Category: sides

Sautéed Dandelion Greens

By: Hallee

I live in dandelion central. As soon as the weather turned warm, every yard in my neighborhood was so covered in dandelions that at a glance up or down the street, yellow was the first color that caught your eye. It was beautiful. In my own yard and in the flower garden I haven’t been able to work in yet, dandelions are growing at an amazing rate. So, I decided to try out this eating weeds thing.

These are SO good for you. I had no idea until I ran the nutritional analysis. Look at the bottom of the post here and see all of the amazing nutrition that you can find in a handful of weeds you can pick out of your own yard.

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Fresh & Flavorful Pico de Gallo

By: Hallee

My daughter Kaylee LOVES fresh pico de gallo. She’ll sit with a huge bowl of it and a bag of organic tortilla chips and just inhale it. And because of the health benefits to the fresh salsa, I don’t discourage it. With fresh tomatoes, fresh peppers, and fresh onion, the vitamins and minerals can’t be beat. In running the nutritional analysis of the recipe, this is what I discovered. Fresh Pico de Gallo is has no cholesterol, is low in sodium, very high in dietary fiber, high in manganese, high in magnesium, high in niacin, high in phosphorus, very high in potassium, high in thiamin, very high in vitamin A, very high in vitamin B6, and very high in vitamin C.

It’s also REALLY easy. I make it all summer long straight out of my garden.

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Winter Squash Stuffed with Wild Rice, Toasted Pecans & Dried Cherries

By: Hallee

I love finding a recipe that will be my new go-to recipe for entertaining. We had company for dinner, and since we’re observing a Daniel Fast, this was our main course using acorn squash. The next evening, we served a soup and had this as a side using pumpkins. The rice is amazing alone, but pared with the winter squash, it is remarkable. This would be beautiful gracing any holiday table.

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Homemade Refried Beans

By: Hallee

I never realized how easy it was to make refried beans. As much as we love Mexican food, I hate to think about how many cans of beans we’ve gone through. This recipe is great as a side dish or in any recipe that calls for refried beans. This recipe will make 2 cans worth (about 2 pounds).

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Freezing Fresh Corn

By: Hallee

Several years ago, I found corn on the cob on sale. It was a fantastic sale – enough for me, who wasn’t so much into preserving at the time, buy as much as I could afford. I went home and called my grandma and said, “Now what?”

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Green & Gold Casserole

By: Hallee

I graduated from Spencer High School, home of the mighty Greenwave. Don’t ask me what that means – in all of my years there, I was never able to figure that out. Our mascot was an owl. BUT, our colors were green & gold. That was always cool, because my family is from Springfield, Oregon, a small town that is a sister-city to Eugene Oregon, home of the Oregon Ducks – whose colors are also green & gold. Which is what makes this casserole so much fun. I could take it to a class reunion or a football party and be a winner either way.

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Zucchini Slaw

By: Hallee

This colorful salad can be a nice change of pace from the traditional Coastal Cole Slaw type salad. You can use zucchini or yellow squash. It is perfect for the summer picnic, because there is no mayonnaise in it.

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Greek Stuffed Vegetables with Rice (Yemista me Ryzi)

By: Hallee

This is an amazing recipe for making something new and different with all of that fresh produce coming out of the garden. You are getting such a wide variety of fresh vegetables, all kinds of good for your body vitamins and minerals, and is something different from the standard sauteing that I tend to do as a default.

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Greek Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms with Rice (Kolokythanthoi Yemistoi me Ryzi)

By: Hallee

Squash blossoms make a delightful appetizer, and they are often stuffed with mixtures similar to fillings used in stuffed leaves and vegetables. This vegetarian version calls for a mixture of rice, tomatoes, and herbs, and is served at room temperature.

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Herb-Roasted Potato Wedges

By: Hallee

This recipe is so easy to make, and is such a beautiful side dish to almost any sandwich. We love this kind of side for our game night dinners when we tend to go with Turkey Burgers or Root Beer Barbecued Beef Sandwiches.

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