Side Dish

Here you'll find delicious recipes for any occasion. The perfect recipe is just minutes away!

BROWSE POSTS:

Broccoli with Mustard Seeds and Cumin Recipe

This is a traditional Southern Indian way to serve broccoli, and it is my favorite way to eat it. One of my college roommates was from India, and she taught me how to make this years ago.  You can use the same technique and spices with lots of vegetables, but broccoli tastes best to me.  It is a quick and easy way to make broccoli that tastes very different from the classic American preparation.

Broccoli with Mustard Seeds and Cumin

Grilled Asparagus with Goat Cheese Recipe

This is a quick and easy side dish, combining asparagus with goat cheese for a perfect spring vegetable.  I was planning to roast the asparagus, but then the hinges broke on my oven door, so I can’t cook anything in the oven right now!  I decided to grill them instead, which is something I have never tried before, and it worked pretty well.  I threaded the asparagus on bamboo skewers, so they wouldn’t slip down through the grates of the grill.  You could just lay them crosswise on the grill, but my asparagus was a fairly skinny, so I figured a skewer would be easier.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Winter Squash Recipe Roundup

winter squash

Winter squash are some of my favorite vegetables!  There are so many kinds of dished you can make with them, as side dishes, main dishes or even desserts.  Here are some of my favorites:

Easy Quinoa Salad Recipe

This weekend we had blackened bluefish for dinner, which I really don’t like at all. So I made this quinoa salad to use as a side dish for everyone else and a main dish for me.  It was very easy to put together, and it has a nice blend of flavors. Of course it would be easy to vary the vegetables based on what you have in the refrigerator, so it is pretty versatile.

Quinoa Salad in a dish

Oatmeal Muffin

I am always looking for ways to add more protein to my children’s diet. My fifteen year old recently decided she won’t eat beef or pork, so it is becoming even more challenging, since chicken and eggs get boring after a while! She loves orange juice, but that is mostly sugar and doesn’t provide any protein at all.  So naturally I was interested in the new Silk Fruit&Protein drink.

This product is a like a fruit juice with added protein, and it is easy to find in the dairy section of the store, with all the milk.  It comes in three flavors, Mango Peach, Mixed Berry and Strawberry Banana.  I knew that the Strawberry Banana flavor would be most appealing to my children.

Bear Paw Sweet Potato

 

This post is sponsored by Country Crock. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Getting children to eat and enjoy vegetables is difficult for many families, including mine. My children have always been willing to eat fruit, but vegetables are more of a battle. For example, my husband I both enjoy broccoli, but none of the children like it at all. Any attempt on my part to serve it is met with groans and complaints, even when I drench it in cheese.  Country Crock recently came out with the Clare Crespo Cookbook, which is full of fun ideas to make vegetables, like broccoli, more appealing to children, and they asked me to test out a recipe from the book.

Spinach Pear Salad Recipe

Spinach Pear Salad

With trying to eat healthier I’ve been eating lots and lots of salad. So I’ve been looking for ways to make my salads more interesting and go beyond the standard lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes.  I made this Spinach Pear Salad and it was delicious.  I haven’t ever used fruit with salad greens much before, but I can see it is an excellent combination. My husband usually has a token serving of salad, but he had seconds of this one and finished the bowl off.

Apple Stuffed Delicata Squash Recipe

baked delectica squash with apples

I like delictica squash because of its size – It is the perfect size to for two people.  Since it is small it is much easier to cut than a large squash like butternut, and it doesn’t take as long to cook either. I usually just pierce it with a knife, microwave it for 10 minutes and serve. But this weekend I made it a little fancier by adding apples and cinnamon and baking it, and the result was delicious.

Eggplant Parmesan

eggplant parmesanI have a lot of eggplant from my garden this year. I only planted one plant, but it is producing like crazy.  It is kind of odd, since the green pepper plants right next to it are doing nothing. So I’ve been searching for eggplant recipes. I like this Eggplant Parmesan recipe because it doesn’t involve frying the eggplant, which defeats the health benefits of eating vegetables in the first place.  By not frying the eggplant and using just a little cheese this makes a great, nutritious side dish. I made this with my white eggplant and heirloom tomatoes, but I’m sure it would be great with purple eggplant and regular tomatoes too.

Tasty Tuesday–Clams Casino

3 clams casino

My kids loved this recipe, and what is not to like, it is basically clams with bacon and butter. It is a good thing it is an appetizer and not a main dish, so you only eat a few each. We are going to the ocean for vacation in a few weeks and can’t wait to eat lots of seafood dishes, like this one.