Vegetable Beef Stew
This one-pot meal is a family favorite. It has lots of vegetables and is gluten-free. You can add salt and pepper to taste. One of my granddaughters like to add brown rice to her bowl of Vegetable Beef Stew. She has to be gluten-free so the extra calories are warranted. It seems like she is always training for a ½ marathon somewhere.
Sweet Potato-Spinach-Black Bean Quesadillas
This quesadilla recipe combines many of my favorite foods which are high nutrients: sweet potatoes, spinach, red pepper and black beans. It’s no secret, I love Mexican foods and so does my family. You can easily make this gluten-free if you substitute the whole wheat tortillas for corn tortillas. I like to top my quesadillas with a little salsa, some yummy guacamole, a dab of lite sour cream, and I make a side salad with diced tomatoes and chopped romaine lettuce.
Mexican Cheeseburger
This is a very quick and easy grandkid-loving recipe my grandkids love to eat especially the college grandkids who are doing their own cooking. Included is an excellent homemade sauce recipe but full disclosure, my college grandkids, just use their own store purchased toppings like thick salsa, mayonnaise and ketchup instead of making their own sauce. If you want to lower the calories, you can use reduced fat cheese and use thick salsa instead of the sauce. You can also stack the Mexican Cheeseburgers to make a double.
Easy-to-Fix Meatloaf Cupcakes
This is a very easy recipe to make. These cupcakes are easy quick meal for family. Meatloaf cupcakes are great to take for school or work lunches. You can add a microwave baked sweet potato and salad with blueberries or sliced strawberries to round out the meal. My grandkids like ketchup so they always add ketchup.
The Gift of Health Bean Soup with a Kick
By Barbara Day, M.S., R.D.
For a special Christmas present this year, you can mix dry beans together and give the festive bags with the attached recipe as a gift of health. Beans are a great source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber can help to lower your cholesterol and insoluble fiber helps to prevent and treat constipation. Beans are low fat and high in protein, folate, magnesium, potassium and iron.
Salsa Chicken & Brown Rice Casserole
My husband and my grandkids absolutely love this recipe! My husband says it tastes like Mexican Bowl he gets at Chipotle, plus it’s homemade and much cheaper. He likes to put the casserole in a bowl with mashed up corn tortilla chips or on a corn tortilla. Adding more salsa, fresh leafy greens, guacamole and low-fat sour cream adds taste and an array of additional nutrients. Plus, it’s a gluten-free recipe.
Easy-to-Make Homemade Fruit Sorbets
I am always looking for ways to increase my intake of fruits and vegetables every day. When I am grandparenting, I like to make snacks for my grandchildren to eat that are full of nutrients and they love to eat. One of my grandchildren’s favorite treats are homemade fresh fruit sorbets. The difference between a sorbet and sherbet is a sorbet contains no dairy but sherbet contains some milk. The fruits I choose for them are the fruits they like to eat or what’s in season. For example, most of them love strawberries and peaches. Only a couple of grandchildren like blueberries which is my favorite fruit. These recipes are all gluten-free.
Pumpkin Chili with a Kick
It’s pumpkin time and what better to cook on a cool autumn night is Pumpkin Chili with a kick! The conventional chili spices along with pumpkin pie spice give this chili a special taste for those who love the taste of pumpkin. This pumpkin chili is high in dietary fiber, high in protein, high in iron, and high in potassium. It’s gluten-free.
Smoothies 101
It’s easy to make homemade smoothies. If you buy smoothies out, you may get a fruit mixture which is high in added sugar plus the yogurt used may also be high in sugar. You can make smoothies for breakfast, as a snack, or as a recovery drink after a long run, a century bike ride or a triathlon.
Easy Pumpkin Walnut Muffins
Here’s an easy recipe using two of my favorite foods: pumpkin & walnuts. Pumpkin is high in vitamin A and walnuts are high in omega-3 fatty acids. You can add dark chocolate chips if you must but I think these muffins are great just the way they are!
Out-the-Door Oatmeal Avocado Breakfast Cookies
This recipe contains a number of healthy ingredients which make a good tasting breakfast cookies for your family to grab as they go out the door on the way to school or work! Each cookie is high in dietary fiber and is a good source of protein.
Easy Spicy Chicken Vegetable Soup
Lots of vegetables in this easy chicken vegetable soup recipe. You can make it in a crockpot or on stovetop. Lots of antioxidants to keep you healthy. You choose. You can make it spicy or not. This recipe is gluten-free. I like to serve this with cornbread.
Easy Berry Cobbler
Berries are loaded with antioxidants, high in dietary fiber, provide lots of nutrients, help fight inflammation which is the major cause of many diseases, may help with insulin response and improve blood sugar, include antioxidants: anthocyanins, ellagic acid & resveratrol that protect against some cancers plus they taste good!
Chicken Spinach Enchiladas
I love this recipe because it’s a way of hiding spinach in a kid-friendly Mexican enchilada if you have a kid who won’t eat any green vegetables. The garlic & cheese overpowers the spinach but the good news is this recipe really tastes good, too. The recipe is excellent as a leftover and can be warmed up easily in the microwave. In addition, you can cut the recipe in half as well before you cook it. If you want to lower the fat and calories in this recipe you can also use fat free cream cheese. You can use canned chicken breast or you can poach your chicken which is very easy to do.
Blueberry Jerky Snacks
My grandkids love these type of fruit snacks but I don’t like all the food additives. These snacks are easy to make but they take a while to cook. I usually double or triple the recipe but I have lots of grandkids. They love these fruit snacks. Blueberry and strawberry jerky snacks are their favorites!
Black Bean Sweet Potato Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Here’s an easy-to-fix Mexican recipe the whole family can enjoy. Sweet potatoes contain important vitamins like beta carotene, vitamin C, and are high in the mineral potassium. They also contain soluble and insoluble dietary fiber.
Gluten-free Double Chocolate Brownies
My family loves double chocolate brownies on special occasions. My son and granddaughter are required to eat gluten-free. This recipe is so easy. The hard part is making sure you have all the ingredients. You can also add a frosting but my family likes them plain. I usually sprinkle powdered sugar over the top of the brownies before serving. My granddaughter loved the brownies so much she left some for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve!
Crispy Chicken Nuggets
This is one of my grandkids favorite recipes, their parents and their grandparents, love it as well. Any leftover tenders I use in salads.
Vegetarian Chili
Vegetarian Chili By Barbara Day, M.S., R.D. This is one of my favorite vegetarian chili recipes! I like it because it’s loaded with vegetables but
Zucchini Chili Cornbread Casserole
If you like chili, you will love this recipe since it already has a great chili accompaniment: cornbread. There is no meat in this recipe but you won’t miss the meat once you bite into this cornbread chili!
Southwest Chicken Bean Soup
This is one of my favorite easy-to-fix recipes with a Southwest flare. You can use rotisserie chicken or poach some chicken tenders. It’s a crowd pleaser especially with my grandkids.
My Husband’s Favorite Three Bean Chili
This is an easy quick low fat chili that provides an excellent source of lycopene and fiber.
New Ideas for Fast and Easy-to-Make Breakfast for Kids
Kids and adults, too, need to eat breakfast every day. Breakfast means break the fast. Kids will do better in school and parents will do better at work if they eat breakfast.
Sweet Potato, Spinach, Black Bean & Quinoa Burrito
Here’s a really great recipe that adds a combination of vegetables and whole grains to make a delicious and healthy burrito.
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
This Slow Cooker Pulled Pork recipe is one of my favorites for parties. Guests always come back for seconds and then ask me for the recipe!
Almond Crusted Salmon
By Barbara Day, M.S., R.D.
A quick, easy, delicious Salmon recipe that looks impressive too.
More Recipes
Almond Crusted Salmon
By Barbara Day, M.S., R.D.
A quick, easy, delicious Salmon recipe that looks impressive too.
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
This Slow Cooker Pulled Pork recipe is one of my favorites for parties. Guests always come back for seconds and then ask me for the recipe!
Sweet Potato, Spinach, Black Bean & Quinoa Burrito
Here’s a really great recipe that adds a combination of vegetables and whole grains to make a delicious and healthy burrito.
New Ideas for Fast and Easy-to-Make Breakfast for Kids
Kids and adults, too, need to eat breakfast every day. Breakfast means break the fast. Kids will do better in school and parents will do better at work if they eat breakfast.
