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!

Loaded Baked Potatoes with Ham and Cheddar

I needed to use up the potatoes in the pantry before they went bad and decided to make loaded baked potatoes. We didn't have any bacon in the house, but we did have leftover Christmas ham. Oh my god, so good! It was a spiral ham with a brown sugar-maple glaze. The sweetness of the ham just worked with the cheese and green onions. Wow.

Ingredients:
4 russet potatoes, scrubbed
1 cup cooked diced ham
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1/3 cup green onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sour cream (I used fat free)
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Directions:
Pierce each potatoes on top and bottom with fork. Place on a plate and cook for 5 minutes on high power. Flip potatoes over and cook for another 5 minutes.

Once potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice in half horizontally. Scoop the flesh out, leaving about 1/4-inch shell. Place the potatoes in a bowl and combine with ham, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, green onion and sour cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Divide the potatoes evenly between the 8 potato skin shells. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Microwave for another 1 to 2 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Or put under the broiler for 3 to 4 minutes.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Side Dish Recipes:
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes 
Cheesy Tomato Zucchini Bake 
Cranberry Sauce Three Ways: Traditional, Orange Zest, and Brandied 
Mashed Potatoes 
Eric's Fried Rice
Fries with Garlic Cheese Sauce

Homemade Hash Browns

Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorite dinner meals. I'm not a morning person so about all I can muster for breakfast in the morning is oatmeal or cereal or toast. I just don't have it in me to make eggs or pancakes or French toast. So we have breakfast for dinner--cheesy eggs, bacon, and homemade hash browns. I've tried making hash browns myself before, but they've always come out mushy, never crisp. This time I did a little research and then had Eric do the actual frying because he's a thousand times better at frying stuff than me. The result was perfect hash browns.

Homemade hash browns, bacon, and cheesy scrambled eggs.

Ingredients:
2 large russet potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
Crispy hash browns depend on getting the starch out of the potatoes--as well as excess moisture. Peel the potatoes. Using a grater, shred the potatoes and place them into a container of cold water. Stir a couple of times to dissolve the excess starch. Change the water and repeat.

You can drain the moisture a few different ways. If you own a potato ricer, place the shredded potato in there to squeeze out the liquid, just don't squeeze the potatoes through the ricer. Or place the shredded potatoes in a salad spinner. However, if you don't own any of these gadgets (I don't) you can still make crispy hash browns. I put my shredded potatoes in a mesh colander and used a small plate to press the water out of the potatoes. Then I used paper towel to squeeze out the rest. This process worked very well for me.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the shredded potato, spreading it out across the bottom of the skillet and making sure it's not more than 1/2 inch thick. Once the bottom has become a gold brown (about 5 to 7 minutes), flip the potatoes over. To make flipping easier, Eric cut the hash browns into quarters and flip each slice separately.

Once both sides are a golden brown, transfer hash browns to a paper towel lined plate to absorb any excess oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Breakfast Recipes:
French Toast in a Mug  
Individual Bacon and Cheese Quiches
Monkey Bread Muffins  
Pumpkin Oatmeal
Quiche in a Mug

Hobo Meal: Lemon Pepper Chicken with Garlic Potatoes

Eric's mom introduced me to hobo meals, and I quickly fell in love with them. Not because they are so delicious--which they are!--but because of the minimum clean up. For the first time in many years, I am living without a dishwasher, and I can't begin to tell you how tired I am of washing dishes. The amount of dishes and pans a meal requires has begun to greatly matter to me.

So anyway, what is a hobo meal? It's basically throwing your meat and veggies on a big sheet of tin foil, wrapping it up, and cooking it in a campfire or an oven. I bake it in the oven. Everything comes out so incredibly moist and flavorful. And there are no pans or baking dishes to scrub. You just throw out the tin foil!

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed
Lemon Pepper Seasoning, to taste
2 small Russet potatoes, diced
garlic powder, to taste
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Season both sides of the chicken breasts with lemon pepper seasoning and place them in a single layer in the center of a large piece of tin foil.

Season your potatoes with garlic powder, salt, and pepper and pile them on both sides of the chicken breasts. Distribute the small pieces of butter among the potatoes. Using the edges of the tin foil, wrap up the meal securely.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes
Baked Garlic Chicken
Chicken Enchiladas with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
Corn and Black Bean Skillet Chicken 
Crockpot: Brown Sugar and Garlic Chicken
Jalapeno Popper Chicken
Parmesan-Seared Chicken
Parmesan Chicken Casserole 
Potless Chicken Pot Pies
Provincial Chicken

Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes

Oh brown butter, you are one of the best culinary discoveries I stumbled upon on Pinterest. It's an easy way to change up a recipe and add complexity of flavor. So when I served mashed potatoes at Christmas dinner, I decided to change them up a bit by making brown butter to pour over them. So, so good. Between these brown butter mashed potatoes and my spiced rum cookies, I've got my mom hooked on brown butter.

Ingredients:
Unsalted Butter (2 sticks makes 1 cup)
Mashed potatoes (homemade, frozen, or boxed--garlic, cheesy, how ever you like your potatoes)

Directions:
Over medium heat, melt butter in a medium sauce pan. Continue to cook it until it turns a dark golden brown and gives off a nutty aroma, stirring occasionally.

Pour brown butter over mashed potatoes.

Any extra brown butter can be put in an airtight container and stored in the fridge or freezer (I have some in my freezer right now!)

That's 2 sticks of butter.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Check Out More Brown Butter Recipes:
Spiced Rum Brown Butter Cookies
Brown Sugar Cookies
Pasta with Summer Squash, Tomatoes, and Brown Butter Sauc

Twice Microwaved Loaded Potatoes

We've all heard of twice baked potatoes. They are delicious. But they take soooo long to make. Well, I was feeling lazy the other night when it came to dinner, but I was craving twice baked potatoes. I knew you could make a baked potato in the microwave, why not a twice baked potato? In approximately 15 minutes you can have that potato that would normally take an hour and a half and it tastes just as good as ones baked in the oven.

Ingredients:
4 medium sized russet potatoes
4 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped
¼ cup fat free sour cream
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Green onions, chopped (optional)

Directions:
With a fork, poke holes in your potatos. Place them on a microwave safe plate and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Flip the potatoes over and microwave for another 5 minutes. Remove the potatoes from the microwave and allow them to cool enough so that you can handle them (Or be impatiently like me and burn your fingertips).

Cut the poatoes in half lengthwise. Scoop out the flesh leaving about a quarter inch shell. Place flesh in a bowl and add sour cream, 3/4 cup cheese, bacon, and green onions (if desired). Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture back into the potato shells. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese over the top of potatoes. Microwave for another 2 minutes. 

 Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Potato Recipes:
Potato Chips in the Microwave
Baked Potato Soup
The Ultimate Comfort Food Casserole
Roasted Sausage, Potatoes, and Peppers
Salt and Vinegar Roasted Potatoes
Twice Baked Potatoes
Very Simple Roasted Potatoes

More Microwave Recipes:
Zucchini Chips 2.0
Potato Chips in the Microwave
3-Ingredient Gluten-Free Mug Cake
Brownie in a Mug
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread in a Mug
Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Mug!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Mug Cake
Chocolate-Hazelnut Mug Cake
Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake
Fluffernutter Mug Cake
French Toast in a Mug
Quiche in a Mug
Short-Cut Caramel Sauce

Homemade Baked French Fries

It has probably been close to a year since Eric and I made homemade French fries. We used to do it all the time. They require a little more prep than just roasting diced potatoes, but they are worth it. Much better than the frozen ones you buy at the store. And healthier than the fries at fast food joints (though those are yummy).

Homemade fries and fish sticks

Ingredients:
Potatoes (I've used russet, white, red, just whatever I've had on hand)
olive oil (vegetable or canola oil works too)
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
any other season you'd like (We usually do garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Grated Parmesan is really good too!)

Directions:
Turn oven to broil.

Cut potatoes into sticks. Rather than trying to explain how to cut a potato into fries, here is a video for you. It really isn't that difficult. Mix olive oil (about 1 tablespoon for every large potato) and seasonings in a small bowl. Toss with fries.

Place the fries in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes then flip the fries and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the fries are crisp.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Potato Recipes
Potato Chips in the Microwave
Salt and Vinegar Roasted Potatoes
Twice Baked Potatoes
Very Simple Roasted Potatoes
 

Ranch, Cheddar, and Bacon Potatoes

Potatoes are a pretty basic side dish for us. Usually mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes. This time I thought I'd change it up with this ranch, cheddar, and bacon potato dish. I mean, look at the title, everything in it sounds delicious--ranch, cheddar, bacon. It turned out so well (I don't know if I've ever had potatoes come out so fork-tender), it might just make it into our normal rotation of potato dishes.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
2 large white potatoes, diced into bite-size pieces
1/3 cup ranch dressing (the bottle, not the powder)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded*
3 pieces of bacon, cooked and crumbled (I used turkey bacon)**
1/2 tablespoon dried dill weed
1 green onion, chopped***
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Season potatoes with salt and pepper. In a large bowl, combine the ranch dressing, dill, cheese, and bacon. Add potatoes and toss until evenly coated.

Pour into an 9x9 casserole dish. Cover with tin foil and back for 60 minutes. Stir the potatoes halfway through.

After 60 minutes, remove the tin foil, stir, increase temperature to 400 degrees, and bake for another 15 minutes.

So I have a few of confessions to make about this recipe:
*After removing the foil, I sprinkled another handful of cheese (maybe 1/2 cup?) on top of the potatoes. We love our cheese.
**Like we love our cheese, we love our bacon. If you don't hold bacon dear to your heart like us, you could certainly only use 2 pieces of crumbled bacon. 
***I didn't have green onions on hand so I used yellow onion. However, I'd still recommend the green onion. They go so great with the ingredients in this recipe and really give it an appealing pop of color.

Eric and I made the last dinner of our honey moon together

Served with Parmesan-seared chicken

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Salt and Vinegar Roasted Potatoes

So I saw a Martha Stewart recipe on Pinterest for salt and vinegar potatoes. I clicked on the link and read through the recipe. It sounded really good but a lot more work than I wanted to do. Instead I decided to just change up my basic roasted potato recipe. I was surprised by how good they turned out. Eric--who loves my microwave salt and vinegar potato chips--liked these potatoes just as much. He wouldn't even put ketchup on them--and he always puts ketchup on his potatoes.

Ingredients:
3 medium russet potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
coarse salt, to taste
2-3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Directions:
Set oven to broil. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.

Toss potatoes with olive oil place in a single lay on baking sheet. Cook for 10 to 15, stir and flip the potatoes, cook for another 10 minutes or until the potatoes are golden brown and crisp on the outside, tender on the inside.

Toss potatoes with vinegar then season with salt.

Salt and Vinegar Roasted Potatoes served with Jalapeno Popper Chicken.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Roasted Sausage, Potatoes, and Peppers

It's the week of Thanksgiving. The big meal--turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, rolls, pumpkin pie (or in our case pumpkin dip, per Eric's request)--is just days away. With all that cooking ahead, what in the world do you make in the days leading up to the holiday? Something easy, comforting, and filling: roasted sausage, potatoes, and peppers.

One pan, 45 minutes.

Adapted from this recipe. 

Ingredients:
4 to 5 potatoes, diced small (we used russet)
14 ounces jalapeno sausage, chopped (or your favorite type of sausage)
1 to 2 red bell peppers, sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
rosemary, to taste (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with foil for easy clean up.

Toss the potatoes, sausages, and peppers with oil and spread out on the cookie sheet. Season with spices. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.

Eric was not thrilled when I told him what was for dinner tonight. He doesn't care for peppers. But one of the many great things about him is that he'll try anything. Well, he went back for seconds.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Potato Chips in the Microwave!

So I kind of dropped the ball last month with my cooking. Only four recipes for all of August and one of them belonged to Eric's mom. I plan to make up for it this month, starting with three days of chips! Potato chips, a new version of zucchini chips, and banana chips.

I've seen lots of recipes for potato chips made in the microwave, but I've been skeptical. How is a microwave going to make potatoes crisp? And I'm not a huge potato chip person to begin with; I'd rather snack on crackers. But curiosity got the best of me. And it actually works! You can make delicious, healthy, crisp potato chips in your microwave in about ten minutes!

These potato chips actually taste like potato and not grease.

Ingredients:
Russet potatoes, scrubbed and dried
Cooking spray
seasonings

Directions:
If you want, you can skin your potatoes, but I don't.

Slice the potatoes into paper thin slices. The easiest way to do this is with a mandolin (the food cutter, not the instrument). If you don't have one, the culinary utensil is well worth the $20 investment.

Place wax paper on a microwave-safe plate. Spray the paper with cooking spray and arrange the potato slices in a single layer on the plate. Season with salt, garlic powder, cayenne pepper . . . whatever your heart desires.

On high-power, microwave the chips for 4 to 6 minutes. Let the potatoes rest for 1 minute. I don't know why this rest period makes a difference, but it does. Then cook your potatoes for another 4 to 6 minutes or until brown spots begin to appear on the chips. Every microwave cooks differently so you're going to have to keep an eye on the potato chips the first time you cook them so they don't burn. In my microwave, 5 minutes then 4 minutes works perfectly.

Store in an air-tight container.

Eric loves salt and vinegar chips. You can also makes these in the microwave. Just dip the potato slices in balsamic vinegar, arrange on the plate, season with salt (I use kosher salt), and cook.

Salt and Vinegar Chips

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chip Recipes:
Baked Apple Chips
Banana Chips
Homemade Pita Chips
Kale Chips
Snowflake Tortilla Chips 
Zucchini Chips 2.0

Very Simple Roasted Potatoes

Eric and I never know what to make as a side dish when we cook. It's almost always comes down to some sort of potato--mashed potato, homemade French fries, or roasted potatoes. More often than not it's roasted potatoes because we don't have any instant mashed potatoes in the house (and making real mashed potatoes is time-consuming) and cutting potatoes into French fries is a bit of work. Plus, roasted potatoes are so versatile. You can easily change up the spices to make it new and different every time.

Ingredients:
1/2 pounds potatoes (russet, red, Yukon, whatever you have on hand), chopped into bite-size pieces
2/3 tablespoons olive oil
salt
pepper
any other spice you'd like

Directions:
Set oven to broil. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside. Toss potatoes with olive oil and spices and place in a single lay on baking sheet. Cook for 10 to 15, stir and flip the potatoes, cook for another 10 minutes or until the potatoes are golden brown and crisp on the outside, tender on the inside.

Spices:
I love making these with thyme (especially fresh thyme) or rosemary. Eric usually does a garlic-cayenne powder mix so they potatoes have a little heat to them. They're also really good with garlic powder or just salt and pepper. Try Italian seasonings or with grated Parmesan cheese.

Variation:
Maybe six or eight months ago I went to make these potatoes, already had the potatoes chopped and the oven hot, and discovered we were out of olive oil. So I melted some butter and tossed the potatoes in that. They potatoes turned out absolutely heavenly. Sometimes when I don't mind doing an extra step, dirtying an extra dish, and being a little unhealthy, I make these potatoes with butter.

Enjoy!

~Krissy