10 Healthier Thanksgiving Side Dishes and Appetizers!

Thanksgiving and healthy don't usually go together. But it doesn't hurt to have a side or two that taste great and is great for you.

1. Baked Apple Chips


2. Roasted Kidney Beans


3. Roasted Pumpkin Chickpeas


4. Parsnip Chips


5. Baked Potato Soup


6. Baked Parmesan Tomatoes


7. Roasted Peas


8. Spinach Balls


9. Salt and Vinegar Roasted Potatoes


10. Sauteed Kale with Bacon




Enjoy!

Crockpot: Chile and Tomato Shredded Chicken with a Cheese Sauce

According to the recipe I was following, this was supposed to be a jalapeno popper pulled chicken. However, I did not get a jalapeno popper feel from this dish. Don't get me wrong, it was fricking amazing, and I can't wait to make it again and again. It just didn't remind me of a jalapeno popper.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
Chicken
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons onion, minced
15-ounce can of diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1 cube chicken bouillon

Sauce
3 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded
Milk

Garnish
1 jalapenos, seeded and sliced or diced


Directions:
Chicken
Grease your slow cooker with cooking spray. Place chicken breasts in the bottom of the cooker. Add garlic, onions, and spices. Pour the can of tomatoes over top.

Cover and cook on High for 4 hours or on Low for 8 hours. Shred chicken using two forks.

Sauce
Place cream cheese in a microwavable bowl and microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat as needed until the cheese has melted. Stir in pepper jack until the shredded cheese has melted. Add milk a tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency. (I liked my sauce thick and only added 1 tablespoon of milk.)

Now, you can serve this dish a variety of ways. The original recipe served the chicken on a bun with the sauce and jalapenos on top of the chicken. But you also put it in a tortilla (this is how I'm eating it next time), in a taco shell, or on a bed of tortilla chips. I had used up all our tortillas to make homemade tortilla chips so Eric and I ate the chicken on a plate basically (it was still really good this way too!)

Cheese Sauce (I'm totally in love with this sauce!)

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Crockpot Recipes:
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Brown Sugar and Garlic Chicken
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Mashed Potatoes
Orange Chicken
Pumpkin Butter
Simply the Best Macaroni and Cheese
Tomato and Artichoke Chicken

Corn and Black Bean Skillet Chicken

I've been in a baking mood lately, not a cooking mood, which means that dinners around here have been pretty boring. Leftovers, boxed, or frozen. The other night I still didn't feel like cooking, but I craved real food. This is a nice quick recipe for those kinds of nights. It's got lots of flavor, it cooks in one pan, and fills you up.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of black pepper
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup canned sweet corn, drained and rinsed
1 cup canned diced tomatoes with chiles, drained

Directions:
In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, salt, and black pepper. Sprinkle the mixture on both sides of each chicken breast.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes, flip, and cook for another 5 minutes or until the juices run clear.

Add the black beans, corn, and tomatoes to the skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until the veggies are hot.

Serve over rice, pasta, tortillas, or as is!

To be honest, I didn't think Eric would love this meal. He's generally not a fan of black beans. But he devoured it! I definitely will be making this again.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes:
Baked Garlic Chicken
Chicken Enchiladas with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
Chicken with a Honey Mustard Sauce
Jalapeno Popper Chicken
Lime Mustard Chicken
Orange Chicken in a Slow Cooker
Parmesan-Seared Chicken
Provincial Chicken
Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Chicken
Tomato and Artichoke Chicken

Parmesan Chicken Casserole

I'll keep this short and sweet: If you love chicken parmesan, you're going to love this dish. Chicken, pasta, tomatos, cheese, what's not to love?

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
14.5-ounce can of diced tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/2 to 1 cup chicken broth
6 ounces pasta
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
pinch of black pepper
1/2 cup mozzarella
1 cup cooked chicken, shredded

Directions:
Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

Over medium-high heat, heat oil in a large skillet (oven safe if you have one). Cook garlic, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, and salt until fragrant, approximately 1 minute. Add canned tomatoes--liquid and all--the water, 1/2 cup chicken broth, and pasta to the pan. Stir to combine. Brinng to a vigorous simmer, cover pan, and simmer (you may need to reduce the heat) until the pasta is tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir mixture frequently.

Once the pasta is cooked, remove the cover and stir in the parmesan cheese, pepper, and chicken. If the mixture is dry, add another 1/2 cup of chicken broth (I had to do this). Now, if your skillet is oven safe, sprinkle the top of the casserole with the mozzarella. If your skillet isn't oven safe (mine wasn't) tranfer the mixture to an 8x8-inch baking dish and sprinkle with mozzarella. Bake for 5 or 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and bubbles have formed around the edges of the pan.

I made bread sticks to go with this casserole and we have spiced rum brown butter cookies for dessert!

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Casserole Recipes:
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Black Bean and Sausage Stovetop Casserole
Cheesy Sausage and Potato Casserole
Cheesy Tomato Zucchini Bake 
Pumpkin Penne Casserole
Sausage and Bean Casserole
The Ultimate Comfort Food Casserole

Tomatoes Stuffed with Chicken, Herbs, and Cheese

Eric and I moved into our new place--a flat in a 1880s Victorian--about a week ago and we're both completely in love with it. It has a beautiful bay window, a fireplace, French doors, and hardwood floors. Not to mention a huge dining room. Plus, it's so close to Eric's work that he can walk. The kitchen is on the small side, but it's still bigger than any kitchen I've ever had. While we were unpacking, we lived off of leftover pizza, rotisserie chicken, and leftover cake from our wedding shower. But tonight I cooked our first meal in our place!

The other day my mom came to visit, check out the new digs, and go mother-of-the-bride dress shopping.  She also brought us a bunch of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes from her garden. The cherry tomatoes will be made into sun-dried tomatoes. But what to do with the bag of beefsteaks and early girls? Well, we had a little bit of the rotisserie chicken left over so I made tomatoes stuffed with chicken and herbs. It was so good that I can't wait to experiment with other stuffed tomato recipes.

Ingredients:
4 tomatoes (I used 2 beefsteak, 2 early girls)
kosher salt
4 tablespoons minced onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 pieces of bacon (I used turkey bacon)
1 cup cooked chicken, shredded or cubed 
1/2 cup Italian herb breadcrumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 cup Italian blend shredded cheese (or mozzarella)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Cut off the top of the tomatoes. Scoop out the innards with a spoon. You can either reserve them for another use or discard them. Lightly sprinkle the insides with salt and set them upside down on a paper towel to extract juices.

While the tomatoes drain, cook the bacon; set aside. Reserve a little bit of bacon grease and saute the onions and garlic in it until they are golden brown. In a medium bowl, mix together the chicken, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, basil, garlic, and onions.

Place the tomatoes on the cookie sheet and divide the chicken mixture between the four tomatoes. Next, divide the cheese between the tomatoes, sprinkling it on top. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle it on top of the cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until the tomatoes are cooked and the cheese is melted.

We made roasted potatoes to go with our stuffed tomatoes. However, instead of roasting them under the broiler like we usually do, I cooked them at 400 degrees for an hour. After 40 minutes I put the tomatoes in with the potatoes.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Pumpkin-Black Bean Stew with Spicy Sausage

Source

October is my favorite month. It has Halloween in it. To start this month out right, I'm going to share this hearty, spicy pumpkin stew. The original recipes comes from here. I made a number of changes though. Next time, I may make even more changes, like adding more vegetables--potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and so on. But as is, this soup is quite filling. One little bowl and I'm stuffed. Eric wasn't a big fan, but considering he prefers pumpkin in his desserts, not his entree, and doesn't like black beans, I wasn't expecting him to get excited about this dish. However, everyone else loved it!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
3 cups chicken broth
1 package Echrich Jalapeno and Cheddar sausages
2 15-ounce cans black beans, drained
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
1 15-ounce can corn, drained
29-ounce can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sage
1/2 tablespoon thyme
cayenne pepper, to taste
salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste
sugar, to taste

Directions:
In a stock pot, heat olive oil over medium-high and saute the onions until they're translucent, about 5 minutes. Add sausage and brown. Pour in chicken broth, black beans, tomatoes, corn, and pumpkin. Stir and bring to a boil. Add milk, curry, cumin, sage, and thyme. Stir. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for approximately 10 minutes. Season to taste with cayenne, salt, black pepper, and sugar.

P.S. It's even better the next day!

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Also Check These Fall Recipes:  
Acorn Donuts
Applesauce Cookies with Caramel Frosting
Cheese Tortellini in a Pumpkin Sauce
Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip
Mini Pumpkin Pies
Pumpkin Bread!
Pumpkin Caramels
Pumpkin Penn Casserole
Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Brownies

Shrimp in an Herb Butter Sauce

Oh how I love shrimp. As a kid it was the only type of seafood I'd eat. Since then I have expanded my palate to include different types of white fish meat, crab, and lobster. Shrimp may still be my favorite. Luckily Eric and my parents like it too. While shrimp can be a healthy dish, I made it not so healthy with this butter sauce, but sometimes you just have to indulge. And this sauce is worth the indulgence. (My mom thought it was so delicious that she couldn't bring herself to throw out the little extra sauce that was left over).

Shrimp, fried rice, grilled zucchini, and grilled parmesan tomatoes

Ingredients:
1 pound frozen pre-cooked shrimp, de-veined, shelled, and thawed
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried dill
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 tablespoon, fresh chives, minced
2 tablespoon garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tablespoon hot sauce

Directions:
Heat shrimp. You can do this on the stove top, in the oven, or on the grill. Since it was in the 90s over Fourth of July weekend, we grilled it. You could probably also heat it right in the sauce since it's precooked. Set aside.

My mom insists on grilling on foil. Less mess.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Once it is melted, stir in the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about fifteen minutes. Toss in shrimp and serve.

My mom wanted to learn how to make fried rice and since Eric is an expert at it, he taught her and we had fried rice with our shrimp.

Normally he makes it in a wok, not a skillet, hence the rice everywhere.

I would love to share his fried rice recipe with you, but it's not really a recipe. He refuses to take the time to measure out how much soy sauce, sesame oil, or vegetables he uses. However, I will share the basics of making fried rice in the future.

We also made my zucchini chips and baked parmesan tomatoes  to go with dinner, except we grilled them instead of baked them. While they turned out delicious, I think I still prefer them baked.

It was such a delicious meal for our last night up north.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

My great aunt and uncle came over for dinner on Memorial Day. As we brought the food out to the picnic table, my uncle's eyes went straight to the baked parmesan tomatoes or as he called them "those fancy tomatoes." There is nothing really fancy about these tomatoes other than their taste. Sometimes it amazes me how the simplest foods and recipes taste the best.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes, washed and dried
Grated Parmesan cheese
Herbs such as oregano, basil, rosemary, or thyme (fresh or dried)
Cooking spray

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Cut the tomatoes into thick slices and arrange them on the baking sheet. Generously top with Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with your herb of choice--I used oregano. Bake for 15 minutes.

Most of us ate these tomatoes as is. They reminded me of little cheese pizzas but without the crust. My dad put one on top of his turkey burger (I can't believe my truck driver father not only tried my turkey burgers but ate about three, he liked them so much!) along with avocado and lettuce and loved it. Needless to say, there weren't any left overs. With summer on its way and tomatoes coming into season, I can't wait to make these again and again.

Enjoy!

~Krissy