Corn Pudding

Corn Pudding is one of my favorite easy holiday side dishes.  Super easy to whip up and always a hit. 

Pasta with Creamy Butternut Sauce

One of my favorite fall dishes is Pasta with Creamy Butternut Sauce.  The sauce tastes rich and decadent, but it is oh-so-healthy. It's also a really easy dish to make vegetarian!  But for my meat-eaters, this dish is excellent with sliced sausage added to it.  Either way, it makes the perfect comfort meal for a cool fall evening.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Today is the official last day of summer.  Most people are excited about the start of fall, but I have to admit, I'm more of a summer gal.  I love swimming, and the long summer days, and the fresh meals you can make with all the wonderful summer produce.  Summer food pretty much trumps fall food in every way...except breakfast.  As soon as I start waking up to the chill in the morning air, I know it's time to start making my favorite weekday breakfast:  Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal.

Gazpacho with Goat Cheese Salsa

Summer is finally coming to an end, so it's time to hurry up and make your final summer dishes.  Gazpacho is definitely one of those recipes that require in-season produce.  If you tried to make this during the winter, you would end up with a watery flavorless soup.  In the summer this soup is vibrant and fresh and delightful!  It's one of my absolute favorite summer side dishes.  I like to pair it with a BLAT, and it makes for the perfect meal on a hot summer day.  

Gnocchi alla Caprese

So you may have noticed that my blog has been quiet for the past few months.  This spring we decided to put our first family home on the market and buy a new home in a neighboring county.  It was a difficult decision as we loved, loved, loved our home.  Fortunately we found a great home to buy, and we ended up closing on both our old house and new house on the same day in the middle of June.  Let me tell you... packing up our entire house with a crawling baby and a moody toddler, a double closing, and moving on a 103 degree day...it was a nightmare!  Needless to say, these past few months have been difficult ones.  We had to make many sacrifices:  we missed out on a fun friends trip, family dinners were replaced by take-out, and we lost our summer garden!  My husband planted it all before we realized we were going to put our house up for sale.  Of course right as everything in the garden started growing, we moved.  So for the first time in many summers, we don't have our summer garden vegetables to enjoy.  Boo!

However, we can still buy in-season veggies at the local grocery store (Earth Fare!).  Nothing beats an in-season tomato paired with fresh basil, right?  Let me introduce you to the perfect recipe for the season: Gnocchi alla Caprese. This recipe is definitely a summer-only recipe, because it requires in-season produce in order to reach its full delicious potential.   It takes only about 20 minutes to make, and its simplicity really allows the fresh ingredients to shine.  I could seriously eat this meal every day, and so could my kids.  Which is good, because I might be serving it at least once a week for the rest of the summer!

Mix-Free Homemade Spinach Dip

Recently, I found myself in as situation where I needed to whip up an appetizer for a party, but didn't have the time (or motivation) to run to the grocery store.  I looked at all the ingredients I had on hand, and I realized that I had everything to make a homemade spinach dip.  Everyone loves spinach dip, but have you ever had it made without the store-bought mix?  It is even better!  Honestly, there is no reason for me to ever use a mix again...making it from scratch was just as easy, and it is so much healthier and tastier!

Broccoli & Egg Casserole

Now that we have two children, our mornings are quite chaotic.  My husband usually gets the toddler ready, and I'm in charge of the baby, which doesn't leave much time for ourselves.  To make things easier, I make a big batch of breakfast for the whole week on Sunday night.  During the Winter, we ate Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal, but now that it is officially Spring, I wanted to find a more season-appropriate meal to start our day.  I've also started to work on losing the baby weight, so I wanted a meal that was nutritious and full of protein.  I came up with a Broccoli & Egg Bake, and it is so delicious!  I use just broccoli in my egg casserole, but you could easily add in ham, or swap out broccoli for asparagus or whatever vegetable you prefer.  It is easily adaptable to your tastes!  After I finish baking it, I wait for it to cool, cut it into 10 servings, and stick it in the fridge.  On weekday mornings, I take out individual servings and microwave it.  It reheats beautifully!  I love that I have such a healthy and easy breakfast at my disposal on hectic mornings.

Easy Stir-Fried Tofu

The first time I ever had tofu, I was not a huge fan.  Then one day, at our local vegetarian restaurant The Grit, I ordered something called "The Golden Bowl" and was stunned to realize that the delicious morsels I was inhaling, was in fact, tofu.  I realized then that tofu can be amazing when prepared and cooked correctly...and kind of gross when it isn't.  If you are new to tofu, make sure to reference my earlier post on how to correctly prepare tofu before you try out this recipe (Tofu for Dummies).  This recipe is a great new-to-tofu recipe; easy to make and only takes about ten minutes to cook.  Make sure not to skip the nutritional yeast; it's the best part! You can find it in the bulk section of your local Earth Fare grocery store.  It's a great thing to have on hand to add a cheesy flavor to dishes while upping its nutritional profile.  

Squash Casserole

As many of you know, I'm pregnant with my second child.  Like with my first pregnancy, I developed gestational diabetes around my 25th week.  As I have mentioned in the past, there are a lot of misconceptions about gestational diabetes; mainly that is caused by something that the mother has done (or not done).  This can lead to a lot of guilty thoughts when a woman is first diagnosed.  The truth is, many cases of gestational diabetes are due to genetics.  I live a very healthy lifestyle: my diet is made up of nutritious and unprocessed foods, I exercise five times a week, and I maintain a healthy weight (and healthy weight gain during pregnancy).  Yet the hormones in my body go crazy when I get pregnant, and my placenta starts having trouble regulating insulin, and unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to prevent it.  What I can do, however, is stay on a very strict diet during my pregnancy, that allows my body to handle the diabetes without medicine.  I'm not going to lie: it's really hard to be on a rigid diet when you are in your third trimester; a time when you are starving and just want to eat what you want to eat, when you want to eat.  Instead, I have to eat a certain amount of carbs (not too much, not too little) on a very strict schedule (every 2-3 hours, no earlier, no later).  

Summer Garden Gnocchi

Our family just returned from a fabulous beach trip; the last family trip with just the three of us.  Next time, our number will be four! As wonderful as the vacation was, I'm feeling exhausted this week from all the excitement.  I've been too tired to make it to the grocery store, which means our kitchen is depressingly empty.  Fortunately, I sometimes view an empty fridge as a fun challenge, and become motivated to try to create a new recipe using only what I have on hand.  

Avocado Egg Salad

I've been craving egg salad like mad during this pregnancy.  Years ago, when I studied abroad in England, I literally ate an egg salad sandwich on a baguette every single day for lunch.  Across the pond they call it an "Egg Mayo Sandwich", which is a more truthful name for this delicious sandwich.  Unfortunately, it's also a reminder that perhaps it isn't the most healthy of concoctions.  Since I'm trying to stay as healthy as possible during this pregnancy, I decided to make a more nutritious version of egg salad; using predominately avocado instead of mayonnaise.  Of course, seeing as how avocados are the fruits of the gods, it was absolutely delicious.  Now I can guiltlessly give in to my cravings.  Now if only I could find a healthy version of Almond Snickers...

Spinach Pesto Pasta

It's time again for this month's Earth Fare recipe!  Like my other Earth Fare recipes, I chose a recipe that represents the spirit of my blog: family friendly, quick to prepare, inexpensive to make, and healthy and delicious to eat.  

Like many other parents, the battle to get my child to eat anything green is an epic one.  And to be perfectly honest, I probably don't eat enough of the green stuff either.  I attempted to get my daughter to try a bite of a salad the other day, and she took one look at the spinach, and stated "I don't eat leaves, Mommy".  (Whatever kid, you spent your first two years  of life eating leaves and sticks every time we went outside.)  After a particularly unflattering moment of jealousy after seeing yet another Facebook post of a mom announcing about how much her kid loves kale, I decided to get creative.  What if I made pesto, but it had a spinach base instead of basil?  A quick google search showed me that I wasn't the first to come up with this notion, which further encouraged me that this might be a great idea after all.  

Garlicky Pinto Beans

If you don't love, and I mean love garlic, go ahead and ignore this recipe.  This recipe is for my fellow garlic lovers.  I stumbled upon this recipe in 2009, in the May issue of Real Simple magazine. It embodied what I loved most about Real Simple recipes: the recipe was, well, real simple!  Garlicky Pinto Beans became my go-to side when I needed to whip up something quick and easy.  I almost always have all the ingredients in my pantry, so no running to the grocery store.  Coming up with a fast side dish is one of the hardest parts for me on my healthy eating journey, so I'm always happy to have recipes like Garlicky Pinto Beans in my arsenal.  Without dishes like this, I would resort to eating double the appropriate portion size of my entree (i.e. two burritos instead of one).  What is your go-to healthy and simple side dish? If you have a good one, I'd love for you to share in the comments! 

Cream of Asparagus Soup

I've always loved Cream of Asparagus soup, but indulge only rarely, because it's so high in calories.  However, with asparagus being in season, I kept finding myself craving that rich, creamy soup.  So I decided to rework the recipe and create a healthier version.  I reduced the amount of butter and cream, and upped the veggies, but I promise you can't tell.  My version of Cream of Asparagus Soup tastes just as rich and creamy as its higher calorie counterpart.  This recipe also gets high marks in my other two important areas:  it's easy and quick to make, and it's kid friendly.  If you find yourself craving this soup when it's no longer asparagus season, don't fret:  it works wonderfully with frozen asparagus too.  

Kale & Pear Salad

My good friend recently had a beautiful baby girl.  When they left the hospital and returned home, our group of friends set up a schedule for each of us to bring their family a dinner each night, to help them through that tough first week of new-baby transition.  I immediately decided to make them one of my newer recipes, my Homemade Hamburger Helper, but then got stuck trying to come up with a tasty side that would transport well.  So I went to my trusty Pinterest boards to get inspired, and was quickly smitten by a Kale and Pear Salad by the blog Taste Love and Nourish.  I adapted the recipe a little, and it turned out delicious!  It's light, and fresh, and tangy.  It's filled with super foods, and it's a breeze to make.  Transports great too! :)

Sautéed Kale

Kale continues to be the superstar of the health food world, and I'm continuing to try to find ways to make this vegetable more lovable.  To be frank, I often find kale to be bitter in taste and unpleasant in texture.  After numerous kale encounters, I've learned that it is absolutely vital to get as fresh as kale as possible.  Skip the already prepared kale bags sold in your grocery store, and grab the large unwashed and uncut bunches instead.  The older kale gets, the more bitter it grows.  So stick with fresh!  Sure, it takes a bit longer to prepare, but it is certainly worth it.  This recipe below is simple and savory, and when used with fresh kale, creates an actually tasty kale side dish.  I actually went back for seconds, which is almost unheard for me when it comes to greens!

Sautéed Spinach & Mushrooms

The other day I was trying to decide which side to have with my meal:  sautéed mushrooms or wilted spinach?  I ended up throwing caution to the wind and decided to combine both, and voila, my Sautéed Spinach & Mushrooms recipe was created.  This is a very simple and very nutritious side that can be whipped up in ten minutes, and tastes pretty scrumptious too. 

(No) Cream of Broccoli Soup

I'm a sucker for creamy vegetable soups.  Its richness makes you completely forget that it's filled with healthy vegetables.  However, these type of soups are often made with heavy cream and loads of butter (yum, I know), making it awfully high in fat and calories.  Well, this particular (No) Cream of Broccoli Soup has all the richness that you know and love, but is actually made with no cream or milk at all.  You'd never know by the taste though; it's just as velvety and creamy as the higher calorie version.  Plus, it has the benefit of being full of not one, but two, healthy green veggies.  So slurp away without guilt!

Green Chile Egg Casserole

I recently attended a party at my friend Randi's house, where she served a Southwestern Egg Casserole as the main dish.  It was crazy delicious, so of course I had to ask for the recipe.  It was such a hit at her party, that I decided to make it for my daughter's birthday party the following month.   It really is the perfect casserole to make for a crowd; it's the kind of dish where everyone asks for the recipe.  I'm pretty sure it's the inclusion of cottage cheese that makes this casserole stand out amongst all the other egg casseroles; its texture is just incredibly pleasant. It's cheesy, silky, and zesty. Yum!

Broccoli Bites

I am constantly trying to come up with creative ways to sneak more vegetables into my toddler's diet.  Recently I saw a recipe for "Broccoli Bites for Kids" on a blog called Stacey Snacks.  I was doubtful that this was something my kid would eat, but I gave it a try any how.  Much to my surprise, my picky child ate the whole thing! True, I had to do the "Take a Monster Bite" song and dance (sung to the tune of Monster Mash, obviously) to get her to eat it, but this is a kid who won't even try a bite of pizza.  After she finished, it was one of those parenting moments where you honestly expect a six foot trophy to be presented to you.  I got my kid to eat something GREEN!  Woo!  Even better, the rest of the batch froze beautifully, and reheated easily in the microwave.  Which means I can have a healthy side dish on hand for dinner that only takes 30 seconds to prepare. Now where's my trophy?