
Easy, baked southwest stuffed peppers with ground beef with bold, savory flavors served on top of a bright and colorful cilantro sweet potato and cauliflower rice.
Easy, baked southwest stuffed peppers with ground beef with bold, savory flavors served on top of a bright and colorful cilantro sweet potato and cauliflower rice.
This Pumpkin Cranberry Oat Crumb Bar can easily lift your spirits with the satisfying flavor of something sweet, spicy, and warmth.
Ease of Making: Medium
The texture is hearty with the rolled oats, chopped walnuts, and aromatic pumpkin spice. This dessert combines the best flavors of fall with pumpkin puree, dried cranberries, and vanilla extract.
This cauliflower mashed “potatoes” is so much creamier than you can ever imagine. It is filled with such great flavor and serves as a great low-carb alternative to your classic mashed potatoes.
Ease of Making: Easy
This would make a perfect side dish for any cold winter feast and will be a great addition to Thanksgiving entrees.
If you’re looking for an easy side dish to prep for the holidays, try this dish. No need for peeling and cooks in less time than your classic mashed potatoes.
Does cauliflower really taste like mashed potatoes?
While the texture may be close, they will not exactly taste the same. Cauliflower will naturally be blander because of the water content. Try roasting the cauliflower instead of steaming for a firmer mash. Roasting it will also give it a sweeter and nuttier flavor. We also added the same herbs that we normally would add to mashed potatoes such as chives.
How to make mashed cauliflower creamy?
Mix in cheese, butter, sour cream, and milk to make it rich and smooth.
What can you eat with Mashed Cauliflower?
It is a great side dish to accompany any roasted or pan-fried protein such as tender roasted beef, pork chops, or roasted chicken.
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Tender, melt in your mouth, shredded beef that is comfortingly satisfying for the cooler weather.
Ease of Making: Easy
Here’s a savory and rich beef ragu simmered in diced tomatoes, garlic, Italian seasonings, and fresh herbs that is perfect for the fall comfort meal. Enjoy it over a bed of pasta or mashed potatoes.
This is the perfect dish to batch cook for the colder weather. It is quick and easy to make but tastes like it’s been simmering all day long. Make it a weekly staple for your family dinners or bring it to holiday gatherings and make it the new family favorite.
It’s easy to make a tender roast in the Instant Pot, all you need to do is follow a few simple steps:
How much meat can you cook at one time?
For a 6 quart size, you can fit 4-6 lbs of meat. However, you will need to take into consideration the other ingredients such as the cooking liquids and additional veggies. For this recipe, we kept it around 2 to 3 lbs.
Does the meat need to be completely covered in liquid?
You normally will need at least one cup of liquid. The protein itself already contains water that will sweat out, and there is additional moisture from the vegetables.
What can you serve with Beef Ragu?
We love to eat it with egg noodles, but you can also serve it with veggie noodles such as spiralized zucchini or spaghetti squash for a low-carb spin on this recipe. Creamy polenta is also a nice change from pasta or you can serve it on top of mashed potatoes or fluffy rice pilaf.
What to do with leftover beef ragu?
This Instant Pot beef ragu freezes really well and can keep up in the freezer for up to three months. However, you can also make sandwiches with the leftovers or add them as a topping to your baked potatoes.
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Crispy golden brown pork chops ready in less than 10 minutes! These easy pan-fried pork chops come together quickly, are bursting with flavor, low carb, and make for a perfect weeknight dinner.
Ease of Making: Medium
This pork chop recipe is prepared on the stovetop and uses thinly sliced boneless cuts that sear in a hot skillet with a beautiful golden-brown crust. It’s served on top of garlic mashed rutabaga mixed with spinach, a combo superfood side dish that is also a great low carb option to use instead of potatoes.
Pork often gets a bad rap for being unhealthy, but choosing the right cut provides some health benefits. Some cuts can be high in cholesterol, saturated fat, and calories, but if you’re looking for a healthy option, always choose lean cuts such as tenderloin, loin chops, and sirloin roast.
Lean cuts of pork are high in protein, low in fat, and have more B-Vitamins than other types of meats. B-vitamins that contribute to boosting energy by helping with metabolism and energy production. Pork also delivers iron that helps carry oxygen and potassium that helps regulate blood pressure. It provides all these essential nutrients, while still being about lean as chicken.
Pan-frying is a quick and easy cooking method to get the maximum flavor on proteins and sear in the juices.
Pork chops are known for being classic comfort food, less expensive and fatty than beef, and relatively easy to prepare. However, lean cuts can often be tough due to its lower fat content. Therefore, using the right cooking technique is key.
Marinating your protein overnight can help tenderize lean cuts just like these pork chops and actually help speed up the cooking process.
Add oil to a hot pan (medium high heat). Prior to placing the pork chops in the pan, use paper towels to wipe off any excess marinade. This will help get a good golden brown sear and avoid it from steaming in the pan.
Add the pork chops to the pan and let them cook and sizzle. Cook on the first side for 3 minutes before flipping it over. You want the meat done and cooked all the way through, but because they are so thin, it should be quickly cooked.
Pair them with a comforting side dish just like the garlic mashed rutabagas and spinach medley or check out our:
Pork chop side dishes:
Kebabs are one of the tastiest dishes stacked with tender marinated meats and bright colored veggies. Not only do bell peppers and cherry tomatoes add great flavor to this dish, but they are also full of essential nutrients that are good for your health. Bell peppers and cherry tomatoes are great sources of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and potassium. A diet rich in vegetables can help reduce the risk of developing heart disease and certain types of cancers. The fibers help keep your digestive tract working properly. Along with being full of nutrients, they are low-calorie and deliver a satisfying bite.
Ease of Making: Easy
What I love about kebabs is that there are so many ways to make them and so many flavors from all over the world that you can incorporate. They are easy to make and can be cooked on a grill, in the oven, or in an air fryer just like these chicken kebabs. Serve them with your choice of sides such as a salad, in a pita, on top of a bed of rice pilaf, or additional veggies.
The Air Fryer is great for meal prep. It is the perfect size for roasting veggies and cooks large portions of protein. Therefore, you can batch cook multiple food items without having to pre-heat the oven and waste all that oven space.
The air fryer essentially is like an amped-up oven. The difference is that it has a fan and it utilizes a more compact space to facilitate fast cooking. The fan circulates the air around making food items crisp which is similar to what you could get from deep frying, minus the extra added fat. With normal baking ovens, there is a lot of humidity, so it’s difficult for an outer crisp to occur.
Sometimes using a leaner cut of meat such as chicken breasts can result in dry tough meat. Which is why marinating your meats prior to cooking is a good technique to prevent it from drying out and making it chewy. Marinades have acidic components that help tenderize meats and make them juicy. They also help reduce the time of cooking.
This recipe’s marinade incorporates some flavor spices such as paprika, cumin, turmeric powder, and minced garlic which all offer antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that can help boost immunity.
If you’re using wooden skewers be sure to soak them in water for at least 10 minutes to prevent them from scorching.
Layer the ingredients on the skewers and place them in the air fryer basket.
Side salads and pita bread with dip make great side dishes for kebabs.
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Kebabs are such a fun and great meal that you can enjoy with friends or family. Everybody loves eating food on a stick, especially kiddos! It’s also a great way to pack flavor and healthy ingredients together on a skewer.
Ease of Making: Easy
Kebabs are traditionally cooked on a skewer over a fire or baked in an oven so that it can roast. Roasting is one of the healthiest ways to prepare your meals because it results in minimal losses of vitamins and nutrients.
Using a roasting pan in an oven is usually the best way to roast food because it allows the oven heat to reach as much of the surface of food as possible and allows the air to circulate.
However, if you don’t have a roasting pan and don’t want to wait to heat up your large oven, then an air fryer will do perfectly. It has a basket that holds food similar to a roasting rack and the fan allows the air to circulate the heat evenly around the food giving it that golden brown crisp.
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This Baked Salmon with Parmesan Butternut Squash Noodles is easy and simply perfect for a light and refreshing weekday lunch. It’s a great low carb meal with minimal ingredients that you can make in less than 20 minutes.
Easy of Making: Easy
When it comes to eating healthy, it’s all about including a balance of proteins, veggies, smart carbs, and healthy fats. This meal delivers a powerhouse of nutrients that will help you meet your health goals.
Salmon is a great source of protein that will help you keep full longer. It is also rich in healthy fats such as Omega-3 Fatty acids which may promote weight loss and decrease belly fat. Salmon is also high in B Vitamins which is important in helping the food you eat into energy, creating and repairing DNA, and reducing inflammation that can lead to heart disease. It is also tasty, versatile, and widely available.
This baked salmon is paired with a superfood medley of butternut squash spirals, cherry tomatoes, and arugula. Butternut squash is a low calorie, low carb, a sweet, and nutty ingredient that makes a great addition to many savory recipes and is packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. Antioxidants help prevent cellular damage and reduce inflammation which may reduce your risk of several chronic diseases.
To add flavor and pack it with even more nutrients, we mixed it in with arugula that has a distinctive peppery flavor and a great source of calcium and folate. The addition of tart flavors from the cherry tomatoes pair well with the savory and nutty flavors of this recipe.
So not only is this recipe tasty, but it is also packed with nutrients to help you meet a healthy and balanced diet.
How to pick the right salmon:
There are several types of salmon, such as pink salmon, red salmon, and Atlantic salmon. Any of these types can taste delicious in the oven.
You do however want to make sure you choose a filet with firm flesh when you are buying at the store. When you gently press the fillet with your finger, it should spring back. You also want to avoid any fish that are dark around the edges or brown/yellow discoloration. And be sure to smell the fish. It should smell like saltwater or the sea smell and not have a strong fishy smell.
Baking salmon delivers soft, juicy, and tender salmon on the inside with crispy edges.
The key to evenly cooking the fish is to let it sit on the counter for a few minutes until it comes to room temperature, otherwise, other parts of the fish might overcook while the other parts are still raw.
How to use frozen salmon:
If you are using frozen fish, be sure to let it defrost in the refrigerator overnight and also allow it to come to room temperature before baking.
The great thing about salmon is that you don’t need a lot of seasonings to make it taste good. However, you don’t want to add salt too early, otherwise, it will draw out the moisture if left for an extended period of time. For best results, salt the salmon right before you place it in the oven to cook.
Fish cooks fairly quickly, however, cook time will vary depending on the thickness. The thickest part of the salmon should look opaque and the layers within the salmon should flake apart easily.
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Oven-baked chicken and rice was a staple growing up in my household. I mean who doesn’t love baked chicken? My parents would whip up mouthwatering baked chicken thighs seasoned in a tasty rub served on top of fluffy soft rice.
Ease of Making: Medium
This recipe adds an island flair using Caribbean spices such as allspice and cayenne pepper. It is served on top of turmeric-infused rice pilaf with sauteed aromatics such as onions, bell peppers, and minced garlic.
And my favorite part of the dish is pairing it with diced pineapple. The sweet and tart flavors of the pineapple pair well the savory and spicy flavors of the Caribbean species.
This is definitely a dish that is vibrant and full of flavor and a great twist on chicken and rice.
Many recipes normally start with searing chicken on the stovetop and rendering out the fat to get it crispy and golden brown.
For this recipe, there is no need for that extra step because the seasoned chicken will roast in a hot oven and the oven will do all the work.
If you want to keep it low fat, remove the skin or you can use boneless chicken breasts or boneless chicken thighs instead of chicken thighs in this recipe. Just be sure to reduce the amount of time you cook the chicken by about 10-15 minutes. Use a thermometer to make sure that the chicken has cooked to an internal temperature of 165F,
What rice should I use?
Long grained white rice is what you normally would use for rice pilaf, but you can also swap it out for brown rice or barley which are great whole grain options. If you want to keep it low carb, then use cauliflower rice as an option.
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These crispy salmon patties are a healthy meal prep protein option. Canned foods often get a bad rep, however canned salmon can be very nutrient-dense. One serving can provide up to 16 grams of protein, heart-healthy fats, and multiple micronutrients.
Ease of Making: Easy
Growing up we used a lot of canned tuna, so using canned salmon in this recipe is a great switch. Eating salmon has been linked to anti-inflammatory properties, brain, heart, and bone health and due to its high protein content helps you stay feeling full longer.
And yes, canned salmon can be higher in sodium, however, pairing them with fresh veggies such as this corn and arugula salad can lighten it up and make it part of a healthy balanced meal.
Arugula has a distinctive peppery taste unlike other salad greens adding another flavor component. Adding other sweeter tasting veggies such as corn and red bell peppers can complement the flavors. Arugula is actually part of the cruciferous family such as Brussel sprouts and broccoli and is known to have high cancer-fighting agents. This high fiber salad option is low in sugar, calories, carbohydrates, and fats and has vital nutrients that help support the immune system.
One of my favorite things about cooking is the ability to be creative and take food and transform it by simply adding a few ingredients and changing the flavor profiles. Take this canned salmon, for example. Canned fish often has a really fishy profile, but making them into salmon cakes with other ingredients can definitely upgrade a simple can of salmon.
First, be sure to drain the can before placing the salmon into a mixing bowl. Then you’ll want to add your choice of veggies. I like to use bright colored veggies such as red bell peppers, red onions, and green onions.
Then, you will want to include some sort of binder such as breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, and dijon mustard to keep the patties packed together to keep it from crumbling when you pan fry them in the pan. Add your choice of seasonings and spices and mix it all together until it forms a paste-like texture.
You can use your hands to form the patties into balls and then flatten them in the pan, but a great tool to use is a small 2 oz ice cream scoop. I use this tool anytime I have to scoop and portion out for recipes. It saves time from having to roll it into a ball and it evenly portions out your serving sizes.
Place the portioned out balls into the hot pan and use your spatula to flatten them out into patties. Have a plate lined with a paper towel to help drain the excess oil. Afterward, serve them on top of fresh greens with other veggies such as sweet corn.
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Southwest Stuffed Poblano Peppers
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