Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Nomato Sauce

September 15, 2018 in Nourished Recipes

What if I told you that you could magically transform a one veggie sauce into a mouthwatering, nutrient-dense seven veggie sauce? Would you call me crazy?

Well friends, I’ve done some extensive recipe testing and perfected my own version of what the internet calls “nomato sauce.” What exactly is no-mato sauce? This sauce is a delectable tomato-like sauce but without the tomato. Don’t get me wrong, tomatoes have wonderful health benefits, but some people don’t tolerate tomatoes and the rest of their family of nightshades very well, especially people with histamine intolerance issues.

Over this past year when tomatoes became increasingly problematic for me to process, I craved an alternative to top my beloved enchilada stuffed sweet potatoes (thank you Danielle Walker for developing such an amazing recipe!). After much testing and tasting, here I present to you my own Nomato Sauce.

As you’ll see in the recipe below, the sauce recipe I give is really the base from which you can develop your own creation. I give two options for seasonings to transform this sauce into marinara or enchilada sauce (note the enchilada sauce does include chili powder which contains paprika, a nightshade, so avoid this if all nightshades are a concern for you). Please share with us how you use this recipe!

Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Sautéed Swiss Chard + Caramelized Onions

July 25, 2018 in Nourished Recipes

I absolutely love heading to our local farmer's market this time of year. Strolling down the aisles looking at the rainbow colors of produce just fills me with awe for God's creation.

This week we purchased a bunch of kale, Swiss chard, spring onions, and basket of green beans for under $10! Our local farmer's market also encourages kids to make healthy food choices by giving them a $2 token for any produce (fruit or veggie) at the market. I love seeing my son getting excited to pick out "his" veggie at the market and then proudly carry it in "his" bag :)

As I've mentioned in the other posts in this series (type in "Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love" into the search bar to read them all), eating fresh veggies have not always been something I enjoyed. In fact, I detested them! Over the course of many years, through the journey of learning that eating is not just about satisfying hunger but nourishing my body with the fuel it needs, I have come to love these veggies. With this series, I hope to encourage you to branch out and try a new veggie or two and share the experience with your kiddos or friends.

This week, I'm excited to share with you my favorite summer time veggie dish: Sauteed Swiss Chard + Caramelized Onions.

Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Rainbow Bacon?

June 17, 2018 in Nourished Recipes, Nourished Home

When they said “Eat the rainbow 🌈” they never said that couldn’t include bacon!

Weeknights can be a little crazy to get a meal on the table, let alone one with a side dish or a veggie. Even if I do manage to quickly whip something up with a veggie or two, it seems like I turn around the the dishes behind me in the sink have multiplied. That's why I've really been getting into sheet pan meals. One pan. One meal. Endless possibilities.

For this month's Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love recipe blog post, I wanted to share with you a tried-and-true favorite in our household: 🌈 Rainbow Bacon.

Yes 🌈Rainbow Bacon is packed full of veggies as the name would imply :) Okay in all seriousness the heart of this sheet pan meal is the bacon and you can toss in whatever veggies you have on hand. This recipe started out with onions, Brussels sprouts, and bacon but has morphed into so much more. The recipe below is by far our favorite. How did I come up with it? Honestly I opened up the fridge, freezer, and pantry and asked my toddler which veggies he wanted for supper. His first response was "bacon!" "No, what veggie do you want with your bacon?" :) We came up with the list of veggies below, some of which I knew he wouldn't eat, but as I said in our last post in this series: walk the walk.

Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Pumpkin Chocolate Brownie Muffins (GF)

May 13, 2018 in Nourished Recipes

On this very special day, Mother's Day, we want to share with you a recipe that's as sweet as mom :) We're back again for another post in our series Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love. Type this title into our search bar to find all the other delicious and nutritious recipes in this series. So with this month's recipe, I wanted you Moms (and everyone else too!) to have your veggie recipe but also have your dessert too. Have you ever heard of a dessert with a veggie in it other than carrot cake? I haven't!

As I mentioned in this post, my son is muffin crazy, and it brings me so much joy to see my kiddo go crazy for something I've made that is healthy too. This spring, I started experimenting with some egg-free Paleo muffin recipes for his birthday party.

I'm typically pretty good at adding the main components of a recipe on my grocery list, but this particular recipe I ran out of a few ingredients and had to improvise. The result was mouthwatering! What was once a pretty decent Paleo chocolate chip muffin, elevated into this chocolate peanut buttery goodness that melted in my mouth, completely masking the fact I was eating a veggie I didn't like: pumpkin! What's even better? They're super easy to make. Honestly the hardest part was scooping the peanut and almond butter from the bottom of the jars! Oh and I forgot to mention, my son loved them too!

Bite by Bite: Finding Food Freedom -- Kale Chips Recipe

April 29, 2018 in Nourished Home, Nourished Recipes

This picture makes a momma heart proud. It’s a picture of progress. It’s a picture of healing. It’s a picture of food freedom.

Although you may just see a toddler’s plate for a mid-afternoon snack, what I see is tiny taste buds that have shifted sloooowly with tons of love and guidance. Not just talking about my son’s taste buds but mine. Yes he went through the typical toddler picky phase but his started to go deeper than that. I couldn’t see it at first because I was blinding by the ease of serving him what I knew he’d eat. I saw it after I slammed the fridge door frustrated that I had served him the same meal 2x that day not counting how many times that week. I saw it as I watched the meltdown at the table when daddy offered a bite of carrot. I saw it when I looked in the mirror.

You see this plate is really a mirror. He eats what I eat, that is, what I eat now. Food and I go way back.

Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Sweet Potato Fries

February 04, 2018 in Nourished Recipes, Nourished Body

Healthy eating has not always been something on my priority list nor was it something I was always willing to do. If I were to show my current diet to my 8-year-old self who often refused to eat anything except Campbell's Chunky Soup and Dinty Moore Stew (not making this up!), my 8-year-old probably would have fainted. When I look at the changes I've made, whether by choice or by medical-necessity, I'm quite proud of how far I've come.

One area though that I continue to struggle with and consequently see my toddler son struggle with being adventurous is veggies. Choose any color of the rainbow and there are a multitude of veggies with amazing nutritional value. I know how amazing broccoli is with it's calcium and vitamin C, Brussels sprouts with their manganese and vitamin B's, and sweet potato with it's vitamin A. I know how amazing veggies are for you, but that isn't always enough to challenge my palate to take a bite. As a former picker-eater and mother of a picker-eater, AND lover of honoring my body with nourishing foods, I'm excited to share with you a series of recipes I've developed over the years that have become a hit in our family and helped us to eat more veggies.

I'd also like to share with you a simple tip each post in this series how to help your kiddos (or yourself) becoming more adventurous with their eating!