Side Dish

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

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Easy to Make Last Minute Gift – Caramel Corn

Popcorn is one of my favorite foods. So when I was looking for a quick and easy last minute gift to make for friends I immediately though of Caramel Corn. Delicious sugar covered popcorn baked with peanuts is a perfect holiday treat.

Homemade Caramel Corn Recipe #popcorn #caramel

Greek Olive Bread Recipe

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client.

The Holiday season means lots of entertaining!  It seems like there are parties and events all the time this time of year, both formal and informal.  I like to have some simple appetizers that I can make without too much time or effort to try and reduce the stress of the Holiday season.  This Greek Olive Bread is a great example since it combines some simple ingredients into a delicious holiday appetizer.

Greek Olive Bread #shop

The Perfect Pairing – Week Night Dinners with Betty Crocker

Weeknight family dinners call for easy side dishes!  I don’t have the time to make elaborate meals during the week, but I still want to feed my family tasty and well rounded meals.  When it comes to side dishes potatoes are one of my favorites, and something I serve multiple times a week.

betty crocker scalloped potatoes

Quinoa Avocado and Corn Salad Recipe

Quinoa Avocado and Corn Salad
I realized recently that I had a box of quinoa in the pantry that had been sitting unopened for at least 9 months.  I read online months ago that quinoa was a healthy food, and bought some, but then never did anything with it!  So I decided I needed to test it out.

My oldest daughter has been become a vegetarian, and quinoa is an excellent food for vegetarians.  It looks like a grain, but it is really a seed, and is unusually high in protein for a plant based food.  So I made a southwest inspired salad using the quinoa, and it tasted very good.  The quinoa has a very mild, nutty flavor, so the predominate taste was the vegetables and spices I added.

Even my husband had seconds, and he is not a fan of similar dishes made with couscous or bulgar wheat. Get tips on picking the best avocados for your salad.

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.