bowl. That’s it!

You could also mix it right up in a jar, to save on dishes, and store the covered jar right in your fridge.

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This recipe for Quick Pickled Red Onions is easy to make and perfect for tacos, sandwiches, pasta salads, sandwiches, and more! They’re cheap, and the perfect balance of sweet and tangy, with all the “bite” from raw red onions completely removed. And you only need a few ingredients and 5 minutes of prep!

I love how fast and easy these pickled red onions are to make- just add some ingredients to a jar, shake, and refrigerate. That’s it!

They’ll last for weeks in the fridge, if you somehow experience the miracle of not eating them all within a few hours. They’re addicting, added to any number of recipes, and frankly eaten plain out of the jar.

I wouldn’t THINK of popping a piece of raw red onion into my mouth for a snack, but it’s different when they’re pickled! Quick pickling the red onions takes all the bite out of them, creating a delicious sweet and tangy flavor with a soft outside and crunchy inside.

These pickled red onions first appeared on a Bowl of Delicious recipe for crispy brussels sprouts with pickled red onions.

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This Dutch Oven No Knead Bread is the perfect way to make a delicious, crusty artisan loaf in the comfort of your own home! Best of all? It takes only FIVE MINUTES of prep, and you don’t have to ever touch the sticky dough with your hands! With a short, two-hour total rise time, you can make this for dinner tonight.

I’m a good cook. I mean, I’m allowed to brag about that… I’ve built a career out of it with this website. But until now, I’ve had the HARDEST time making a good homemade bread.

Am I alone in this? Homemade bread has always eluded me and been a real challenge. My homemade breads have always been too flat, too dry, too hard, too annoying and sticky to work with, etc.

UNTIL NOW.

YOU GUYS. I finally cracked the code for homemade bread that isn’t a hassle and is so amazingly delicious, moist, with fluffy holes, and with the perfect crusty crust!

You can use all-purpose flour – no need for fancy bread flour!

...GET THE RECIPE for Dutch Oven No Knead Bread!

What’s better than a super simple homemade kale pesto packed with parmesan cheese, pumpkin seeds, fresh parsley and a little crushed red pepper? How about the fact that it only takes FIVE MINUTES to make? You HAVE to try this easy, fresh, healthy, versatile sauce recipe!

Around this time of year I always begin to crave fresh, healthy, green foods. That’s what springtime is all about! And while it may be warmer here in Texas than other parts of the country, this delicious kale pesto is good year-round used any number of ways.

Whether you’re serving the pesto on pasta, using it as a spread on a panini, stirring it into a soup, or using it to season chicken or fish, this kale pesto is a fun, unique alternative to the basil pesto you’re probably used to.

Kale itself doesn’t have much flavor to it, but it adds an earthy, slightly bitter taste to this recipe that’s balanced out beautifully with fresh lemon juice, plenty of parmesan cheese, a little crushed red pepper, and fresh parsley.

The other unique thing about this is that it’s made without nuts – it uses pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas), making it a nut-free pesto recipe!

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Once you discover how EASY it is to whip up a thick, rich homemade pizza sauce that tastes like it’s been simmering for hours in only 10 MINUTES, you’ll never go back to buying store-bought again! Garlic, herbs, red wine, and tomato paste pump up the flavor in this easy, freezable recipe.

Pizza has to be my favorite food of all time. Sometimes I eat it two night in a row. And I’ve been known to eat it cold from the refrigerator for breakfast.

And to me, what makes a pizza is its sauce.

I prefer a pizza with red sauce (as opposed to a white pizza), and love when the sauce is rich and tomatoey, slightly sweet, and full of garlic and herb flavor. Lucky for me, I have the perfect recipe for this! And best of all, you only need about 10 minutes to make it.

Why is homemade pizza sauce better than store-bought?

Sure, you can buy pizza sauce at the store. But making it is so much better. Here’s why:

• It’s cheaper. This recipe makes enough sauce for 3-4 full size pizzas (freeze or can the rest of it!) and costs only about $3 to make the whole thing!

...GET THE RECIPE for 10-Minute Homemade Pizza Sauce!

This Easy Dinner Rolls recipe come together so quickly, with no kneading required and no electric mixer required! Using instant yeast and letting the rolls rise in a warm place cuts the time needed way down, so you can have these fluffy, soft pull-apart dinner rolls on your table in under an hour.

I am a self-confessed horrible bread baker. Let me rephrase that… I’m “still learning” how to bake bread. That’s better. Growth mindset!

When asked in a recent podcast interview what my biggest cooking fail was, it was with baking bread that came out hard as a rock.

But you guys- these easy dinner rolls have completely changed my outlook on bread-making. And while I have yet to master that gorgeous rustic crusty loaf, these pull-apart rolls are so perfectly soft, fluffy, and delicious, and are so fast easy to make that they’ve given me renewed confidence to work with yeast dough!

These rolls are perfect with any dinner, whether at your Thanksgiving table to sop up all that gravy, or on a casual weeknight with a bowl of lentil soup.

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It’s so easy to make homemade enchilada sauce from scratch, and this chipotle enchilada sauce version is deliciously spicy and smoky! This recipe makes enough for 3-4 batches of enchiladas, so you can stock your freezer with this healthy, vegan recipe. It’s thick and luxurious, from using crushed tomatoes.

Similar to making homemade marinara sauce, this homemade enchilada sauce uses crushed tomatoes as a base. This helps make the texture luxuriously thick, and will work well with almost any enchilada recipe that requires red sauce!

It’s also spicy, but this can be tempered a bit by adding fewer chipotle peppers. But what I love about this recipe is that it uses a WHOLE can of chipotle peppers and adobo, meaning you don’t have to think of a use for the leftover chipotle chiles!

And it’s SO easy to make.

How to make homemade chipotle enchilada sauce

Just sauté some onions and garlic, add some crushed tomatoes, stock, spices, and chipotle chiles, simmer, and blend together!

Here are some tips for success.

1. The longer you simmer, the deeper the flavors will be.

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This easy recipe for mango salsa is the best combination of sweet and slightly spicy, packed with flavor from ripe mango, lime, onion, cilantro, and jalapeño! It’s DELICIOUS served on grilled fish, steak, or chicken, or on blackened shrimp or fish tacos.

I think I’d be happy living on a tropical island as long as there were mango trees there. I can’t seem to get enough of this deliciously sweet fruit- it tastes like candy to me, and they’re healthy, too!

One of my favorite ways to enjoy mango is mixed into a sweet and spicy salsa. Mango salsa is delicious on its own with tortilla chips, but it’s also an amazing topping for shrimp or fish tacos or served on top of grilled chicken or blackened fish.

How to make mango salsa

1. First, cut up some fresh mango, red onion, a jalapeño pepper, and some fresh cilantro.
2. Then, juice and zest a lime.
3. Combine everything, along with some salt, in a large bowl.

THAT’S IT! So easy.

How to make mango salsa mild, medium, or spicy

The key to how much spicy you want in your salsa lies in the jalapeño pepper.

...GET THE RECIPE for The Best Mango Salsa (for fish tacos, grilled chicken, and more!)!

This easy Whole Roast Chicken Recipe is cooked to crispy-skin perfection in a Dutch Oven with Lemon, Garlic, and Rosemary Butter slathered on every bite! Add potatoes to the bottom of the pan and you’ve got yourself a complete, one-pot meal.

This is my favorite recipe for roast chicken. Cooking it in a dutch oven ensures the chicken is moist and flavorful, but still gets that awesome golden-brown, crispy skin. 

Here’s what I LOVE about this roast chicken recipe:

• It uses only five ingredients (assuming you already have butter, salt, and pepper);
• The flavor combination of lemon, garlic, and rosemary creates amazing flavor;
• There is no waste– the lemon zest, juice, and rinds are used, as well as the onion, garlic, and rosemary scraps;
• While it takes a while to roast in the oven, the prep time is only 10-15 minutes!
• You can add potatoes to the bottom of the pan to cook and soak up all those delicious juices while the chicken roasts for an easy one-pot meal.

...GET THE RECIPE for Dutch Oven Whole Roast Chicken!

It’s so easy to make your own homemade chicken stock FOR FREE from scraps you keep in your freezer! Homemade chicken stock is packed with rich flavor, nutrition, and is so much better than store-bought chicken broth.

I’m so excited to share one of my easiest TOP TRICKS to getting super delicious, rich flavor in countless recipes. The secret? Homemade chicken stock!

But there are so many recipes out there that make such a production of it. Buy a whole chicken, buy specific veggies, and throw it all together to make stock. This is a COMPLETE waste of money and food.

I make my homemade chicken stock FOR FREE from vegetable and chicken scraps I save in my freezer! Things that I would normally throw away are given new life in this DELICIOUS and EASY recipe for homemade chicken stock in bulk. It’s such a great way to reduce food waste and save money!

In this post, I’ll explain:

• What the heck the difference between stock and broth actually is.
• What kinds of scraps you should freeze for stock and how to store them.

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I NEED to tell you about this super 100% fool-proof way to make easy peel boiled eggs that you HAVEN’T heard of. Adding olive oil to the water ensures perfect boiled eggs EVERY SINGLE TIME! Because the eggshells are porous, the oil seeps into the shell and creates a barrier. The eggshell just slides right off every time!! It’s nothing short of a miracle.

Let me guess: you’ve probably tried already a million ways to hard boil the perfect, easy to peel egg only to be disappointed and frustrated, standing over the trash for what seems like hours trying to peel that accursed egg and ending up with a lumpy, ripped up mess instead. We’ve all been there.

Here’s what you’ve probably tried in the past.

You’ve tried adding the eggs to cold water, bringing them to a boil for a certain amount of time, and letting them sit covered.

Or, you’ve tried adding baking soda to the water when you are boiling.

You’ve used an ice bath to “shock” the eggs back into the shell.

And maybe you’ve even tried this nifty as-seen-on-TV “Eggstractor” to peel your eggs.

...GET THE RECIPE for How to make Easy Peel, Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs EVERY TIME!!