Healthy Food

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Herb Roasted Potato Perfection

These Herb Roasted Potatoes are great for entertaining during the holidays or enjoying with your weeknight dinner. It starts with a simple ranch seasoning and herb mixture and ends with crispy, golden, flavor-packed potatoes bites.

Homemade + Clean Ranch Seasoning

Ranch seasoning and dressing are favorites at our house. They make great base flavorings for a variety of recipes: chipotle ranch dressing, Mexican ranch dressing, ranch potatoes, ranch seasoned chicken, creamy ranch veggie dip, etc.

The seasonings in these Herb Roasted Potatoes are straight from my Homemade Ranch Seasoning recipe. The ingredients are squeaky clean– Whole30 clean! Check out the seasoning recipe here and a million other ways it can be used.

What kind of cookware do you use to roast potatoes?

I often use a cookie sheet with parchment paper to roast most of my veggies. Sometimes an iron skillet works great too!

Do these reheat well?

They work great for meal prep and leftovers. Just pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds and they are perfect. Or, reheat in the oven. They’re good for 2 or 3 days after the initial roast.

What do you serve them with?

I serve them with steak, grilled chicken, pork chops, or any meat! They are a classic that go with a classic “meat ‘n potatoes” dinner. My kids love them with chicken nuggets in their lunches, as well!

These Herb Roasted Potatoes would also be great loaded with bacon, cheese, chives, and drizzles of ranch dressing!! Loaded Herb Spuds?! Anyone?!

Let me know if you try them and what you paired them with! Enjoy!

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It’s so basic. So simple. It’s barely a recipe! But, I just had to share my Homemade Ranch Seasoning with you because it’s such a staple in our home. I use this in so many recipes and I’ll very quickly be sharing one of those recipes with you!

Clean and Whole30 Approved Ranch Seasoning

I created this because I love the herbs and seasonings used in ranch seasoning…you know, the envelope you can get at the store and dump into yogurt to make ranch dip? Or, dump into the crockpot with chicken for ranch chicken? Or, use to season chicken thighs for a sheet pan meal?! Yes, I love that stuff!

However, when I started to pay more attention to ingredient labels, I quickly learned that there were a lot of added ingredients that my body doesn’t handle well like MSG. So, I’ve made my own and it tastes just as great! It’s clean and is something I can use to season a variety of meals– even when I’m on a Whole30 as the ingredients are Whole30 approved!

How to store Homemade Ranch Seasoning

I use an air tight snap ware container. It’s baby food jar sized and works perfectly. I’ve kept mine up to a couple of months, but this makes a small batch so it doesn’t really need to keep for more than one or two recipes.

Can I make ranch dressing with this?

Yes! Add this seasoning to 1/2 cup greek yogurt and 1/2 cup mayo and you have a thick ranch dip; add a little milk and you have dressing! I’ll be sharing a ranch dressing recipe with you very soon but feel free to experiment a little!

Check out my Homemade Taco Seasoning recipe here on the blog to get another great versatile and clean homemade seasoning recipe!

Hope you enjoy this one!

-Suzi

Recipe Round-up

This is a recipe round-up!! I’ve gathered 5 Clean Eating Soup Recipes from my favorite food bloggers and put them up here for you to enjoy! These are great recipes and sure to help you stay on track between holiday parties! Enjoy!

1- Leftover Turkey Wild Rice from The Wooden Skillet

I’ve loved all of Erin’s recipes and admired her blogging style for awhile. This recipe is dairy-free and gluten-free. She also has some great Whole30 recipes on her site!

I’ll be making this soup for our small group event on Tuesday night! Check out my Instagram page for updates on how it turns out!

2- Chicken Tortilla-less Soup from The Whole Smiths

chicken tortilla-less soup

I love The Whole Smiths recipes. The simplicity and accessibility she works hard to create with each of her recipes and cookbooks inspires me! This recipe has Paleo and Whole30 ingredients and would be great for clean eating in between holiday parties or for that next January Whole30.

I’ll be making her Pizza Soup recipe to go along with the Leftover Turkey Wild Rice recipe from above for our company on Tuesday. Check out my Instagram page to see how it turns out!

The Whole Smiths’ Pizza Soup recipe can be found in her first cookbook, The Good Food Cookbook, which really helped changed how I approach cooking!

3- Quick Chicken Noodle Soup from iFood Real

Quick Chicken Noodle Soup

I have made several of Olena’s recipes and they are as good as they look and sound. Here is her recipe for Quick Chicken Noodle Soup that is so similar to mine, I just had to share!

This could be made in a dutch oven or an Instant Pot. Check out the recipe here.

4- Chorizo and Veggie Stew from Whole Kitchen Sink

Chorizo and Veggie Stew: 30 Minute Meal with Slow Cooker Instructions

Most everything on Bailey’s blog is Whole30 and Paleo approved! This recipe would be great for entertaining guests and offering a little clean eating between holiday parties.

The recipe uses a Whole30 approved chorizo and Bailey offers ideas for where to find this or for how to make your own. If Whole30 approved isn’t important to you, it’s still a very clean recipe with regular chorizo.

Check out the recipe here.

5- Keto Hamburger Soup from The Castaway Kitchen

Keto Hamburger Soup (Dairy Free, Paleo, Whole30, Nightshade Free)

Need I say more? If clean eating and low carb are important to your diet needs, here is a recipe from an excellent blogger in the Keto space. I love her recipes! Check out this super clean recipe here.

Also, Christina offers so much educational information about food! If you want to learn about AIP, nightshades, and ketosis just click around her blog for 5 seconds to be inspired!

Clean Soup Recipes with Salad and Bread

Check out my Beet and Goat Cheese Green Salad which would be a great paring with any of these soup recipes to complete your meal (just make it meatless)!

Also, don’t forget crackers and a yummy bread or gluten-free muffin to enjoy with your soup. Try my Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins or my Pumpkin Blender Muffins for a gluten-free option!

Enjoy!

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It’s the time of year we’ve all been waiting for; an excuse to make all.the.things.pumpkin. This recipe has been a long time coming and I wish I had shared it a month ago at the beginning of PSL season.

These Pumpkin Blender Muffins are just as good a month later—“low sugar” and gluten-free ingredients ‘n all!

Blender Muffins

If you’re looking for easy clean-up, then make these muffins in your blender. I simply layer the ingredients in the blender according to the order of the ingredient list and blend.

Finish by pouring the batter into your muffin liners directly from your blender and baking feels pretty darn easy!

Of course, my Pumpkin Blender Muffins call for oat flour which can be purchased or made at home. See my recipe for Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins for directions on making your own oat flour.

Gluten-Free and Low Sugar

Use any gluten-free flour that you prefer which has a 1:1 replacement ratio. If you use coconut, almond, or another nut flour, be sure to do your research as to how much is needed and expect a different consistency than these light and fluffy muffins.

When I make my own baked goods recipes, it’s important to me to use natural sugar like raw honey and to use as little as possible. These muffins are not all that sweet with just a 1/4 cup of raw honey in the recipe but my kids still love them. A little grass-fed butter adds the perfect sweet and salty flavor to complete the pumpkin muffin experience.

If you’d like a sweeter muffin, try adding applesauce or more honey. If using applesauce, I would omit the almond milk.

Enjoy these as a snack or as a side to your favorite fall chili!

Let me know how you like ’em!

-Suzi

Personal Update

Well, hi there. I’ve been completely MIA since school started, so I thought I’d just throw out this rambling update and big hello!

Life has been pretty busy over here. The school year started for me in mid-August but I held on to my once a week blog posting until September began. Then, it was the end of my little hobby for a short time. I just couldn’t keep up with life and spend time on recipes and blogging.

I literally haven’t recipe tested a thing since September 3, when I shared my last post. Also, I have barely done laundry, mopped the floor maybe once, and eaten pretty terribly too.

Like I said, I haven’t kept up with a healthy diet since school started either…the beginning of the end was the Mac ‘N Cheese I brought to a school function. It was over after that first bite of Beecher’s Mac ‘N Cheese…always the best. And, totally worth it.

Downward Diet Spiral #reallife

During the busyness of school starting, we’ve been eating more convenient foods and going out more. We also went on a quick trip to North Carolina for my brother, Tom’s, lovely wedding (shameless photo below) and that meant eating out a lot…which was fun while it lasted.

The reality is, it’s not sustainable to eat a perfectly healthy diet all the time, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a time and place to get back on track. I’m 13 weeks pregnant and lately, I’ve needed all the extra healthy and unhealthy carbs to keep me functioning during the first trimester of pregnancy (along with ice cream, ice cream, and ice cream). And so, I welcomed all the bread, bagels, mashed potatoes, and pasta back into my life…and not the gluten-free or dairy-free kind, either! My kids have loved it, but I know it’s made us less healthy and slowly has us craving less healthy food more and more. With that, we have taken a couple of small steps and have been working our way back toward our healthier habits…kinda.

Health Update

Rowan has had some weird stomach stuff going on and is getting her second set of ear tubes and adenoids removed in November. So, making healthier food choices just seems like a good idea starting now.

Here’s my plan:

1. Buy more sprouted grain or gluten-free breads verses regular wheat breads.
2. Buy less cheese and eat less dairy.
3. Buy lactose free dairy milk (hopefully help with Rowan’s tummy aches).
4. Drink more water -I hate plain water when I’m pregnant so I’ll be drinking tea and my ACV Collagen Drink or some variation of that.
5. Start my morning with a Bulletproof Coffee similar to this recipe.
6. Take vitamins and supplements. I plan to start the kids on a probiotic ASAP. I’ve been researching all kinds and think I’ve settled on the Young Living prebiotic and probiotic pouches. Although, Garden of Life has a couple I’m interested in as well.
7. Continue to make home-cooked meals but keep them easy and not get overwhelmed with complicated meals (the bummer is that all the meals I made in August currently gross me out completely #pregnancyprobs… so, they remain in the freezer).
8. Don’t go out to eat. I love food that I don’t make…especially in my current condition. But, it’s not practical for the budget or our health.

That’s it. Some good ol’ tried and true things that we’ve done before that have always worked and I’m looking forward to trying some new things like probiotics for the kids!

In the mean time, I’m going to try to recipe test a little and start sharing on here, again! Let me know what keeps you healthy and makes you feel good, especially during flu season or even in pregnancy! Would love to hear tips!