My favorite healthy, real food side dishes & recipes for busy families can be found below. All recipes are grain-free, dairy optional and kid-approved. Need help meal planning? Check out my meal planning service!
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Katie Wells
Stuffing is such a part of Thanksgiving for so many people (me included),but I’ve never loved the boxed, processed stuffing mixes that just seem bland and mushy. Sure, there are…
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Katie Wells
Green bean casserole is probably my favorite Thanksgiving dinner dish of all time. Unfortunately, cream-of-mystery-franken-foods-soup is not healthy. Neither are the french-fried onions that typically grace the top of this…
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Katie Wells
Oh, jello … the sugar (or chemical) laden mystery food of hospitals and cafeterias. I went to public school and got my fair share of this stuff back then. The…
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Katie Wells
Cauliflower isn’t a vegetable everyone in my family loves. The kids will eat it if it’s loaded with butter, but for some of them, it’s not on their favorites list.…
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Katie Wells
Strawberry and feta salad is hands down one of my favorite summer salads. This refreshing watermelon salad with feta cheese and mint leaves though is just as delicious. It’s bright,…
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Katie Wells
I love how happy and healthy spending time outside makes me feel, so I garden. Part of the result of that is that there’s always an abundance of zucchini during…
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Katie Wells
No one loves a good casserole recipe more than a mom. From her perspective, it’s a complete meal, loaded with veggies, and baked all in one dish. It’s easy for…
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Katie Wells
Like my strawberry cheesecake parfaits, prosciutto wrapped asparagus is one of those dishes that looks elegant and impressive but is actually really easy and quick to make. It works well…
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Katie Wells
Sometimes I struggle with side dishes. I feel like I’ve already put enough effort into planning the main dish, so sometimes the vegetable sides become a minimal-effort afterthought. Fortunately, Real…
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Katie Wells
My name is Katie and I love cabbage. I never really thought I’d say that. I’m not a huge fan of coleslaw. In fact,I usually use broccoli instead of cabbagewhen…
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Katie Wells
Winter squashes are, to me, the chicken of the vegetable world. They’ve got a nice flavor but are a mostly blank slate that is delicious with different seasonings and preparations.…
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Katie Wells
Brussels sprouts… the dreaded vegetable of childhood! However, cooked the right way, these can become a favorite for both kids and adults. Seriously, I have kids that get excited when…
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Katie Wells
One summer, when my kids were helping their grandparents harvest and preserve vegetablesfrom their garden, the okra were producing like crazy. They kept coming home with bags and bags of…
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Katie Wells
It’s not always easy to think of healthy dishes for entertaining or to bring to a party. (Not everyone appreciates homemade sauerkraut, I guess!) Deviled eggs are one dish that…
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Katie Wells
Sweet potato casserole is beloved (by some) as a classic holiday recipe. If I’m being honest, I’m more of a plain baked sweet potato kind of gal, but since some…
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Katie Wells
My family enjoys hitting the local taco truck once in a while for a fun dinner idea and a break from cooking. We especially love their chicken tacos which come…
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Katie Wells
I loveoregano for its medicinal qualitiesas well as its amazing flavor. So whenever I can use it in a recipe, I’m happy to. This Greek salad is a simple way…
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Katie Wells
Tater tots were a very occasional treat when I was growing up. (I confess, I loved them.) The grated zucchini in these fritters mimics the texture of tater tots and…
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Katie Wells
Garlic is one of my family’s favorite flavors, so it’s no surprise that we loved these garlic roasted mushrooms. They’re simple to make and go with almost any beef recipe(poultry…
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Katie Wells
When my familystopped eating grains, one of the hardest things to give up was pasta (my husband is Italian after all!). This Thai peanut butter noodles recipe uses shirataki noodles…
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Katie Wells
Asparagus is one ofmy favorite vegetables. My husband, on the other hand, grew up hating asparagus because he’d only ever had it from a can. (Think about the difference between…
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Katie Wells
I’ve always thought that homemade versions of classic recipestaste much better than store-bought versions, and cranberry sauce is a perfect example of this. Although I loved the canned jellied cranberry…
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Katie Wells
News flash… sometimes I get stuck in a rut when making dinner! It’s a struggle to come up with different side dishes instead of always relying on the same ones.…
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Katie Wells
Like beets, kale is a super nutrient-dense food, but not always a kid favorite. It’s taken a good amount of recipe testing to come up with uses for kale that…
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