I can’t believe Thanksgiving is THIS WEEK! It seems like whenever this time of year rolls around, we’ll be welcoming the New Year super soon! But before you go shopping for that perfect holiday dress, let’s not forget about the most anticipated dinner party of the year…THANKSGIVING! Whether you celebrate with a traditional turkey dinner, something completely different or something in between (we always have a mix of traditional and Korean food!), check out these healthy sides that are sure to be a crowd pleaser whether you’re hosting or attending a big Thanksgiving feast! (Because sometimes it’s ALL about the SIDES!!)
I have to say, mashed potatoes are a staple on the Thanksgiving dinner table but if you’re looking for a lighter fared alternative carb dish, this parmesan butternut squash gratin looks PERFECT! And an added bonus: it’s a veggie so you can fill up and still have room for another carb! (Pumpkin pie, anyone???)
Roasted asparagus is always a good option but anything wrapped in bacon? EVEN BETTER, am I right?! NOTE: If you’re looking to make this veggie dish even healthier, try wrapping in turkey bacon!
Now here’s a twist on roasted veggies! The maple in this dish brings out something reminiscent of sweet potatoes or candied yams (minus the marshmallows!) but adds a savory kick with the dijon! And anything with dijon is a winner in my book (think salad dressings, salmon, chicken…so many possibilities)!
So there you have it! 3 healthy sides you need to include in your Thanksgiving get together! (For those of you that have multiple families and Friendsgivings, try one to take to each event!)
With 3 young children, bananas are a staple in our house. A) Because they all love them, but B) Because my youngest loves to wake up at the CRACK of dawn on the weekends and insist, “I’m hungry!” And it goes from “hungry” to “HANGRY” with a quickness! So bananas are the easiest thing to hand over while mom + dad get a few more minutes of rest! (Complete transparency – sometimes we go to bed with a banana on our nightstand because we know the little pitter patter of feet will be coming in a few hours and neither of us wants to go downstairs to fetch a banana) But sometimes they go on a banana strike and then we’re left with old spotted bananas that are too mushy for eating. When that happens, I do one of two things: 1) Peel, cut them in half and put in a Ziplock baggie to freeze for smoothies or 2) Make banana bread!
The other day, the kids spied the spotted bananas and it was the perfect time to bake some bread! Ever since I started a clean eating program 3 years ago, I have been more health conscious – especially with regards to the amount of SUGAR that goes into our daily diet in things that we don’t even think about. So when I do have an itch to bake, I’m always looking for ways to make things healthier. One of my favorite substitutions is applesauce. It’s a great all natural sweetener and in most cases, particularly in baking, makes your creations more moist! Sounds like a win win to me! I’ve scoured lots of different banana bread recipes and have tweaked certain ingredients based on my preferences and this one is the best one yet!
Healthy No Sugar Banana Bread
Prep Time: 10 min.
 Ingredients
3 overripe bananas
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce (no sugar added)
3/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
Dash of vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan (or in my case, I used 2 3×5 inch mini loaf pans).
2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt in a large bowl and combine.
3. In a separate bowl, mash bananas (don’t over mash as I like to have little banana chunks in my bread) and combine with eggs. Stir in applesauce and honey and mix well.
4. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture in batches until just mixed and pour into loaf pan(s).
5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 – 25 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack or a paper bag.
ENJOY!!!
Check out more of my healthy recipes and snacks here!
I’m all about making meal time easier so I thought I’d give a meal plan service a try. Here’s my honest review of Hello Fresh! (And make sure to scroll to the bottom of the post for a $70 off discount!)
Being a mom with a full-time career, kids + their extra curricular activities and staying active myself – trying to cook dinner for the family is easier said than done.
Healthy meals for the family
Cooking a HEALTHY dinner for the family is even harder. Enter: HELLO FRESH. A meal delivery service that shops, plans and delivers fresh ingredients to your doorstep with easy, step-by-step recipes so you can relax and enjoy all there is to love about cooking. And eating! With all the subscription boxes out there, this was one I HAD to try.
How it works
First you pick a plan that fits your lifestyle. We don’t cook at home every day (or have time to due to various activities and obligations) so it was important that I wasn’t locked in to ordering a whole week’s worth of meals at once.
Delivery is always free and you have the control to pause, modify or cancel your subscription at any time. Since I wasn’t sure if my kids would enjoy these meals, I decided to go with 3 meals for 2 people for my first box.
Next you get to pick your meals from a variety of different recipes each week, including preferences such as vegetarian, low-calorie diet, quick + easy, etc. so you’re sure to find something you love.
I’ve found that they typically have a variety of options for starch (rice, pasta, potatoes), protein (beef, lean protein, fish), as well as a breakfast option for most weeks which is great in case brunch on the weekends is your thing!
Unboxing the meals
I received my delivery around mid-afternoon which gave me plenty of time unbox, select and prepare my first meal.
The boxes were insulated in bubble packaging and ingredients were fresh / cold to touch. There was an additional cold pack with the protein underneath to keep them extra cold.
Each meal came with a recipe card as well as it’s own box of ingredients, making it super easy to grab one and put the other two boxes in the fridge for another day.
Preparing and cooking
Each box comes with perfectly portioned ingredients (aside from kitchen staples like salt + pepper, oil, etc.). Preparing and cooking was super easy with the step-by-step instructions (with photos!). And all of our meals were made in 30-40 minutes!
When you get home late and don’t want to think about what to make, this is the perfect solution for a quick, healthy, homemade dinner. As an added bonus, each recipe also has a wine pairing suggestion (for those nights when you just need to decompress).
As for making the meals, you really don’t need any fancy kitchen tools, just your regular kitchen tool essentials will do!
All in all, I had a GREAT experience with Hello Fresh! The dinners were healthy, convenient and really tasty! The recipe cards that come with the box are great to keep in your recipe library for future use.
Next time, I plan on ordering 3 meals for 5 people as it was so easy and a good way for my kids to try new foods.
Easy to substitute
I will also likely substitute a couple ingredients (such as brown rice as whole wheat pita). Since I don’t eat dairy but my family does, it’s easy to omit it for myself but add it to their dinners. Overall, it’s a great way to stick with your nutrition plan as all meals are pre-portioned.
Take $70 off your first order
I love that Hello Fresh has a convenient app that you can download so you can manage your weekly menu, pause your deliveries or modify your plan right from your phone! Order now and you can get $70 off your first order of Hello Fresh!
Don’t miss these Kitchen organization tips!
If you’re cooking a lot more, head to these posts to help with organizing your kitchen!
Note from Tiffany: Jen is our new health and fitness contributor. You will be seeing a few posts a month from her and I’m so excited to have her! Hope you enjoy her posts as much as I do!
With summer right around the corner and vacations / weddings / reunions / BBQs coming up, it seems like everyone is on a quest to get healthy to look FAB at the next event! But why is it so hard to find healthy food that’s YUMMY too? I’ve found that with a little effort and lots of trial + error, it IS possible to enjoy your favorite foods but modified to make them easier on the waistline!
Cauliflower has been around forever but how many times have you gone through the produce department without even looking at the white flowery veggie? In the past few years, cauliflower has gained popularity by those that are looking for a low carb, high fiber diet (think Paleo, Keto, Atkins, etc.). The great thing about this unassuming veggie is that it is so versatile! It takes on the flavor of anything you cook it with and can be transformed to take on the look of some of my favorite bar foods (think Happy Hour). If you haven’t jumped on the cauliflower bandwagon yet, now’s your chance! I’ve rounded up my Top 5 Favorite Cauliflower Recipes for a Low Carb Diet!
Tater tots are one of those things that takes me back to my childhood. I didn’t buy school lunch very often but when I did, I LOVED these little bite sized snacks! I would always check the menu to see when they were serving them so I could ask to buy lunch that day! But as an adult, these starchy snacks are high in carbs + fat (especially if they’re fried) which means no bueno when working on your summer goals! These Cauliflower Tots are perfect! They are reminiscent of your childhood tater tot but high in fiber and WAY less fat! Try them at your next BBQ!
One of my FAVORITE Happy Hour foods…BUFFALO WINGS. I love spice and wings have just the right amount of kick to them! But being fried (I actually didn’t know that wings were fried!), they are not the healthiest choice on the HH menu. Enter Cauliflower Buffalo Wings. If you ever wondered how you’re supposed to host a football party (tailgating? Superbowl?) while trying to stick to your nutrition plan, try making these for your next get together. No, they’re not chicken, but if you’re looking for that same spice and a Happy Hour regular, try out these Cauliflower Buffalo Wings!
How many times have you been to a restaurant and ordered your food, only to fill up on the free bread that comes beforehand and been too full (not that it stops me) for your actual entree? If you’re entertaining and looking for an appetizer that won’t make your guests too full for the main dish, try these cauliflower breadsticks! They’re buttery, cheesy and garlicky and your guests (and kids) won’t believe they’re made out of veggies!
I’m not gonna lie – this is not the deep dish crust from Pizza Hut but if you thought you had to give up pizza altogether, think again! I made this for my husband who’s a total skeptic but even he liked it! Top with whatever toppings you want to make a margherita, meat lovers or even a breakfast pizza (eggs + turkey bacon anyone?)! The possibilities are endless!
Being Korean, I grew up on rice. I’m sure for my mom, making fried rice was a way to get rid of leftover ingredients but for me, I loved it and it was definitely a treat from the normal plain rice we got. When I started a healthy eating plan, I cut out white rice and replaced it with brown rice or quinoa. But when I came across this cauliflower fried rice recipe, I did a little happy dance because that meant I could save my carbs for something else (like, ahem…red wine!). This recipe is SUPER easy to make and most grocery stores even sell riced cauliflower! Make it even easier by getting a rotisserie chicken to debone and use mixed frozen veggies and this is a quick dish to make when you’re in a pinch!
So there you have it! My Top 5 Favorite Cauliflower Recipes for a Low Carb Diet! Which one is your fave? I’d love to hear in the comments below!
I love dried fruit so when I go to Trader Joe’s I always stock up on their dried fruit. I grabbed a bag of dried apricots last time we were there and when I got home, decided to try out an apricot muffin. I’ve never baked an apricot muffin before, so decided to experiment.
I find that muffins always tend to use more butter than I prefer, so I did a little bit of replacing, as I always do, to make them a bit healthier and added ground flaxseed meal. (I’ve since gone dairy free since making this recipe and no longer use butter at all but that is another post for another day.) As I mentioned before, I’ve been experimenting with using the flaxseed as a replacement for butter (see my flaxseed oatmeal cookies) so wanted to try it out with the muffins. I added the white chocolate chips for a little bit of flavor but it wasn’t too much so didn’t overwhelm the taste of the apricots. I was a bit nervous to how they would turn out but they were so delightfully delicious and moist that I had to write the recipe down and share with you guys. Everyone that tried them gave them a double thumbs up and was amazed at how moist they were!
Ingredients
1 cup chopped apricots (about 22 apricots)
1 cup boiling water
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan, or line with paper muffin
cups. Chop the apricots and place them into a small bowl. Pour the boiling water over
them then let stand for 5 minutes.
In a medium bowl stir together
the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk
together the melted butter, oil, buttermilk, ground flaxseed and egg.
Pour the wet
ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until it’s combined. (it’s fine if the batter is lumpy)
Drain water from apricots, and
mix them into the batter.
Add white chocolate chips and mix gently.
Spoon into the prepared muffin cups.
Brush the tops of the muffins with a bit of milk and sprinkle with turbinado sugar (I like my muffins tops more browned and crunchy which is why I do this but you can skip this step if you want.)
Bake for 15 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in the pan over a wire rack.
I’ve got such a sweet tooth and I try super hard to stay away from sweets when I’m trying to be healthy. I substitute my cravings for sugar with fruit but a baked good is a baked good and can not be replaced. I had a bunch of raisins that I wanted to use up so thought to try out a healthy oatmeal raisin cookie. Now I know that healthy probably isn’t a great word for a cookie as a cookie is still a treat and something that you should indulge in but these cookies use whole wheat flour, ground flaxseed and honey which means no butter and less sugar so in my world, that’s definitely healthy. The best part is that they are totally yummy and do not taste “healthy” at all. It’s a great replacement when you are craving oatmeal cookies and you can even sub the raisins with chocolate chips. My husband requested peanut butter chips and they tasted great with those too!
I had bought ground flaxseed meal as I had read that it was a replacement for butter in baking so this was my first time using it. You can’t really taste it, maybe just a hint of a nutty flavor but it seems to be a fab replacement for butter so I will be working it into other recipes.
1/2 cup Ground Flaxseed Meal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In your mixer (or bowl if you don’t have one) mix together the flaxseed meal, brown sugar, honey, egg and water.
In another bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Add the oats and mix well.
Add the dry
ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix.
If you’d like to make batches with different ingredients (one batch raisin, one batch chocolate chip) split the batch now into different bowls.
Add in the raisins (or other ingredient of your choosing) and mix well into the batter.
Using a spoon, scoop the batter and roll into a ball. Place onto the cookie sheet. Don’t worry about placing them too far apart as they don’t spread much.
Sprinkle each ball with a little cinnamon (optional but I loved it!)
Bake 13 to 16 minutes until edges and top of the cookies are slightly brown. Cool on a wire rack.
When I was in college, Whole Foods had this super yummy Latte Cookie that was basically a coffee cookie with white chocolate chips. I’m not sure why or when they stopped making it in their bakery but ever since they stopped, I’ve been super craving it. They do have a mocha cookie and another latte cookie now but it’s not the same as the original. I randomly bought white chocolate chips not knowing what I wanted to make and then suddenly the thoughts of those Latte cookies came to mind and it was a lightbulb moment like DUH why haven’t I tried making them before?
So, these are super simple and easy to make and if you like coffee, you will love these cookies. Since it’s been so long since I’ve had one I can’t quite remember if they are like the Whole Foods cookies but they are darn good. 🙂
I could not find any instant coffee powder in my grocery store except for this one. I was a bit skeptical but it was great in the cookie. (Oh and I got decaf since I was serving them after dinner, I didn’t want to keep everyone up!)
Oh and something I learned along the way, do not try to use ground espresso or ground coffee. It needs to be the instant coffee/espresso powder as they put extra stuff in there and it gives it a way stronger coffee flavor. Using ground espresso doesn’t give as strong of a coffee flavor that you want in these cookies.
White Chocolate Coffee Cookies Makes about 2 1/2 dozen
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp instant coffee powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 400 F
Cream together butter and sugars in your mixer or large bowl
In a small bowl, beat egg, milk and vanilla extract together and gradually add to the butter/sugar mixture.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, coffee powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
Add the flour mixture into butter/sugar mixture and mix until combined
Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls, about an inch around, on your lined baking sheet.
Bake until cookie are golden at the edges, about 9-12 minutes.
Cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Sidenote: My favorite tool when making cookies is the cookie scoop. It was one of those things that I put off buying forever because I was like “do I really need it?” but now that I have it, I can’t imagine not having it when I bake. The cookies all come out about the same size and I think the texture of the cookie even turns out better. It’s also great to use when scooping muffin or cupcake batter into the tins. I love multi-purpose tools! This OXO Scoop one is the one I use.
one is the one I use.