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75 Real Food Side Dishes

Sometimes it can be hard to come up with good side dishes when you decide to eat more “real” food. All those quick and easy side dishes of your past are nixed. No more Kraft Mac-and-Cheese, no more Pork ‘n Beans, no more Hungry Man instant potatoes. The truth is, real food sides can be so easy…and very quick. Roast any veggie – steam and add butter or chop up a quick salad.

My problem is that sometimes I just get in a rut…broccoli, again? *Sigh* So, I set out to find some real food side dishes. The recipes abound! However, I thought it would be nice if they were all in one spot so they would be easier to find when I was in a hurry…because, while I love meal planning, I don’t always plan side dishes. I just write “side dish.” Creative, huh?

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Crock Pot Cheesy Chicken and Zoodles

I’m not gonna lie – I’m running a weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee bit behind this week. Not with anything except blog work, which is a huge bonus. Yay for scheduling!

So, I don’t have time for a long and elaborate post – it’s already 6am and I need to make breakfast, finish yogurt, and pack lunch. Sooooooooooooooooo, here is your short, condensed version of Cheesy Chicken and Zoodles.

It was easy. It was yummy. It was even yummier left over. It should have been 6 servings, but we really liked it and it was only 4. *Burp* Oops? [Read more…]

Cottage Pancakes

We eat a lot of pancakes around here, so I’m always scouring for new and fun recipes. It’s nice to have a dish that everyone will eat so I don’t turn myself into a short order cook. I never wanted to be a cook in a restaurant – I have been a waitress and that was good enough for me, thank you. Actually, now that I think about it, I am a cook…and a maid. And I enjoy it. So, nevermind about that cook stuff. Forget I said it.

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Crock Pot “Beenie Weenies”

When I was growing up, Beanee Weenees were a novelty item…Mama bought them sometimes, but not a lot. And I know why now. Have you SEEN how much those little boogers cost? It’s outrageous. I mean, it’s BEANS AND WEENIES IN A CAN! It’s not exactly caviar. You can’t blame that on inflation because IT’S BEANS AND WEENIES IN A CAN…which are still cheap foods even 30 years later. I have renamed this recipe to Beenie Weenies – so you won’t confuse the two. 😉 Plus, it’s how I like to spell it. The two EEs are just weirdo.

Mostly my mom would just make her own Beanee Weenees (see, it’s weird) and she still does that for us sometimes. She would cut up hotdogs and mix them with cans of Pork ‘n Beans. To this day, I still love them. My Grandmaw would always keep cans of them for the kids – and my Papaw…but sometimes you just get things at grandma’s house that you don’t get anywhere else. It’s like Vegas.

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Crock Pot Butter Chicken

Soooooooooooooooo, yeah. My Butter Chicken recipe doesn’t call for any butter. I know, I know. I think I might have just created a culinary sin.

I really, really love my butter. I love it with fried eggs, I love it on bread, I love it on broccoli…I love it on my finger. HOLLA!

But when I decide to cook something in the crock pot, it almost always eliminates the need to use butter (unless I’m baking a cake or something).

And why would I unnecessarily “waste” my butter for something in the crock when I could keep it for eggs or some other deliciousness?

So, I did some looking around online to make sure I wouldn’t be excommunicated from the food community and I discovered that a lot of recipes for butter chicken just don’t call for butter.

Big relief. My bread is saved! Hallelujah!

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Chicken Fried Steak

“I love meat – from my head down to my feet; fried up or grilled, with my family or the girls, I love meat.” Sounds like a good commercial, huh? I do love eggs…but meat is my best friend. I can eat just about any man under the table when it comes to meatballs…actually, when I think about it I could most likely eat any man under the table PERIOD. I eat more than Barry and Annie combined. It’s that whole breastfeeding thing – it makes me famished. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

But, I do love girly foods…and sometimes that’s a problem for Barry. Sometimes he’s like, “Woman! I’m tired of all these froo-froo foods like puddings, and muffins – I want some MAN FOOD.” No, not really…he’s never said that – but I’ve said it to myself. Man food rocks. Woman food rocks too – actually, food in general rocks. I’m hungry, I need a snack.

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Crock Pot Spiced Peach Butter

Peaches are a sign of summer. Peaches are delicious. Peaches are sticky. Peaches rot. I had a good amount of peaches in my fridge that were starting to go the way of the dinosaur…and I didn’t feel like canning them since there weren’t that many. And I didn’t feel like eating 3 pounds of peaches in one day either. While yes, I could do that…going to the ER to get my stomach pumped is not my idea of a good time. *Burp*

So, I think I had a stroke of genius when I decided to make this…I already had apple butter on the brain, thinking I could tweak my recipe and use stevia (which I haven’t tried yet). Then I thought to myself, “Self, I bet peach butter would rock my face off.” So, self decided to try it…and self was right. It DOES rock my face off. Self is a genius.

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Crock Pot Chile Rellenos

I come from a long line of good cooks. Family get-togethers are always chocked full of delicious looking delicacies. I’m very blessed to have a lot of them written down – today I’m going to share a tweak of one from my Mama’s cousin, Lisa.

Her original recipe for Chile Rellenos called for them to be baked – and y’all know I have this thing for my crock…so I changed it to be cooked that way. I also added and subtracted a few things based on what I currently had. The original recipe also called for white flour – so I switched it up and converted it to almond flour instead. BIG WIN, ladies and gentlemen. [Read more…]

Cottage Cheese Omelet

Barry thinks there is a conspiracy going on here…a cottage cheese conspiracy. See, his wife LOVES cottage cheese. Oh, by the way…his wife is me, in case you didn’t know. And yes, I love cottage cheese. I’m known to put it into anything and everything. You’ll find it in shakes, smoothies, ice cream, brownies, and now even my omelets. Booya.

Before you go screaming and running from the room – hear me out. Cottage cheese is awesome. Even Barry, who is a professed cottage cheese HATER, doesn’t know when I put it in stuff. It gives a lovely, light and delicious flavor…even in your omelets. Even Barry thought these were very good – so did I! I think they’ll be a regular around here. 🙂 [Read more…]