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Sheet Pan Ranch Chicken & Veggies :: Gluten & Dairy Free, PLUS a DIY Ranch Seasoning Mix!

February 28, 2023

Mix up your own easy DIY Ranch Seasoning Mix, and make a fast, weeknight Sheet Pan Ranch Chicken & Veggie dinner!

Sheet Pan Ranch Chicken & Veggies :: Gluten & Dairy Free, PLUS a DIY Ranch Seasoning Mix!

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Michigan kids…

The second it hits 45 degrees and these people are shedding coats and pretending it’s warm outside! We have had teases of warmer weather this month, and if it means sun, I’ll take it…even if momma still has her coat and hat on! I’m dreaming of warmer weather as we look ahead toward Spring Break, but we have a lot of *busy* to work through before we make it there…

Sheet pan dinners to the rescue!

We are in the hustle and bustle of the push to Spring Break, and I have a brand new *easy* and *fast* sheet pan dinner to help you get through these crazy weeknights! Literally every component of dinner, all on 2 sheet pans, cooking at the same time? Sign. Me. Up!

Ranch chicken…with a healthy twist!

Not long ago, a friend told me about a favorite dinner she used to make before the real food switch, and before she was dairy free. A “Ranch Chicken” using those packets of Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning. It sounded easy enough, and I loved the idea, so I set out to make a junk free version, with great ingredients, and also a pile of veggies to round out the dinner plate.

So let’s talk about Ranch seasoning mixes…

I have been making my own Ranch seasoning for years and years, but I just knew that I wanted to try to find a seasoning packet to use for those of you that don’t want to mix up your own seasoning blend. Let me tell you, it was tough to find. There are plenty of Ranch packet blends out there, but most of them have dried milk…and not the organic kind of milk. If it doesn’t say organic or non-GMO, you can bet those cows are fed GMO feed, which means the milk is not great either. For a seasoning blend to make Ranch dip that your kids are going to use on the weekly, and for yummy dinners like this that you want on a frequent rotation in your dinner menu, having consistent GMO milk in your seasoning is just not ideal. So here is the solution!

I found this cleaner ingredient, gluten & dairy free Ranch Seasoning Mix on Amazon that you can try! I’m sure there are brands and packets that are clean too, so if you have a favorite, please feel free to share in the comments below so that others might have some to choose from!
Or you can make your own! I’m pretty sure most of you already have the ingredients right in your spice rack, and it takes minutes to whisk up. It is a big batch, so you can keep it in your pantry or spice cupboard for easy use. It is also penny’s on the dollar to make your own. I will share how I make my Ranch blend in the next section!

DIY Ranch Seasoning Blend

This is as easy as it gets! I’ll share my blend below, and you can keep it in your pantry or spice cupboard to use for not only this recipe, but for your own Ranch dressing, anytime!

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DIY Ranch Seasoning Mix

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 tbsp dried parsley
1 1/2 tbsp sea salt
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp organic cane sugar, turbinado sugar, or coconut sugar
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp black pepper

Instructions

Whisk everything together in a jar or container that has a lid. Store at room temp in an airtight container.

Notes

To make Ranch dressing with your Ranch seasoning mix, whisk about 3-4 teaspoons of the Ranch seasoning mix with 1 cup of sour cream, Greek yogurt, mayo, or coconut yogurt and add splashes of raw milk or coconut milk to thin it out to the consistency you like. You can keep it thick like a dip, or drippier for dressing.

Sheet Pan Dinner Method :: The Roasted Ranch Potatoes

Now, let’s get started with the sheet pan dinner. First, you’ll want to pre-heat your oven with your 2 sheet pans inside the oven. Pre-heating the pans will make for crispier potatoes, and the chicken will cook better too. You’ll start with seasoning the potatoes and roasting them for 15 minutes. They take longer to cook than the rest of the dinner, so while those are roasting, you will be able to prepare the chicken and brussels sprouts.

Sheet Pan Dinner Method :: The Brussels Sprouts

Roasted is by far my kids’ favorite way to eat brussels sprouts, and I think you’ll be surprised at how many kids will go for this veggie prepped this way. If you don’t have brussels sprouts around, or your crew doesn’t like them, you can swap for broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, or something similar in size to those. I just toss the veg with olive oil and salt and pepper, but you could absolutely Ranch season your veggies too! The brussels sprouts will go onto the same sheet pan as the chicken once the potatoes finish their first 15 minutes of roasting. The next section will show you how to prepare your chicken.

Sheet Pan Dinner Method :: Ranch Chicken

We *love* this crispy Ranch coated chicken! If you want to skip the gluten free panko, you can do that, or you can swap for more almond flour if you are grain free. Coat your chicken in mayonnaise and then dredge it in the Ranch seasoned panko using tongs. If you can’t have mayo because of the egg, or you don’t have any around, you could use olive oil. The extra fat from the mayo or olive oil helps the chicken stay moist, and it makes a very flavorful crust!

Sheet Pan Dinner Method :: Roasting everything together!

Once your potatoes have roasted for 15 minutes, and you have your chicken and brussels sprouts prepped, you can can stir the potatoes around, and take the second pre-heated sheet pan out of the oven. Place the chicken and brussels sprouts on the pre-heated sheet pan, and return the potatoes, along with the sheet pan chicken and brussels sprouts to the oven for 15 minutes. Thirty minutes total roasting time, and you will have a full dinner ready for the family!

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Sheet Pan Ranch Chicken & Veggies {Gluten & Dairy Free!}

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

For the Roasted Ranch Potatoes ::

2 tbsp olive oil
8-10 small/medium yellow potatoes cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tsp Ranch Seasoning Mix You can use my DIY Ranch Blend in the recipe card above, or this is a good, clean ingredient packet Ranch seasoning blend.
1 tsp Nutritional Yeast or grated parm if you can have the dairy

For the Crispy Ranch Chicken & Brussels Sprouts ::

1/2 cup GF Panko Bread Crumbs
1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast or grated parm if you can have the dairy
1/4 cup blanched almond flour or more panko
3 tbsp Ranch Seasoning Mix You can use my DIY Ranch Blend in the recipe card above, or this is a good, clean ingredient packet Ranch seasoning blend.
2-3 tbsp mayo or olive oil
4 boneless chicken breasts pound the tops to match the thickness of the bottoms, about an inch
1 lb brussels sprouts quartered
2 tbsp olive oil for the brussels sprouts
Sea salt and pepper to taste for the brussel sprouts

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees, and put 2 large sheet pans in the oven while it is pre-heating. This will pre-heat the pans and make for crispier potatoes and better cooking on the chicken.

Get the Roasted Ranch Potatoes going first ::

In a medium mixing bowl, toss all of the Roasted Ranch Potatoes ingredients until combined.
Once the oven is pre-heated to 425 degrees, take one of the sheet pans out of the oven, and spread the seasoned potatoes out onto the hot sheet pan. It will sizzle! That is ok and good! It will make for crispy potatoes!
Roast the potatoes for 15 minutes while you prep the chicken and brussels sprouts

Prep the Ranch Chicken & Brussels Sprouts ::

In a shallow dish, whisk the panko crumbs, nutritional yeast, almond flour, and Ranch seasoning.
Coat the chicken breasts on both sides with mayo. I use my hands but you could use a brush if you want. Wash your hands, and then use a tongs to dip each mayo coated chicken breast into the Ranch seasoned panko crumbs, flipping the chicken breasts so they are covered on both sides.
In the same mixing bowl that you tossed the seasoned potatoes, you can toss the brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt, and pepper. You could potentially Ranch season these too if you want!

Finish the Ranch Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner ::

Take out the empty hot sheet pan from the oven, and put the Ranch Seasoned Chicken and the seasoned brussels sprouts on this pan.
Once the potatoes have finished the first 15 minutes of roasting, remove the pan, stir the potatoes around, and put them back in the oven along with the sheet pan of Ranch Chicken & Brussels Sprouts.
Cook the Ranch Chicken & Brussels Sprouts as well as the sheet pan of Roasted Ranch Potatoes for 15 minutes. You can place the chicken under the broiler at the end for color if you want. The chicken should have an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

More real food SHEET PAN DINNER recipes you might like!

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Dinner Ideas Healthy Kids and Teens Real Food 101 Real Food Tips

Gluten Free Veggie Loaded Taco Casserole

February 20, 2023

This isn’t just any taco casserole! Packed with grass-fed beef, nutrient dense liver, and mineral rich veggies, this nourishing dinner is next level!

Gluten Free Veggie Loaded Taco Casserole

Mid-West staples…

Snow and winter casseroles…it doesn’t get any more Mid-West than that, I’d say! It’s been a strange winter, with lower than usual snow amounts, but of course the cold weather still hangs around, which means one of our favorite winter dinner warm-up’s – an easy, comforting, nourishing, casserole!

A casserole, nourishing?!

I know, I know. If you google Mid-West casseroles or hot-dishes, you’re going to find many meals with creamed condensed soup bases, and not a whole lot of other nutrients other than some meat. In fact, if you are anything like me, and grew up in the Mid-West, you probably remember these casserole or hot-dish dinners being one of the actual “homemade” things that your parents made, condensed soup and bagged cheese and all! There is nothing wrong with these comforting, beautiful memories! But there are definitely ways to bring these warm, comforting meals to this generation of kids, and give them an ingredient upgrade!

A casserole ingredient upgrade!

Here are some of the ways I’ve taken a typical Mid-West taco casserole concept, and added in a load of minerals and nutrients for your growing family!

Use grassfed beef as well as pastured liver. Grass-fed beef is loaded with fat soluble vitamins, CLA, and protein, but anytime you make a ground beef recipe, it is a fantastic opportunity to add organ meats like liver. Organ meats like livers from pastured chickens are loaded with so much retinol -it is one of the best, most concentrated sources of the vitamin A that our growing children need for so many body functions and immune health. Liver is a fantastic source of protein, as well as B vitamins that so many of us do not consume enough of.
Veggie load without changing the taste or texture! Yes it can be done! And if you’re kids are reluctant to eat a side salad to get veggies in at dinner, this is a great way to get those mineral rich veggies into the kids. I’ll show you a little bit later how to make them disappear into the casserole, and you’ll be shocked at just how many veggies you can get into this pan!
And I’m only going to ask you to ditch 2 things. Adding is so easy! Ditching is hard, and I’m going to make it easy for you! First, we are going to ditch the bagged cheese and grate our own – I didn’t even say you needed to ditch the cheese! Cheese is so good for us if you tolerate dairy! Avoiding bagged shredded cheese will help you avoid the random, unnecessary fillers, starches, and food coloring. And we are also going to ditch seasonings that have sugar or any junky fillers and starches. There is a really easy taco seasoning blend that I linked in the recipe, and you can keep this for months in your spice cupboard to use for all of your taco themed meals!

Lets talk about the veggie loading!

If you have a shredder, or a shredding attachment on your food processor, your life just got a little easier! I am a true foodie at heart, and really do find it cathartic and calming to chop, and chop, and chop away, but many days, I really don’t have the time for it, and my shredder is a big time saver! It also helps to get the veggies into this form for kids (or adults!) that don’t love “pieces” in their food, or will push the plate away if they *see* any veggies. You can see how small the shredding makes the veggies, and it goes so fast too. They virtually disappear into the casserole. I like to keep the peppers and onions diced, but you can absolutely shred all of the veggies too!

Let’s get started!

You’re going to get your casserole filling started by softening the veggies in some butter. This helps them get soft and sweet, and they will not only add delicious flavor to your casserole, you’ll get a veggie mineral punch added in there too!

Finishing the filling

Once the veggies are cooked, you’ll add the beef, liver, and taco seasoning, and cook everything until the beef and liver is browned. You can make the meal without the liver if you don’t have access to quality liver, but if you do, it is a great way to get this nutrient loaded food into your family! Once the meat is cooked, you can add the tomato sauce and salsa. This just needs to simmer for a couple minutes to warm through, and then you are ready to assemble the casserole!

Let’s assemble the taco casserole!

This is the easy part! Start with scooping about a third of the filling into the bottom of your casserole dish. Then, you’ll layer corn tortillas over the top. After you layer your tortillas, add another third of the filling and sprinkle some cheese. Finally, add the second layer of tortillas, spread the last of the filling, and top it with cheese.

If you are grain and/or dairy free

If you don’t tolerate corn, or are grain free, simply leave the corn out of the filling. You’ll also want to swap the corn tortillas for cassava or almond flour tortillas – you can find these at most stores these days! If you are dairy free, you can leave the cheese out, or you can use the Viola Life coconut based cheese – it melts so good!

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Gluten Free Veggie Loaded Taco Casserole

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 tbsp friendly fat to cook in butter, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, lard
1 small onion diced
1 medium bell pepper diced
¼ of a large head cauliflower shredded, chopped finely, or frozen riced cauliflower
1 large carrot shredded
1 cup frozen corn or canned corn (drain it first)
2 lbs grassfed ground beef
1/4 – 1/2 cup grated frozen liver you can add more if you want!
3 tbsp taco seasoning NOT taco seasoning that has thickening starches – I use my DIY Taco Season Blend
3-4 cups baby spinach chopped
1 – 15 ounce can tomato sauce
1 – 15 ounce jar salsa of choice
Sea salt and pepper to taste
12 corn tortillas
1-2 cups shredded cheese of choice I use Manchego, a sheep’s milk cheese

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. You’ll need a 9×13 pan for baking the casserole. You do NOT need to grease the pan.
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, and melt the butter. Add the onion, pepper, cauliflower, carrot, and corn with a big pinch of sea salt. Sauté the veggies and the corn until soft and sweet, about 7-10 minutes.
Add the ground beef, liver, and taco seasoning, break up the beef, and brown the beef and liver with the veggies.
Once the beef/liver is browned, add the baby spinach, tomato sauce, and salsa, and bring to a simmer for a couple minutes. Turn the heat off, and taste the filling for salt and pepper to your taste.
Spoon 1/3 of the taco filling into the bottom of your 9×13 pan. Layer 6 corn tortillas, and then scoop another 1/3 of the taco filling over the corn tortillas. Sprinkle 1/2 cup or so of the cheese, and then layer the other 6 corn tortillas on top. Spread out the last 1/3 of the taco filling, and top with a good 1 cup or so of cheese to your liking.
Bake the taco casserole, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Then, place the casserole under the broiler and broil for 3-5 minutes, until the cheese is golden on top.

Notes

Most taco seasoning blends have starches to make a thickened sauce. This will not work in this recipe. You will either need to get a taco blend that does not have starches, or this simple DIY taco season blend can be made – you probably already have all of the seasonings in your spice rack! I typically double or triple this into a jar with a lid and keep it in the spice cupboard to use easily.
I like to use the shredding attachment on my food processor to make this super fast and easy. You do NOT have to shred the veg if you don’t want to – I enjoy chopping and do this sometimes when I have the time, as the bits of veggies don’t bother my kids. If you have veggie-hesitant kids, or bits and pieces hesitant kids, the shredding really works so well to make the veg disappear – you can shred the onion and pepper too if you want!
You can swap the veggies for what you have around! Cabbage shreds very nicely, as well as sweet potato.
If you don’t tolerate corn, or are grain free, simply leave the corn out of the filling. You’ll also want to swap the corn tortillas for cassava or almond flour tortillas – you can find these at most stores these days!
If you are dairy free, you can leave the cheese out, or you can use the Viola Life coconut based cheese – it melts so good!

More real food recipes you might like!

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Batch Up Meals Dinner Ideas Feeding Babies Healthy Kids and Teens Lunch Ideas Nourishing Staples Real Food 101 Real Food Tips school lunches Soup

Creamy Roasted Rutabaga Soup :: Gluten & Dairy Free

January 31, 2023

Roasted rutabaga soup is beautiful simplicity, and a super kid friendly creamy soup way to get mineral rich veggies in!

Creamy Roasted Rutabaga Soup :: Gluten & Dairy Free

Beautiful simplicity…

If you haven’t noticed from the last year of recipe posts on the blog, our family is most definitely knee deep in pre-teen and teen years. I’m so happy to hear from so many of you with teens, that you are pumped about the help you are getting from this space as my girls make their way through their teenage years. It’s interesting though…when I really stop to think about it, we aren’t truly doing a whole lot differently than when they were very little. Sure, we have to double (and triple!) the portions and recipe sizes for bigger kids, but my M.O. has always, always been…beautiful simplicity.

Nourishing soup for ANY age!

Because those big kids in the picture above? They still eat the same power packed soups that I fed them as little ones. The pictures below? Dear momma with little ones at home, please let this be your inspiration…and motivation! Those babies in your house are absolutely *blank slates* for developing taste palates! I’m gonna get all tough love on you, and promise that if you skip the toddler puffs and cereal, and go for the beautiful simplicity of a little mug of veggie soup, you will be rewarded with older kids that actually *ask* for certain veggie soups in their thermoses for school lunch. My 3 very different personality kiddos are living proof! So let’s learn how to make a very simple veggie soup that your little ones (and you too, momma!) can sip from a mug, slurp up from a bowl, or lick off a spoon!

Why rutabaga?

Well other than the absolute budget saver that this simple root veggie is, rutabagas are packed with fiber and vitamin C. They have the perfect balance of minerals including potassium which so many of us and our kids need more of! The slow burning carbohydrates give busy, growing kids the energy they need, and that coupled with a load of antioxidants? Well, let’s just say sometimes I think the humblest of foods sometimes don’t get enough credit!

Yes, rutabagas are absolutely divine!

At least when you know how to cook them they are! Rutabagas are just like every other root veggie, in that when you roast them, you’re going to get a slightly sweet, very satisfying starchy taste, that any little one that hasn’t been inundated with sugar will find very, very appealing. And when you blend it up with some bone broth? Those natural, slow burning starches make for a smooth, creamy, very potato soup like texture, and a sweet root vegetable flavor. So let’s learn how to make roasted rutabaga soup!

The Method :: Prepping the veggies

To get your soup started, peel and chop your rutabaga. The skin is super thin, so a simple peeler is all you need. And since this soup gets completely pureed in the end, no precision cutting skills are needed here! Just a coarse chop, and you’re ready to roast. This bods well for busy families, new mommas with active toddlers, and those newer to cooking!

The Method :: Roasting the veggies

Once the veggies are chopped, transfer them to a large baking sheet. If your baking sheets are smaller, simply use two of them! Toss the veggies with melted butter or olive oil and sea salt, then let the oven do the rest! While your veggies are roasting, you can change the baby’s diaper, read the toddler that book, or *gasp!* take that shower you have been trying to get in all day!

The Method :: Finishing the soup

When the veggies are soft and starting to caramelize, you can blend it with your bone broth and a little cream or coconut milk. That is literally it! You get to control the texture and thickness! Add or subtract more or less broth to get a thicker or thinner soup.

Tips for feeding soup to little ones

Here are some thoughts to keep in mind when serving soup to babies, toddlers, and younger children!

Serve the soup at a cooler temp than you would probably enjoy the soup. Hot soup is very intense for little ones, and I always found that they ate soup better at pretty close to room temp. That might gross you out, but they will eat it better! You can cool it off with an ice cube, or pop it in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.
Try different serving vessels! Most little ones like to “do it myself” so try a very small tea cup with a straw or small spoon. Or a smaller bowl. They may even prefer to drink it from a cup or sippy.
Some little ones love to dunk! Make some grilled cheese and cut it into strips for dunking, use some crackers or pita bread, or toast up some tortillas in a hot pan as “chips” to dunk.

Don’t forget about the school aged kids and teens!

These are the soups that my kids live for! Easy to eat and super yummy! The girls used to pack straws with their thermoses of soup when they were younger. My teens either drink it right out of the thermos like a cup, or pack a spoon now. But the possibilities are endless, really. Pack whatever sides and protein they need to go with it! Below are chicken quesadillas from dinner and some apples. My teens packed some more chicken quesadillas, as well as guacamole to dip the quesadillas in.

Serving suggestions and freezer friendly tips!

I just love soups like this for the versatility and because they freeze for later use so well. When I had very little ones at home, those 2 points were game changers. If your little one loves this soup, it is versatile enough to serve in a little mug with a plate of eggs for breakfast, or in a bowl with some grilled cheese dunkers for lunch! And if you want to double up and freeze, that just makes life that much easier during busy weeks that you don’t have time to be in the kitchen. I like using these SOUPER freezer cubes for soups that I want to portion out for little ones.

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Creamy Roasted Rutabaga Soup :: Gluten & Dairy Free

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 small/medium onions coarsely sliced into strips
3 cloves of garlic peeled and left whole
1 rutabaga peeled and cut into 1-inch sticks
½ large head of cauliflower coarsely chopped
4 tbsp olive oil or melted butter I like to use a combination of both olive oil and butter for the flavor
1 ½ tsp sea salt
1– 1 ½ quarts bone broth depending on how thick you want the soup
¼ cup coconut milk if you tolerate dairy, cream or milk works too
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees
Toss the onions, garlic, rutabaga, and cauliflower on a large sheet pan with the olive oil and sea salt. Roast at 425 degrees for 45 minutes, until the veggies are soft.
Blend the roasted veggies in a high speed blender with the bone broth and coconut milk until smooth. If you do not have a high speed blender, you can pour the veggies and broth into a large soup pot and blend with and immersion blender.
Season the soup with sea salt and pepper to taste. I like cracked black pepper to garnish, or a drizzle of olive oil.

More real food SOUP PUREE recipes you might like!

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Dinner Ideas Healthy Kids and Teens Lunch Ideas Nourishing Staples Real Food 101 Real Food Tips school lunches Soup

Creamy Sausage, Potato, & Spinach Soup :: A Copycat Olive Garden® Zuppa Toscana Done Gluten & Dairy Free!

January 16, 2023

This creamy sausage, potato, & spinach soup is a Copycat Olive Garden® Zuppa Toscana with all of the creamy flavor, and none of the gluten and dairy!

Creamy Sausage, Potato, & Spinach Soup :: A Copycat Olive Garden® Zuppa Toscana Done Gluten & Dairy Free!

Cold weather comfort food, and a teen favorite!

Earlier this fall, my 13 year old had a potluck to cook for at school. We scanned the sign up, and noticed it was fairly “Italian” themed with different pastas and salad. When I saw the section that asked for someone to bring soup, I thought I’d show my middle schooler the delicious comfort of an old Olive Garden restaurant favorite, with a healthy real food spin of course!

A new teen hit with an old restaurant favorite

She helped me make that “Zuppa Toscana,” and I’m telling, you those middle schoolers licked every last drop clean! Creamy sausage and potatoes…what teenager wouldn’t love that?! We have made it a number of time since, and the girls have claimed this as one of their favorite winter soups now, so I just had to share!

The Method :: Brown the Sausage

You’ll start your Zuppa Toscana by browning some sausage in a soup pot. I like to use a little of the bacon grease leftover from the weekend to cook in to add even more flavor to the soup, but a little butter or olive oil work great too. And speaking of options, you have choices for the sausage too! If you have a local farmer that you like to support, you can get either their ground sausage, or get plain ground pork and season it yourself! I have an MSG free and sugar free Sausage Season Blend on the blog! There are even some store bought sausages that aren’t so bad in the ingredient department if you look around. At our home, we tend to use our grassfed ground beef from the cow we get for the freezer each year, and season it with my own Sausage Season Blend. If you have ground venison, turkey, or chicken, that does work too!

The Method :: Cook the veggies

After you brown the sausage, you’ll scoop the meat out with a slotted spoon, leaving behind all of the cooking fat. Use this flavorful cooking fat to sauté your veggies in. This step gives a yummy caramelized flavor to the veggies that will flavor the broth – don’t skip this step!

The Method :: The Potatoes & Creamy Broth

Once your veggies have softened, you’ll stir in some garlic and flour of your choice to coat the veggies. I use a GF flour blend. I would not try using almond or coconut flours as these will not yield the same texture results for the broth. The flour gives the broth a rich, velvety texture that will mix with the coconut milk or cream at the end to create a super creamy, decadent broth. After you stir the flour in, you can pour in the broth and toss the potatoes in. You’ll simmer this until the potatoes are soft, stirring along the way.

The Method :: Finishing the Soup

Once your potatoes have softened, you can stir in the spinach to wilt and also the coconut milk to add creaminess. You have some options here as well. I like to use baby spinach since I always have a large box of it on hand, and it wilts super quick. Baby kale works well too. If you want to use large kale, you’ll want to add it in while the potatoes are cooking for the last few minutes so the tougher kale has a chance to soften. If you don’t need to be dairy free, you can swap the coconut milk for cream or milk. If you are using raw cream or milk, be sure to add it after the heat is turned off so you don’t ruin the beautiful health benefits of the raw dairy!

Leftovers!

The leftovers of this soup are…incredible! The flavors marry over time and just get better the next day. So plan this one into your dinner, and you can have it for lunch the next day, or pack it in the kids’ thermoses for school the next day! My teen and tween in particular ask for this in their lunchboxes a lot lately. I’m not a fan of freezing soups that have potatoes – they just don’t have the same texture when they thaw out, and I wouldn’t waste it. Make enough for the week and leftovers and enjoy. It’s simple enough to make on a monthly or bi-weekly basis if the family loves it that much!

Print Recipe

Creamy Sausage, Potato, & Spinach Soup :: A Copycat Olive Garden® Zuppa Toscana Done Gluten & Dairy Free!

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 tbsp bacon grease butter, or olive oil to cook in
1 lb ground sausage of choice See Notes for options
1 large onion diced
2 large carrots peeled and diced
1 celery stalk diced
4-5 cloves of garlic minced
¼ cup GF flour blend
1 ½ quarts bone broth
4 large yellow potatoes cubed in ½ inch pieces (ends up being about 4 cups of cubed potatoes)
4 cups baby spinach or baby kale chopped small
1 cup coconut milk or cream
Sea salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Melt the bacon grease in a soup pot over medium high heat, and brown the sausage. Using a slotted spoon, remove the sausage from the pot once it is browned, leaving the cooking fat behind in the soup pot. There needs to be a good tablespoon of fat in the pot leftover from cooking the sausage – if there isn’t, add a little more bacon grease, butter, or olive oil so you can cook the veggies.
Over medium heat, saute the onion, carrot, and celery in the leftover sausage cooking fat with a pinch of salt, until the veggies are soft and sweet, around 7 minutes or so.
Add the garlic and flour and cook for 1 minute.
Add the bone broth and potatoes, stir to combine, and put the lid on your pot. Bring the soup to a simmer, and cook until the potatoes are very soft – about 10 minutes. Stir the soup every few minutes to be sure the potatoes don’t stick to the bottom.
Once the potatoes are soft, stir in the cooked sausage and the chopped spinach to wilt in. If you are using kale, you’ll need to cook it down a few minutes to soften.
Turn the heat off, add the coconut milk, and then salt and pepper the soup to your taste.

Notes

You can use farm-bought, store-bought, or homemade ground sausage. I typically use my own DIY sausage seasoning blend mixed into ground beef actually, since we get a grassfed cow every year and our freezer is stocked with grassfed ground beef. The blend also works in ground pork if you have access to good ground pork. If you are a deer hunter, ground venison would work nicely!

More real food recipes you might like!

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Dinner Ideas Healthy Kids and Teens Lunch Ideas Real Food 101 Real Food Tips school lunches

How To Make Gluten Free Pizza

January 9, 2023

Learn how to make gluten free pizza with this fool-proof method that works every time!

Weekend play…and weekend pizza night staples!

We went from blizzard conditions during the holiday, to a mid-winter thaw in a matter of weeks! This spot that we trudged through in shin-high snow just a couple weeks ago, made the perfect stone throwing spot to explore this weekend. And while our weather seems to be ever-changing, our weekend pizza night rarely changes – and I can’t wait to share with you how we have been making gluten free pizzas for about the last year!

An old recipe made even better

Years ago, I created a gluten free pizza crust that we used a bit when the girls were little. Back then, gluten free flour blends were really hard to come by, and were not very affordable. I typically bought separate gluten free flours, and had to figure out the right ratios. I kinda sound like one of those people that is telling the stories of walking up hill to school, in two feet of snow, both ways, don’t I?! But it’s true. Gluten free baking has come a *long* way, and it is much easier to manage, with more affordable, more readily available gluten free flour blend options that easily swap cup for cup for regular flour.

Over a year in the making!

This pizza crust has been tweaked and tweaked for over a year, and finally this summer, I really feel like I found the right consistency and baking method. I can’t wait to share this with you, because I know that pizza night is important. It is ok to make the decision to make healthy food, real food, whole foods for your family, and still want to enjoy pizza night. This pizza method is simple enough to get on the meal plan for pizza night on the weekly – and any leftovers pack up great for school lunchboxes too!

The Method :: Waking up the Yeast

Before you get the ingredients into your mixing bowl, you’ll want to get the water, yeast, and sugar mixed together. This will “wake up” the yeast. It only takes a few minutes, and you can get the rest of the ingredients into the bowl while the yeast is sitting in the sugar water. The top of the mixture will foam if your yeast is alive, looking like this picture below.

The Method :: Proofing the Dough

YES, gluten free flour can proof, and expand, just like regular flour! Once you whisk the dry ingredients into the bowl, you’ll add some olive oil, an egg, and also the yeast/water mixture, and stir to combine. You can see how the dough expands in just a half hour of resting. You can let your dough proof for 30 minutes, or you can make the dough in the morning quick, and let it proof all day. This is what I typically do!

The Method :: Forming the Crust

Once the dough has proofed, you can pre-heat your oven and get your crust onto the pizza pan. I like to make two 10-inch pizzas, but this dough does all fit on 1 pizza pan to make a 14-inch pizza. Gluten free dough is sticky. Do NOT add more flour! You need the moisture or the crust will be dry. In fact, you’ll be adding more moisture, because I have found the best way to get the pizza crust formed is to use oiled hands! And a lot of it! Pour olive oil into the palm of your hand, and don’t be shy! Rub the oil in your hands, and then form the pizza dough into the shape you want on a parchment paper lined pizza pan. The extra olive oil will keep the dough from sticking to your hands, and it will also allow the crust to crisp up (not to mention taste amazing!). Once you form your pizza crust, sprinkle the top with sea salt and garlic powder. I like to be sure the edges get completely covered so that the edges of the crust taste amazing – like breadsticks!

The Method :: Par-Baking the Crust

Once you shape the crust, you’ll bake it without any toppings on it for about 12 minutes. This will “set” the pizza crust so it isn’t just a sloppy dough, and you can slide the parchment paper out from underneath the pan. You’re going to be baking this crust at a very hot temperature on the LOWEST rack that your oven can go. This will make the bottom of the crust crisp. Alternatively, if you have a convection setting on your oven, you could use that and keep the pizza on the middle rack. Once you par-bake the crust, and take the parchment paper out, you can add your toppings before baking the pizza the rest of the way!

So let’s talk about those toppings!

I wanted to show you some of our favorites here, but really if your kids are used to pepperoni or just cheese, then go for it! Sometimes we do that too, and I just make sure that we have a big Caesar salad or platter of veggies and dip on the side to get a few veggies in! You can see my original Caesar dressing here, or my dairy free Caesar dressing here. And here are some great dips for a veggie platter too!

And what about the cheese?

I wanted to briefly mention that if you have been around here for a while, you know that we don’t tolerate dairy well! So how do we do pizza night? Well we have a couple of favorite ways. One way is actually to go cheese free completely. We top the pizza with meat & veggies before the par-bake, and then drizzle olive oil and sea salt when it is finished. It is like a focaccia bread, and is SO good. Another option is the Violife coconut oil based “cheese.” It is dairy free, and we get it at Costco. We also like to use Manchego, which is a sheep’s milk cheese. Sheep’s milk and goat’s milk are different than dairy from a cow, and some people that can’t tolerate regular dairy, can tolerate goat’s milk products!

The Method :: Finishing the Pizza

Once you add the toppings to your par-baked crusts, you can pop them back in the oven on the lowest rack for another 10 minutes, or until it is done to your liking.

Print Recipe

Gluten Free Pizza

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

1 ½ cups warm water not hot or boiling
2 tbsp organic cane sugar
1 tbsp active dry yeast
3 cups Namaste GF Flour Blend
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder plus more for sprinkling the top of the crust to taste
1 tbsp aluminum free baking powder
1 tsp sea salt plus more for sprinkling the top of the crust to taste
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 egg
1/3 cup olive oil plus more for covering your hands to spread the dough out

Instructions

Proof the Dough

Give yourself 30 minutes to let the pizza dough rest before baking. You can also let it sit all day if that works better for your schedule. I tend to make the dough in the morning quick, or when I have a minute before I pick kids up from school sometime in the afternoon, but you can also make the dough, let it rest for 30 minutes and then bake.
To make the dough, first wake up the yeast by mixing the warm water, cane sugar, and yeast in a pyrex measuring cup. Set this mixture aside while you put the rest of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. This will give the yeast time to “wake up” – it will get foamy at the top and smell yeasty if it is good yeast. See the picture above to see what it should look like.
Mix the water/sugar/yeast mixture into the mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients until everything is combined. Put a lid on the bowl, or cover it with a towel. Let the dough rest at least 30 minutes, or up to all day if you need to make it in the morning. The dough will get bigger in size after resting (see the pictures above)

Make and Par-Bake the Crust

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees, and put the oven rack on the lowest spot it can go.
Line one or two pizza pans with parchment paper. 1 pan will yield a large, 14-inch pizza. Or you can make two 10-inch pizzas.
If you are doing 2 pizzas, divide the dough in half, and scoop the dough onto the middle of the parchment paper on the pizza pans. If you are doing 1 pizza, scoop all of the dough onto the middle of the parchment paper.
Next, you’ll form the crust into the shape you want. To keep the dough from sticking to your hands, pour a good palm-full of olive oil in your hand, and rub into both hands. Form the dough into a circle. It will seem like a lot of oil on your hands, but trust me, this is ok! And even good! It crisps up the dough and makes it so flavorful.
Once you have formed your pizza crust into the shape you want, sprinkle sea salt and garlic all over the crust, making sure that the edges of the crust where the toppings don’t go get the most so that the edge of the crust is super yummy and flavorful.
Bake the crust(s) at 450 degrees for 12 minutes. Take the pans out of the oven, and use a spatula to lift the crust up and pull the parchment paper out. Leave the crust on the pizza pan without the parchment paper.

Put the Toppings on the Pizza & Bake

Put your toppings on the par-baked pizza crust and bake at 450 degrees for another 10 to 15 minutes to the done-ness that you like.

Notes

This recipe works with a regular, conventional oven, but if you do have the option on your oven to convection bake, it does help make the crust even crisper!

More real food recipes you might like!

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Mayo Roasted Chicken :: The most flavorful & tender roasted chicken – EVER!

January 3, 2023

This rotisserie style roasted chicken is the most flavorful & tender roasted chicken – EVER!

Mayo Roasted Chicken :: The most flavorful & tender roasted chicken - EVER!

Winter Storm Elliott – and I’m finally blogging!

So, we live in a part of the US that doesn’t get a whole lot of storms with “names,” if you know what I mean – no hurricanes or tropical storms here! Sure, we get completely dumped on with lake effect snow every winter, but it doesn’t usually make national news. The week before Christmas, our little corner of the world DID, in fact, make the news, as we experienced a “Bomb Cyclone,” and an actual named winter storm/blizzard that came our way! My little people are Michigan born and bred, and *love* the snow – so they were pretty much in seventh heaven for this experience with all the snow play they could endure!

Hunkering down and perfecting recipes!

Over the past couple of months, I’ve taken a little blogging break to refresh, as well as recipe test and perfect some new content for you! The winter storm had us pretty homebound for a number of days, and I was able to get some real work done – including a this recipe that I have been working on for a YEAR!

A pretty hefty claim….

The *most* flavorful & tender chicken – EVER. I know that is a lot to claim, and I can truly say that after a year of working on this recipe, I use this chicken method almost every week now, simply to hear the rave reviews from my family, and completely devoured chicken every single time. Picture the most tender, flavorful rotisserie chicken made right in your home! It is truly mouthwatering – and I don’t say that about a lot of chicken recipes. But there are a couple of very simple secrets to getting the flavor, and I’ll show you just how to do it!

Flavor and Moisture Secret #1 :: The Salt Brine

I know what you’re thinking...I don’t have TIME to brine! I’m not talking about a fussy water bath, or salt water brine here though. This is literally rubbing the whole chicken in a ton of sea salt, and letting it sit in the salt all day. It’ takes minutes to prep – if that. You’ll rinse and pat dry your chicken, then set it up on a wire rack. Then sprinkle all the sea salt over the skin, and inside of the cavity of the chicken. The salt will get drawn into the chicken making every. single. bite – insanely flavorful. Like the best rotisserie chicken. This “dry brine” method is something I have done with my Thanksgiving turkey for years, and it really works well for a whole chicken too!

Flavor & Moisture Secret #2 :: Mayonnaise

I know, I know…but hear me out. Typically we butter or olive oil the outside of the bird, correct? Mayo is really just olive oil, seasoning, and a little egg…basically the same fatty covering to encourage a crispy, roasted skin! The mayo makes the *best* protective coating for the chicken to get brown and crispy, and it tastes so good too! I add just a few herbs – you can use whatever you want! Then rub down the chicken and it’s ready to roast. If you don’t happen to keep mayo in the house often, butter will work as well. If you have the mayo – try it at least once! You won’t be sorry!

Flavor & Moisture Secret #3 :: The Roasting Method

My original roasted chicken recipe is a more low and slow method. It uses liquid in a pan with a lid to do more of a “braise” than a true roast. It works well for pastured chickens that are lean, but it does take all afternoon to cook. Great for a Sunday…not so great for a weekday! This roasting method works just as well with lean, pastured chicken, but it is more of a higher intensity heat for a shorter duration. The sea salt brine locks in moisture – and I promise you will not have a dry chicken here! Simply roast the chicken for a little over an hour, and you’ll be good to go.

Flavor & Moisture Secret #4 :: Let the Chicken Rest

I’m making a whole separate section for this step because I want you to figure this time into your “cooking” time. Once your chicken reaches an internal temp of 165 degrees within about 1 hour and a half, then you want to pull the chicken out to rest for a full 30 minutes before carving it. FIGURE THIS INTO YOUR COOKING TIME so you aren’t disappointed when you have to wait another half hour for dinner! It is worth the wait to let all of those juices redistribute into the bird so that when you DO carve the chicken, it is so juicy and not dry at all.

How do I use this roasted chicken?

Dear momma, this is a GREAT prep day chicken for your week. Sure, it makes a yummy Sunday dinner, but you can make one or two of these chickens on the same day and use it like you would a store bought rotisserie chicken.

Top your salads for lunch
Pack it like a deli meat sandwich for the kids’ lunchboxes
Use it to toss in a stir fry or soup for dinner

Tools you might be interested in!

Because I know I’ll get some questions about the pan & wire rack, what kind of mayo I used, and even meat thermometer recs, I’m going to leave those right here!

For 1 whole chicken, a “quarter” baking sheet and wire rack work great! If you are doing 2 chickens, you’ll use a larger sheet pan.
I get my avocado mayo at Costco. Most regular grocery stores where I live carry these healthier oil mayos now, but look around and see what you can find. You could also make your own! I have a classic mayo recipe in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!
If I could become a spokesperson for this little smart meat thermometer…I would! And I don’t particularly like “selling” things! This “Smart MEATer” would be fun to put on your birthday list for this year. I just pop it into the breast before I put the chicken in the oven, and it alerts my phone of the internal temp, and how long it will take to reach 165 degrees! That is a game changer, and takes the guess work out of how many pounds equals how many minutes! See the image below to see how small this thermometer is, and how it goes right into the meat so easily.

Print Recipe

Mayo Roasted Chicken :: The most flavorful & tender roasted chicken – EVER!

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

1 – 5 lb whole chicken
1 ½ – 2 tbsp sea salt
¼ cup mayo soft butter or olive oil will work here too
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp coconut aminos

Instructions

Dry Brine the Chicken:

Cover your chicken in salt for at least 4 hours before cooking. This is called a dry brine. I salt my chicken in the morning and leave it uncovered all day until ready to cook for dinner. You can even do this up to a day in advance.
To do the salting (dry brine), rinse your whole chicken and pat it dry with a paper towel. Cover the chicken skin with the sea salt, including sprinkling some of the salt on the inside of the chicken. Leave the chicken on a wire rack on a small baking sheet. The chicken will drip some of it’s liquid, so it is best to not just set it on a plate, or it will sit in all the liquid and the bottom skin will not get nice and dry to crisp up.
Leave the chicken UNCOVERED in the fridge to brine. The chicken will need to be at ROOM TEMPERATURE before roasting, so be sure to take it out of the fridge an hour or so before roasting.

Prepare the Chicken for Roasting:

Once the chicken has brined in the salt all day, AND has come to room temp for at least an hour, pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees for a conventional oven, or if you are convection/air frying do 400 degrees.
DO NOT rinse the salt from the chicken. I promise it will not be too salty – chicken needs the seasoning, and the salt was pulled into the chicken meat so that every single bite is flavorful.
Mix the mayo, garlic powder, thyme, and coconut aminos in a small bowl, and then brush over the outside of your ROOM TEMPERATURE chicken (top and bottom).

Roast the Chicken:

Roast the chicken at 425 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 40 minutes depending on the size. Use a thermometer to get the internal temperature to 165 degrees. I recently got a Meater, and it just stays in the chicken while it cooks, and tells me on my phone when it is done – SO nice!
Once the chicken has roasted and reached 165 degrees internally, pull the chicken out from the oven and let it rest on the counter for 30 minutes before carving. If you cut the chicken right away, the juices will leave the meat, and it will dry out. This resting time allows the juices to redistribute – it is SO worth the wait so count this time into your cook time so you aren’t disappointed when you can’t eat it right away!

More real food recipes you might like!

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One Pan Gluten Free Baked Ziti

October 16, 2022

No need to separately boil the pasta or make a separate sauce! This weeknight friendly, one pan gluten free baked ziti has a super fast prep, and even easier clean up!

Fall weather is here!

I think we have made the final pivot from warm, summer weather into a cooler, and more crisp fall pattern – and my crew eats. that. up! They are true Michiganders and are perfectly giddy for fall, and the anticipation of those first snow flakes in the coming months! Their momma, on the other hand…well, she would prefer summer stick around, but if we are going to make a shift to cooler weather, then I’m going to take advantage and get my oven on!

Comforting oven meals on a week night time frame!

Because as the kids get older, man alive do things get busier! When they were little, we were home a lot more often, so flipping the oven on all afternoon, even on a weekday, was not out of the norm. The girls are older now, and each have their own passions to pursue, and of course zipping them around to hang out with friends is so important for this very social age as well! With a work at home mom that also likes to be involved at school (they are only at that helping out at school age for so long!), my plate is also happily full, and I’ve developed some really great, nourishing dinners to help me keep real food on the table, even on a busy weeknight.

Baked ziti in one pan?!

It’s like a dream, right?! Sometimes those pasta dishes seem daunting on a weekday just because you have to boil the pasta. I’ve taken the boiling step out of this super fun, kid favorite dinner, making this “dump it all in dinner” a perfect weeknight solution! Chop a quick side salad and your crew will have dinner on the table in no time!

Let’s get this simple one pot meal started!

You’ll want to use on oven safe casserole dish, braiser, or pot that has a lid. I like to use my pan that I can use stovetop as well so that I can brown the meat, and then dump the rest of the ingredients right in. If you don’t have a casserole pan or brasier that can be used stovetop, you can brown the meat separately, and then add everything to your casserole pan or baking dish to bake. Again, you’ll want a pan or pot that has a lid – if you don’t, you can use a baking pan and cover with aluminum foil.

Now for the “dump it all in” part!

Once the meat is seasoned and browned, just stir the rest of the ingredients in – yes, even the dried pasta and uncooked spinach! It will all cook together in the oven! Put the lid on your casserole, and you are free for 30 minutes to help kids with homework, pack lunchboxes, change a diaper, or even {gasp!} read a chapter of your book! Easy peasy, right?!

Can I veggie load this baked ziti?

This baked ziti has a load of spinach, and even some creamy pumpkin puree inside, so I tend to serve it with a side salad for simplicities sake. You absolutely can “veggie load” the sauce if you have hesitant salad eaters, or little ones not loving salads yet. My suggestion would be to use finely chopped cauliflower and shredded carrot which will all blend in super easy.

Let’s talk toppings for my dairy free friends!

Our family is dairy free for the most part, but we do tolerate sheep’s milk and goat’s milk cheeses, so I keep a lot of manchego on hand. My family also enjoys the Violife Vegan cheese that is coconut oil based with a great ingredient list. I don’t use a lot of vegan cheeses because of the ingredients, but this is a good one and tastes pretty great! You could also top your baked ziti with bread crumbs, gluten free bread crumbs, or a ground up nut combo.

Print Recipe

One Pan Gluten Free Baked Ziti

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

1 tbsp friendly fat to cook in butter, coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil
2 lbs grassfed ground beef
1– 1 ½ tsp sea salt
1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
Pepper to taste
¼ cup nutritional yeast optional – see Notes for details
1 cup pumpkin puree fresh or canned
2 cups bone broth or water
1 – 15oz can tomato sauce
2– 3 cups baby spinach You can finely chop this if you want it less noticeable
12 oz dry pasta of choice We use GF rice pasta
2 cups cheese of choice to top I use a Manchego since we tolerate sheep’s milk best. See Notes for dairy free options

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
You can make this entire dish in a stove top/oven safe casserole, braiser, or pot with a lid. If you do not have this, you can brown the meat in a skillet and transfer everything to an oven safe casserole pan with a lid or use aluminum foil.
Melt the fat in a large oven safe casserole pan or braiser over medium high heat, and brown the beef with the sea salt. Add the Italian seasoning, onion & garlic powders, and pepper, and cook for 2 minutes.
Turn off the heat, and add the nutritional yeast, pumpkin puree, bone broth, tomato sauce, spinach, and pasta. Stir to combine and top with cheese.
Put the lid on your casserole, and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. I like to take the lid off at the end and put it under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the top and crisp up any edges too!

Notes

If you don’t use nutritional yeast, you can leave this out, or if you can have dairy, you can stir some cheese into the mixture.
If you are dairy free, you can top your baked ziti with bread crumbs, gluten free bread crumbs, or a ground up nut combo.
If you have little ones that don’t like to eat a salad along side dinners like these, you can definitely “veggie-load” this baked ziti wit a couple cups of finely chopped cauliflower or cabbage, or shredded carrots!
I don’t even drain the grease from browning the meat, because it add so much flavor. We get a half side of grassfed beef every year for the freezer, and the meat from grassfed cows is super lean. If your beef lends a lot of grease, you can drain some of it.

More real food ONE PAN DINNERS you might like!

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6 Ways To Use Leftover Chicken

September 14, 2022

Tips for stretching a whole chicken, plus a variety of recipes to use your leftover chicken!

Back to school schedule rhythms

We are back into fall routines, and we all know that means needing a little more rhythm to our meal plan! Many of us are back to busy schedules, after school activities, homework…and enjoying all of the fun fall events too! This felt like a simple enough post to write, but I felt very important, since this “using a whole chicken for multiple meals” thing is something that I rely on very heavily on a weekly basis during the school year.

My year ’round menu staple…

Learning how to cook a whole chicken was one of the very first things I learned how to make when I started my whole foods journey. I was actually quite sick at the time. After seeing doctor after doctor, I saw a more holistically minded practitioner that turned my focus to healing through food. I made my first whole chicken and my own bone broth, and over a period of a few months, and other diet clean-ups, I saw a significant change in my health. I was sold, and the practice of making a whole chicken and broth on a weekly basis became a household staple.

It isn’t as intimidating as it sounds!

Little did I know that years after I got into that rhythm of making a whole chicken and broth, and I started having children, that this simple kitchen task would actually end up becoming a budget and meal planning lifesaver! Whole chickens are less per pound than chicken parts, and you can really stretch that chicken into multiple meals. Of course if you have a larger family, you may need to make more than one chicken at a time to accomplish this! Here are a few posts to get you started on your own journey to making whole chicken! Use whatever kitchen appliance you have – I have a method for just about anything!

How to Make a Whole Chicken In the Instant Pot
How to Make a Whole Chicken In the Slow Cooker or Oven Roaster (an oven roaster allows for multiple whole chickens to be made at a time, by the way! If you like to batch up for a month, or you have a larger family, this is definitely worth looking into!)
How to Make a Slow Roasted Chicken in the Oven

Onto the recipes!

Whether you plan to make a whole chicken specifically to use in a recipe like these, or you plan to make a whole chicken for dinner, and use the leftovers for another meal, I think you’ll find that the possibilities are endless when it comes to utilizing the whole chicken for your weekly meal plan!

Recipe #1 :: Chicken Noodle Soup (plus other chicken soup ideas!)

The quintessential leftover chicken recipe, and my “go-to” on many weeks, is soup. Whether that be chicken noodle soup, or something heartier like stew, it is truly a no brainer. Save the juices that you cook your whole chicken in (called meat stock), and you can literally make soup in the same pot as your whole chicken! Also! If you need some biscuit ideas to go with your soup, you can try my Grain Free Butter Biscuits, my Soft Fluffy Pumpkin Biscuits, or my Cheesy Spinach Biscuits! Here are some of our soup favs with chicken (all of these are gluten and dairy free!):

Recipe #2 :: Chicken Fajitas

I can’t think of a way that I love using shredded chicken for more than fajitas. The texture from a whole chicken is out of this world, and I think you’ll find that the kids will love this on the meal plan rotation often! Go ahead and veggie load that fajita filling too (you can learn how to veggie load taco meat here, and use the same method!), and you can have the whole skillet as a meal to use in tortillas, shells, or on a big salad. If you need a fantastic fajita seasoning blend, you can find my recipe for fajita seasoning mix in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook! Or, if you prefer to buy, this is a good brand.

Recipe #3 :: Chicken Fried Rice

When my girls were little, fried rice was an easy lunchtime staple that I made often while they were home with me. Now that they are bigger, they love to take this savory meal in a thermos to school, but since they are bigger, the little bit of egg in the fried rice doesn’t go as far! I started adding chicken, and it is protein packed enough for a meal for big kids too! If your kids are sensitive to eggs, you can leave them out and add more chicken. This recipe is in my cookbook, Nourished Beginnings – the flavor will definitely remind you of a restaurant fried rice! So good!

Recipe #4 :: Chicken Pesto Pasta

*The* most requested pasta dinner in my house is this! I know, I know…it’s green. But hear me out! This creamy, dreamy pasta is SO, so flavorful and comforting. The recipe for my pesto pasta is in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook, but if you have a favorite pesto recipe, you can toss that with pasta and chicken and make your own! The recipe from the cookbook has some hidden veggies in with the pesto that the kids will never know are there because the sauce is so creamy, so you can truly call this a one pot dinner!

Recipe #5 :: Chicken Salad

Whether you are super short on time, or the weather is too hot to cook, chicken salad is a fast, no-cook way to use up the leftover chicken from your weekly whole chicken! My kids love to scoop chicken salad with veggies and crackers, which makes for an easy lunchbox protein. You can make chicken salad with a simple mayo (I like this brand from Costco, or here is my Paleo Mayo, or my dairy based egg free mayo), or get fancy with yummy add-ins. There is a really delicious chicken salad pinwheel recipe in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook that the kids will love, or you can try this Mexican Chicken Salad! (PS! If you want to try another “cold” chicken sandwich idea, try my shredded BBQ chicken sandwich recipe!)

Recipe #6 :: Chicken Stir Fry

Clean out the veggie bin at the end of the week and toss it with your leftover chicken! It can be as simple as that, or you can dress it up with some yummy stir fry sauce! Here are some recipes to get you started:

20 Minute Ginger Almond Crispy Chicken Stir Fry with Bone Broth Rice
Sweet & Sour Chicken Sauce for Stir Fry
Teriyaki Stir Fry Sauce
The *Best* Asian Take-Out Copycat (In my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook)
Chicken & Kale with Garlic Sauce Stir Fry
Spring Chicken & Pasta Stir Fry

Don’t forget the bone broth!

If you are investing in a whole chicken, you might as well squeeze the most out of it that you can! Having the bones leftover after pulling the chicken apart is like the gift that keeps on giving. My usual routine is to toss the bones/carcass into my Instant Pot or Slow Cooker as I am de-boning the chicken and make the bone broth right there. You can leave it to cook in the slow cooker over night, or pressure cook it it a couple hours using your Instant Pot (a lot of the times I end up pressure cooking after dinner, and then leave it it in the pot over night since it is so incredibly hot – it cools off by the morning and then I strain and freeze it.

So tell me!

What are your favorite things to do with leftover chicken? Also! I would love to hear from you if you try making a whole chicken for the first time after reading this post! Let us know how it goes!

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“Anytime” Fry Sauce! :: Gluten Free & Dairy Free

August 9, 2022

Say “yes!” to this fry sauce anytime! This healthier ingredient, restaurant style sauce is perfect for fry dipping, salad dressing, burger topping, and more!

"Anytime" Fry Sauce! :: Gluten Free & Dairy Free

Summer staples!

I know that my “long-time” readers know how much our family adores summer. We live for our Lake Michigan beach right next door, the powdery sand, crystal fresh water, and near perfect summer temps! We also love walking through our little beach town to window shop, and one of the things the girls notice more as they get older are some of the yummy looking foods on the plates of people dining outdoors! We went for a rare-for-us out to dinner at one of these spots for the 4th of July this summer, and the girls were introduced to the concept of “fry sauce.” They were obsessed, and I just had to figure out how to make it at home…with ingredients that I felt comfortable with them having more than just one time!

So what’s so wrong with restaurant style or store by fry sauce?

Well, nothing really, if you are only going to have it for a special treat one time. But if you are wanting to replicate this fun dip for a homemade burger & fry night at home on your menu plan on a regular basis, making it with ingredients that don’t inflame might want to be on your radar. The last thing any of us need, including kids, is more inflammation. Most store bought and restaurant style sauces, dips, and dressings are made mostly with inflammatory, rancid oils like canola, sunflower, or soy. These oils have a great shelf life, and are cheap for companies to save money, but they wreck havoc on our bodies, causing fiery inflammation and free radicals to roam.

But I just don’t have time for one. more. homemade. thing….

I so get it, dear momma. I really do. Which is why I wanted this fry sauce to be made in under 5 minutes. You’re already making the steak or burgers, and the fries, so this quick dipping sauce can be made while the burgers are grilling in just a few minutes. Or even the day before. It is a big serving too, so you can stash it away in the fridge for weeks and pull it out when you need it. It even works double time for you because it can be a salad dressing, or burger topper too!

The “Anytime” Fry Sauce prep ::

Everything into a small mixing bowl, and stir to combine! That’s it! Truly! This can even be a prep item for the kids to make while you are fixing the rest of dinner.

Mayo options and other swaps

Primal Kitchen Mayo (we get this from Costco), or Sir Kensington’s Avocado Oil Mayo are healthier choices here using good fats versus rancid, inflammatory fats. If you prefer to make your own, you can try my traditional mayo recipe in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook, or my Egg Free/Dairy Free Paleo Mayo, or my Egg Free Dairy Based Mayo. Also, if you prefer to skip the ketchup in the recipe, try a tablespoon or 2 of tomato paste mixed with some honey for a more natural sugar option.

The possibilities are endless!

Why do we call this “anytime” fry sauce? Well not only am I happy to let the kids have this fry sauce “anytime,” it actually can be used for so many other things “anytime” too! It is so versatile! Of course use it for your french fry dipping, but my girls love it on a salad, on top of a burger, or using for veggie dip!

Tell me about those FRIES!

These sheet pan french fries are a staple recipe in my home, and I think you are going to love them! Easy peasy method, and a special trick used to ensure the crispy fry factor (without the extra time of pre-soaking the fries!). Making your own fries also allows you to control the oil used. Just like with store bought or restaurant dipping sauces, french fries from restaurants or the freezer at the store are typically cooked in junky oils. I don’t know about you, but I like to have fries more than just once! When you make them with healthier oil, you can serve them more often without the inflammation spike.

Print Recipe

“Anytime” Fry Sauce! :: Gluten Free & Dairy Free

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

1 cup healthy mayo of choice See "Notes" section for recommendations!
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tsp onion powder
1/4 cup ketchup See "Notes" section for alternatives if needed
1-2 tbsp mustard

Instructions

Whisk all ingredients in a small mixing bowl. If you want it thinner, I like to splash in pickle juice. This dip/dressing keeps in the refrigerator as long as your mayo has a good "best by" date.

Notes

Primal Kitchen Mayo (we get this at Costco), or Sir Kensington’s Avocado Oil Mayo are healthier choices here using good fats versus rancid, inflammatory fats. If you prefer to make your own, you can try my traditional mayo recipe in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook, or my Egg Free/Dairy Free Paleo Mayo, or my Egg Free Dairy Based Mayo.
If you prefer to skip the ketchup, try a tablespoon or 2 of tomato paste mixed with some honey for a more natural sugar option.
This fry sauce is so versatile! Of course use it for your french fry dipping, but my girls love it on a salad, on top of a burger, or using for veggie dip!

More real food recipes you might like ::

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Batch Up Meals Dinner Ideas Healthy Kids and Teens Instant Pot Lunch Ideas Nourishing Staples Real Food 101 Real Food Tips school lunches

Prep Day Instant Pot Shredded BBQ Chicken

July 5, 2022

Save money using a whole chicken on your prep day for shredded BBQ chicken to use for salads, sandwiches, and baked potato toppers!

Summer vibes

All the sun, all the sand! Our barefoot days spent on the shore of Lake Michigan in the summer is what gets us through the snowy winters here, and this summer is no different! The weather has been incredible…which also means I don’t want to be inside cooking meals all day!

Growing tweens and teens nutritional needs

If you have been around here as long as this blog has been around, you have truly watched my girls grow up. I started this blog when my third born was just a baby, and you’ve gotten to witness so many seasons of their growth. In the last few years, I’ve slowly started a bit of a larger gear shift as my oldest went through her tween years, and then turned 13 this spring. Now, with my second born right smack dab in her tween-hood, I feel like I’m seeing a pattern in nutritional needs of these rapidly growing, hormone-shifting years. Protein. And a lot of it. Sure, this age needs some really good, healthy fats for their ever-changing hormones and growth spurts – in fact it is vital. Hormones *need* fats to work. But I am also seeing even more importantly that their growth spurts and rapid metabolisms need protein, or they will eat you out of house and home!

Keeping the tweens from being starving!

I remember the moment I decided I had to change *something.* My oldest was a tween, and I literally couldn’t keep satisfied – she was always hungry! She was growing out of shoes left and right, and within one school year grew at least 5 inches. I was feeding her the same sort of meals as I always had, with larger portions, and making sure there was healthy fat at each meal. What I noticed was that on days that we had more protein on the plate, she was happier and more satiated. I started working on getting more meat into specifically our lunch meals, and it really helped during those growth spurting tween years. (Side note! YES pastured eggs are a great source of protein as well, and we use them for my younger two – but my oldest cannot have them other than in baked goods so that source is out for her!)

Saving your budget with a whole chicken

With an increased need for quality protein in my growing kiddo’s diet, I changed a few things around, and started focusing on using whole chickens for meal preps. We already had our half grassfed cow in the freezer at around $4 per pound (an absolute budget lifesaver!), but I didn’t want to be blowing my budget in cuts of chicken day in and day out. I needed something to pull for meat every day without cooking every day too! The budget savings in using a whole chicken at $4 per pound or less, versus cuts of chicken at over $6 per pound – well that is a no brainer.

More than just the meat!

Of course the tender, juicy chicken meat off the bone is by far superior to cuts of chicken, but you also get to use the leftover chicken juices (called meat stock), as well as the bones to make bone broth – practically free broth to use for weekly soups, stews, gravies, and cooking veggies or rice in! When your whole chicken is done cooking – whether that be in a slow cooker, oven, or Instant Pot, just strain the juices off and you’ve got yourself a nutrient packed stock for cooking with – without having to buy it at the store!

Let’s talk BBQ Sauce before we get to the chicken!

For this post, and for most of the summer, I like to use my super quick 5-minute BBQ Sauce. It stirs up in a jar in literally minutes, and it tastes so good! If you prefer a more fruit sweetened sauce, try my date sweetened BBQ Sauce here – it blends up in a blender in just minutes without cooking too! Or, if you have a store bought version that doesn’t have a bunch of junk ingredients, that works too! There are plenty of brands out there now that have made BBQ sauce from the store healthier without using high fructose corn syrup, dyes, and preservatives. Since we are talking a bit about budget saving in this post, I’ll recommend trying to make your own, and saving the money!

The Method :: Cooking the Whole Chicken

My goal in this meal prep recipe is to make the prep part as simple as possible, so that you will want to do this regularly, instead of just one time! Since the purpose of this whole chicken is to be shredded up with BBQ anyway, I don’t even spend time fussing with seasoning the chicken. We are essentially boiling/poaching the chicken plain. That way, the meat stock leftover in the pot is a perfectly beautiful, unseasoned but flavorful blank slate that you can use for anything you want. To get started, fill your Instant Pot liner with a couple cups of water and fill with carrots, onion, and celery – this veggie mix along with the chicken will flavor the stock beautifully. Add the chicken to the water and veggies, and pressure cook on the poultry setting for 28 minutes. After the chicken pressure cooks, let the pressure release naturally for about 15 minutes before opening the lid and getting the chicken out. Be sure to strain off the liquid (meat stock) to use for soup or cooking veggies/rice in this week!

The Method :: Shredding the Whole Chicken

Once the whole chicken has been cooked, you can pull the meat off the bones as soon as it is cooled off enough to handle. Sometimes I don’t have the time to wait, and I’ll use some tongs or put some rubber gloves on to get it done! Put all of the meat from the chicken into a large bowl and shred with 2 forks. You could blend with a hand mixer if you want too – it really does work!

The Method :: How to Turn the Shredded Chicken Into BBQ Shredded Chicken!

The only thing left to do is stir in the BBQ sauce at this point! Use as little, or as much as you want! For this 5 pound chicken, I did use an entire pint of my 5-Minute BBQ Sauce. You may also need to salt and pepper your chicken to your taste since we did not season the whole chicken, and chicken tends to be bland without. It is truly a blank slate – make it taste how your family likes it!

How to serve your shredded BBQ chicken!

For this post, I’ve shown you how to use the BBQ chicken for sandwiches, but there are a couple other ways I like to serve it too! One of the girls’ favorite ways is over baked sweet potatoes. It changes up the starch from bread, and adds a veggie in there too! My kids will eat the chicken cold in a lettuce wrap as well. Another option is mixed into a salad, or you can go with the classic bun (we like the GF buns from Trader Joes’), pita (we like the GF pitas at Costco from BFree), or wraps!

Print Recipe

Prep Day Instant Pot Shredded BBQ Chicken

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 cups water
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots peeled and coarsely chopped
2 stalks of celery coarsely chopped
1 Whole chicken between 4-6 pounds, rinsed
1-2 cups BBQ sauce of choice I like to use a pint of my 5-minute BBQ Sauce
Sea salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Put 2-3 cups of water into your Instant Pot liner, along with the veggies, and then the whole chicken on top.
Close the IP lid, seal the valve, and press "Poultry." Bring the time up to 28 minutes. The IP will start on its own, taking about 5-10 minutes to come to pressure before counting down the 28 minutes of pressure cooking time.
Once the chicken is done pressure cooking, let the IP sit for 15 minutes to naturally release some of the pressure. After waiting 15 minutes, release the rest of the pressure from the valve, and transfer the whole chicken to a large dish or plate to de-bone. Strain the juices (called meat stock) and use those for any soups, stews, stir fry, or cooking veggies/rice in another time!
De-bone the whole chicken, and then shred the meat in a large bowl using 2 forks. Once the chicken is shredded, stir in the BBQ sauce, and then season with salt and pepper to your taste.

More real food recipes you might like!

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can cook your whole chicken using the slow cooker, or the oven!
Instant Pot Bone Broth
Instant Pot Potato Salad
How to make Prep Day Hard Boiled Eggs
Prep Day Paleo Crispy Chicken
Veggie Loaded Taco Meat for Taco Night
Mahi Fish Taco Loaded Buddha Bowls

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Batch Up Meals Dinner Ideas Healthy Kids and Teens Nourishing Staples Real Food 101 Real Food Tips

Sheet Pan Lemon Garlic Chicken, Potatoes, & Broccoli with Dairy Free “Cheesy” Herb Sauce

May 19, 2022

This yummy sheet pan lemon garlic chicken is an easy weeknight dinner packed with flavor the whole family will love!

Sheet Pan Lemon Garlic Chicken, Potatoes, & Broccoli with Dairy Free "Cheesy" Herb Sauce

My newest “tween”

It’s been a whirlwind of a spring around here, with all the school events that come with the end of the school year, a house move…and also our household spring birthdays! We have 2 of them in the spring to be exact, and my middle kiddo is officially 11! I feel like I have hit the tween jackpot so far, as my 2 girls in this age bracket have so far been quite a breeze considering. This age group also brings a different kind of busy to our household schedule than the baby, toddler, and little kid years, and boy oh boy have I been relying on sheet pan dinners during this “in and out the door every evening” season of having kids!

1 dinner, 2 sheet pans

I feel like sheet pan dinners are one of the most under-rated “fast weekday dinners,” especially with the Instant Pot craze, and the old faithful slow cooker all of our mothers used. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my Instant Pot, but when I am meal planning out my week, the dinners that come to mind for the busiest days are always sheet pan meals. And lately, they are on the rotation quite often. Protein, veg, starch all go in the same oven temp, and mom is hands free to tend to other things while it cooks? Sign. Me. Up.

But will my kids eat it?!

I know the lemon garlic flavors sound strong for a child’s palate, but this meal is super family friendly. The lemon and garlic are mild, though are enough to make an adult very happy too. And most kids are open to the idea of crispy potatoes and broccoli that tastes good after roasting. I would really encourage my young moms with babies and toddlers to toss a few bites of this on their highchair tray, or invite them to eat right off your plate too. The younger ages between 9 months old and 4 years old are super social eating ages – meaning, they are more likely to try something new if it is with you, and off your plate! You’ll be able to teach them to eat off their own plate with time, and with time they will actually want to do that -for now, don’t fret if all they want is what is on mom’s plate! Train their palates for these fun flavors, and this easy dinner meal can be on your rotation on the regular!

The Method :: The Lemon Garlic Marinade

The marinade for the chicken can be made up in advance, though is easy enough to make the night of as well. Just be sure you leave enough time for the chicken to marinade for at least 20 minutes. If you have a busy day, you can whisk it up before you leave in the morning, and toss the chicken in for the day. Or perhaps you get the chicken into the marinade before you leave to get the kids from school or practice so that it is ready to cook when you get home. Once you whisk the marinade together, you’ll want to scoop out about 1/4 cup into a small dish so that you have some to toss the veggies with that have not been touching the raw chicken.

The Method :: Prepping & Roasting the Potatoes

I like to spread this dinner out on 2 sheet pans despite the pictures. It allows for more even cooking and less “steaming” cooking versus roasting cooking so that you get a crispy outside on the potatoes and chicken. You can definitely back off on the amount and get everything on one sheet pan though if you have less people to feed. To get started, you’ll toss the potato quarters with a couple tablespoons of the reserved marinade and roast on the sheet pan first. The potatoes need more cook time than the broccoli and the chicken, so you’ll give them a head start.

The Method :: Prepping & Roasting the Rest of the Dinner

Once you stir the cooked potatoes around, you’ll toss the broccoli on the same sheet pan with the other 2 tablespoons of reserved marinade. I like to scoot the potatoes to one side of the sheet pan, and the broccoli goes on the other side, though you can toss them all together if you wish. Then, line up the marinated chicken thighs on the second sheet pan, and everything roasts together!

The Method :: The Dairy Free “Cheesy” Herb Sauce

The sauce…this sauce! You’ll want to dunk every piece, or drown the whole plate full in it because it just elevates every bite! While your dinner is cooking on the sheet pans in the oven, you can stir the sauce up in a small bowl in just a few minutes. This creamy dipping sauce will last for days in the fridge, so if you have any leftover (there is usually none leftover when I make it!), you can drizzle it on your salad, on a wrap, or any leftover chicken dinner you might have.

What if I can have dairy?

If your home consumes dairy, you can make the cheesy herb sauce with regular, plain yogurt, or Greek yogurt, and parmesan cheese instead of the coconut yogurt and nutritional yeast. Even sour cream is a good base – use what you have. It is delcious!

Are you a meal prepper?

If you like to prep a week’s worth of lunches for your busy day, this meal can be prepped on a Sunday to portion out for your lunches for the week so easily. Use portion containers to store it in, and you’ll have an easy lunch to pull from whether you are at work, or busy with littles at home.

Print Recipe

Sheet Pan Lemon Garlic Chicken, Potatoes, & Broccoli with Dairy Free “Cheesy” Herb Sauce

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

For the Lemon Garlic Marinade ::

½ cup olive oil
3-4 cloves of garlic minced
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of ½ lemon about 3-4 tbsp
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard or regular mustard
1 tsp raw honey
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp pepper

For the Sheet Pan Dinner ::

1 recipe of the above Lemon Garlic Marinade
8 boneless chicken thighs
8-9 yellow potatoes quartered
1-2 heads of broccoli cut into florets (about 6 or so cups)
Sea salt/pepper to taste

For the Dairy Free “Cheesy” Herb Sauce ::

1 cup full fat dairy free yogurt such coconut yogurt I like the large tubs of So Delicious plain yogurt
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried chives
½ tsp dried dill
¼ tsp sea salt
Pinch of pepper

Instructions

Make the Lemon Garlic Marinade ::

Whisk the marinade ingredients in a container that has a lid. **Scoop out ¼ cup of the marinade into a small bowl to save for the veggies.**

Marinade the chicken ::

You’ll want to marinade the chicken for at least 15-20 minutes, but you can do this in advance in the morning if you want. Rinse and pat dry your chicken thighs, add them to the marinade that is in the container, put the lid on the container, and shake it up to mix the marinade and the chicken. Let the chicken marinade in the refrigerator until you are ready to make dinner.

Make the sheet pan dinner ::

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees and get 2 large sheet pans out. Do not spray or line the sheet trays.
Toss the quartered yellow potatoes on one of the sheet trays with 2 tablespoons of the reserved lemon garlic marinade and about ¼ to ½ tsp of sea salt to taste.
Roast the potatoes at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, and then give them on a stir on the sheet tray. S
Scoot the potatoes to one half of the sheet tray, and add the broccoli florets to the other side. Toss the broccoli florets with the other 2 tablespoons of lemon garlic marinade and sprinkle a few pinches of sea salt.
On the second sheet tray, line up the marinated chicken thighs, and then put both sheet trays into the oven together to roast for 25 minutes.

Make the Dairy Free “Cheesy” Herb Sauce ::

While the sheet pan dinner is in the oven, you can stir up the dairy free “cheesy” herb sauce. OR this can be made up to a couple days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. Add all of the ingredients for the sauce into a small bowl, and stir together until combined.

Notes

You can swap the thighs for chicken breasts but you’ll want to fillet any breasts that are on the thick side to match the size/thickness of the thighs represented here.
You can swap the broccoli for whatever veg is in season! Use green beans, asparagus, zucchini, or a mixture of veg!
If you are not dairy free, you can use regular yogurt or Greek yogurt and parmesan for the cheesy herb sauce.
This dinner makes a great meal prep for a whole week to warm up for work.
Any leftover chicken can be cut up and used for salads, wraps, or stir fry

More real food recipes you might like! ::

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Batch Up Meals Dinner Ideas Healthy Kids and Teens Lunch Ideas Nourishing Staples Real Food 101 Real Food Tips school lunches

Simple Prep Day Paleo Crispy Chicken Fillets

April 18, 2022

These simple, crispy chicken fillets are the Paleo answer to making healthy, delicious meal prep day success!

Simple Prep Day Paleo Crispy Chicken Fillets

The race to the finish line!

We are a week back into school since Spring Break, Easter has come and gone, and I really feel like we are starting to see that finish line to the school year in the distance! Those of you that have been around these parts long know that I just love our summers at the beach, and while we are definitely routine keepers around here, taking a couple months off in the summer is balm to our souls. One thing I have learned in the years since I have had kids in school is that May is….crazy! I don’t think there is one day that doesn’t have *something* on the calendar for me every May, and that means I’ve got to have a plan to keep us fed without compromising, and also without being in the kitchen all day.

Back to the basics

Something that helps me keep whole foods on the table during busy seasons, is having the protein figured out and prepped ahead of time. It can make all the difference in the world in faster, easier meals. For instance, getting a dozen hard boiled eggs made quickly every Sunday, makes school morning breakfast additions so fast so that I don’t have to rely on convenience breakfast staples like boxed cereals that don’t have the nutrition, and won’t keep my kids sustained all morning. Likewise, I have found if I have a protein like chicken or beef made up ahead of time, I eat lunches better while the girls are in school. Let’s face it – it is so easy to skip it or just grab quick little things when busy during the day when the kids aren’t there to force the stop for lunch….*Guilty as charged!* So if I get some chicken prepped ahead of time, I’ll add it to a salad for lunch, or as a side to veggie soup, and I’m way better at getting lunch in.

Not just for lunch meal prep!

But wait! Having a simple protein prepped or even just this method in your back pocket for a busy weeknight can make dinnertime such a breeze. Add this simple crispy chicken to a skillet filled with a veggie stir fry, or a pot of pasta and cream sauce, and dinner is so satisfying without having been in the kitchen all day!

Key players and keeping it simple

I don’t think there is anyone that would turn down a piece of crispy chicken…super flavorful outside, juicy inside – what’s not to love?! But the dredging, and the egging, and the flouring…most of us don’t have time for that other than special occasions. This lightly breaded chicken gets crispy without the fuss, and with just a couple of ingredients. Salt and pepper whisked with a simple sprinkle of cassava flour is as easy as it gets! I love cassava flour for a few different reasons. Even if you are not paleo, or need to avoid gluten, cassava flour is a great pantry addition that will help you keep your ingredients on rotation, so your family is getting variety. The cassava plant is a root vegetable, and the flour is quite literally just the plant, dried out and ground into flour. It is very absorbent, which makes for a nice crispy outside, and the health benefits from the natural pre-biotic fibers are so good for the gut too!

The Method :: Prepping The Chicken

I did photograph this entire crispy chicken method, but let’s not complicate this. Prep the chicken into the sized pieces that you prefer. I’ll show you what I typically do here, but you can make the pieces bigger or smaller, depending on what you are using the chicken for. I like to rinse, and then pat dry the chicken with a paper towel. I don’t even use an extra plate (less dishes, less kitchen time, amiright?!) – just rinse, pat dry, and place on your cutting board. I like to fillet the chicken thin, so I typically cut the thicker top half off to fillet, and leave the smaller bottom half as is. Sometimes I’ll fillet the bottom half as well.

The Method :: The flour coating

This cassava flour breading is as basic as it gets, though so flavorful. If you plan to use your chicken for a stir fry, you could add some ginger. Or if you are using it for a pasta meal, add some Italian seasoning! Just whisk the flour with the seasonings in a small dish, and then coat the chicken. I don’t even use a different plate or bowl – just toss it all right on the cutting board.

The Cooking Oil…

Before we move onto actually cooking the chicken, let’s talk about what to cook it in! I prefer a super hot, cast iron skillet with coconut oil. You’ll want to pick a very high heat stable cooking fat, that is also healthy and not filled with inflammatory fat that will cause free radicals in your body. Oils like canola or peanut oil do very well with high heat, BUT they are so inflammatory, and they will inflame the body when eaten on the regular. Healthier fats like coconut oil, ghee, or avocado oil also tolerate the high heat well, but are so incredible for your health. The feed your brain, your hormones, and actually work to keep inflammation down. I use a nice big chunk of the coconut oil in a large cast iron skillet, and get a really nice, crispy crust on the chicken!

The Method :: Cooking the Chicken

Once your coconut oil is heated, pull the chicken pieces right from the cutting board into the oil. You’ll want to keep some space around the chicken, so you may need to work in batches if your skillet will not hold them all, or if you are making a larger quantity of chicken. Allow the chicken to cook, undisturbed, for a good 3-4 minutes so that the golden, crispy outside can develop. If you start moving your chicken and it is sticking, you probably have not let it cook long enough to develop the crust. Flip the chicken, and cook another 3-4 minutes, until the chicken is golden and crispy on the other side and cooked through. I like to transfer the cooked chicken to a wire rack so it stays crispy.

The possibilities are endless!

Here are some ways that I like to use my crispy chicken, both for lunches or dinner!

Salad topper
Stir fry
Pasta dishes
Sandwiches or lettuce wraps
Sliced as guacamole dippers – my kids love this in their lunches
Or just eaten plain with sides!

Can I use chicken thighs?

110% yes! (Can you tell I’m a thigh girl?!) The method is the same, though you won’t need to use as much cooking oil since chicken thighs lend some fat as they cook very easily. If you prefer thigh meat, definitely use that! It is so good crispy and then used in all of the applications above for meal suggestions.

Print Recipe

Simple Prep Day Paleo Crispy Chicken Fillets

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

3 large chicken breasts
¼ cup cassava flour
Heaping teaspoon sea salt
½ tsp black pepper
¼ cup coconut oil

Instructions

Rinse the chicken breasts in cold water, and pat any excess water off using a paper towel. Place the chicken breasts on your cutting board as you go.
Fillet your chicken breasts so they are thinner, and spread them out on the cutting board. I like to cut the breast in half horizontally first so the smaller end is one fillet, and the top half gets filleted into 2.
In a small dish, whisk the cassava flour, sea salt, and pepper and then sprinkle half of the mixture over the chicken breasts. Rub the flour around the tops of the chicken, and then flip them over. Sprinkle the other half of the seasoned flour on the chicken, and then toss the chicken on the cutting board to coat evenly.
Heat the coconut oil in a large skillet over high heat. Bring the temperature to medium-high heat, and add the coated chicken to the hot oil, making sure to leave some space around each fillet. You may have to work in batches. With my 12 inch cast iron I can do this in 2 batches.
Once the bottom of the fillet is golden brown (this takes 3-4 minutes), you can flip the chicken to cook on the other side for another 3-4 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken. Properly cooked chicken should have internal temp of 165 degrees. I don't test this, but you can.
Once the chicken is cooked through, place them on a plate or drying rack to rest a few minutes before cutting. If you are storing your chicken for meals for the week, you can let it cool, and store in an air tight container. If you are adding your chicken to a dish or skillet meal, you can add it right in, or slice and add it it!

Notes

Avocado oil would be a good neutral oil to cook in as well. Olive oil and butter will tend to smoke/burn at the higher heat so I prefer the coconut oil. You can use refined coconut oil if you don’t like the taste of coconut oil. I love the mild sweetness it brings to the chicken.
Season the flour however you wish! I like to add smoked paprika sometimes, or ginger depending on what I am using the chicken for.

More real food recipes you might like ::

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Dinner Ideas Healthy Kids and Teens Nourishing Staples Real Food 101 Real Food Tips

Sheet Pan Teriyaki Meatballs & Roasted Veggies :: Gluten Free, Soy Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free, Refined Sugar Free

March 8, 2022

A whole dinner all on one sheet pan! The kids will love these sweet, sticky teriyaki meatballs and sweet roasted veggies!

Sheet Pan Teriyaki Meatballs & Roasted Veggies :: Gluten Free, Soy Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free, Refined Sugar Free

Real life, real food

For those of you who have followed me for a while on social media, you know that our family has been in the building and moving process for the last year – with the last 5 months living somewhere other than “home.” I haven’t overly talked about it, as I like to keep things zeroed in on our real food goals in this space, but let me just be real for a minute! Having a family, moving, cooking in someone else’s kitchen, and trying to keep “normalcy” for the kids…its a stressful, full-time job! While life has been a little extra busy, I’ve found it harder to blog, but what I *have* found, is that you all do enjoy these simple, everyday meals that are the only thing I have had time to write up for you, and that makes me super happy. It tells me that you are real people, not just looking for the fancy shmancy “health” food treats…you are looking for real food for everyday life!

Momma’s secret weapon for a busy weeknight…

Sheet pan dinners! Oh sure, the Instant Pots are all the rage. And quick skillets are great too. But seriously…dump it all onto a sheet pan and it cooks while you tend to other matters in the house or with the kids? Sign. Me. Up. I cannot tell you how much I adore that whole “kill two birds with one stone” thing – and sheet pan dinners allow me to get dinner in the oven, and be hands free for other things while it cooks.

What is teriyaki?!

In short, this sweet, sticky sauce is Asian inspired, and it usually used to toss with simple stir fry. I have found over the years that it is a great way to get veggie hesitant kids to try a stir fry, and it couldn’t be easier to make. Traditional teriyaki sauces or those that you find in the store will be soy based, which we avoid in our house, so years ago I developed a teriyaki sauce that we could enjoy in our house. I hear from you all frequently that your little ones adore it!

The Method :: The 5-Minute Teriyaki Sauce

Making versus buying this sauce may seem like a redundant extra step, but not only can the teriyaki be whisked up in 5 minutes, it can be made days in advance. Simply add all of the teriyaki sauce ingredients to a small sauce pan and whisk until thickened. Primal Kitchen does have a soy free, great teriyaki sauce if you prefer to buy it! It doesn’t usually fit in my budget, so I tend to just make my own.

The Method :: The Veggies

The sky is the limit here! For this dinner, I used what I had left in my veggie bin this week. I would definitely encourage you to try the purple onion and cabbage – they both get so sweet and kid friendly with roasting! It is a great budget saver as well! Get all the veg cut up into slightly larger than bite-sized pieces, and just toss them on the sheet pan with some olive oil.

The Method :: The Meatballs

These meatballs are SO delicious, and you can just roll them up and place them right on the sheet pan with the veggies! It doesn’t get any easier than that! The meatballs can also be made in advance – you can even freeze them if you have a prep day and want to stock up. That way on a busy weeknight you just have to pull them from the freezer.

The Method :: Brushing the Teriyaki Sauce, and Roasting

Once your meatballs are rolled up, brush some of the teriyaki sauce on each of the meatballs so their tops are covered – we aren’t looking for perfection here by the way! Then drizzle the rest of the teriyaki sauce over the veggies in the pan and roast the sheet pan off for 20 minutes.

Serving suggestions

We love to serve our teriyaki stir fry over rice, but if you prefer grain free, it is absolutely delicious over a baked sweet potato (or regular potato). I also think a little rice ramen (Costco carries this brand btw) would be incredible! Another way to serve would be to add another sheet pan of veggies to roast right along with this sheet pan and just have extra veg.

Prep ahead tips

While the actual roasting of this dinner is just a quick 20 minutes of hands free time, there are a couple of steps to get to that point, and you can do some of it ahead of time. You can make the teriyaki sauce days in advance so that part is done – you could even chop the veggies on a prep day so that it dumps in the pan fast. The meatballs are definitely something that can be rolled up ahead of time and frozen on a prep day. This sheet pan meal would also make a great meal prep for mom’s lunches all week to pull from. Make it up on a Sunday, and warm it up everyday for lunch!

Print Recipe

Sheet Pan Teriyaki Meatballs & Roasted Veggies :: Gluten Free, Soy Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free, Refined Sugar Free

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

For the 5 Minute Teriyaki Sauce ::

1/3 cup coconut aminos
¼ cup water
¼ cup raw honey
2 tbsp blackstrap molassess
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp tapioca starch

For the Veggies ::

2 tbsp olive oil
1 purple onion cut into ½ inch thick strips
½ small head of cabbage cut into ½ inch thick strips
2 bell peppers cut into 1 inch strips and then halved to make them bite sized
2-3 cups broccoli florets
1 medium/large carrot peeled and julienned (or bite sized pieces in the shape you like)

For the Meatballs ::

1 lb grassfed ground beef
1 egg
¼ cup GF panko bread crumbs or GF flour blend
1 tbsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sea salt
¼ tsp black pepper
Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees and get a large sheet tray out. The sheet tray does NOT need to be lined with parchment or greased.

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees, and get a large sheet tray out. The sheet tray does NOT need to be lined with parchment or greased.

Make the Teriyaki Sauce ::

Put everything into a small sauce pan, and bring the heat to high.
Use a whisk to stir every so often until it comes to a simmer, then continually whisk for about 1 minute until the sauce thickens. Turn the heat off and set the sauce aside.

Get the veggies ready ::

Toss all of the veggies with the olive oil on a large sheet tray so that the veggies are coated evenly.

Make the meatballs, assemble, and bake ::

Mix all of the meatball ingredients in a small mixing bowl until combined evenly.
Roll 1 – 1 ½ inch meatballs and place them on the sheet tray with the veggies – they can rest right on top of the veggies or on the sheet tray.
Brush each meatball with the prepared teriyaki sauce, and then drizzle the rest of the sauce over the veggies on the sheet tray.
Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Notes

If you don’t have access to good GF Panko crumbs, you can use any GF Flour Blend, or something simple like rice flour or even cassava flour if you are grain free.
Meal prep tips! You can make the teriyaki sauce days in advance so that part is done – you could even chop the veggies on a prep day so that it dumps in the pan fast. The meatballs are definitely something that can be rolled up ahead of time and frozen on a prep day.
The overall consensus for my kids is that the teriyaki sauce as written here is overly sweet for them – I think it tastes like a normal teriyaki you’d buy in the store which is why I left it as is. If you have little ones at home that aren’t trained toward sweet yet, I’d pull the sweet back a bit!
Change up the veggies to what is in season!

More real food recipes you might like! ::

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Dinner Ideas Healthy Kids and Teens Nourishing Staples Real Food 101 Real Food Tips

One Pan Creamy Baked Chicken and Broccoli

February 4, 2022

Busy weeknights were made for dinners like this! Just one pan and a 5 minute prep for a creamy, decadent, baked chicken and broccoli dinner!

One Pan Creamy Baked Chicken and Broccoli

Just because I’m a food blogger and cookbook author…

…doesn’t mean that every meal is fancy. Does that surprise you? I know that sometimes when I talk to people, I feel like they are surprised that I don’t make fancy dinners every night. Behind this screen is a super real momma, with a super real 3-school-aged-kid schedule, and a super real budget. So while I do love to blog fun, new recipes to get everyone excited about eating real food, I have to remind myself sometimes to pull back to my “roots” and just blog some of my real, everyday food as well. Because *that* my dear friends is how we do real food everyday. You’ll burn out from it if you don’t have some of these really easy dinners up your sleeve!

All real food on a budget is the name of the game!

Because the real food part really does matter. Sure, we’ll do some out to dinners occasionally, or even some store bought packed snacks, but for the most part, I try to follow that whole 80/20 thing, and in my house its more like 90/10, because my experience has been that real food is actually more affordable than going out to eat, buying packaged and processed food, and even more affordable than boxed “healthy” dinners.

5 Minute Prep? Yes please!

YES, I absolutely think it is important that we *slow* down and enjoy cooking in our family kitchens again. I’m a huge advocate of the family dinner table, and going back to showing kids how to cook, where their food comes from, and the beauty of preparing food for our families. But that doesn’t always have to mean an all day slow cooked roast, or a fussy prepped lasagna. It can simply be chicken prepped with some yummy seasonings, and drenched a cream sauce that was whisked up in minutes!

The Method :: The Chicken & Broccoli

To start your dinner prep, you’ll rinse and pat dry your chicken breasts and prep them right in the pan you will be cooking in. Coat the chicken in some olive oil, and season to your liking. I left some seasoning instructions, but truthfully, this is one that I don’t measure – I’m talking grab the seasoning jars, and just sprinkle along as I go! Once the chicken is seasoned, you’ll spread the broccoli around the pan, and get the sauce made.

The Method :: The Dairy Free Cream Sauce

This is as easy as it gets! Measure it all up in your liquid measuring cup, give it a whisk, and pour it over the chicken. You can play around with the amount to your taste, and if you want more sauce, just make more! If I serve this meal with pasta, I tend to lean more toward the 2 cups of coconut milk so that my pasta has plenty of sauce to soak in.

The Method :: Baking the Chicken

Once the sauce is in the pan, you’re ready to bake. And that means you’re hands free for 25 minutes! You can either help kids with homework, boil the pasta for the chicken meal, or you can sit with a book for a few minutes! If you plan to serve your chicken with baked potatoes or sweet potatoes, just be sure you get those in the oven about 10-15 minutes before the chicken so they have enough time to get soft – I like to cut them in half or quarters to be sure they roast fast enough.

Serving suggestions!

Serving this meal over your pasta of choice works so well and feels so decadent! A lot of the times, I serve over a baked potato or sweet potato, which can bake at the same temperature as the chicken. Depending on the size of your potatoes, and how you cut them, you’ll need to put the potatoes in before the chicken, I usually bake small sweet potato halves, so I put them in about 15-20 minutes before the chicken goes in, OR I bake them on a prep day and just warm them up when the chicken is cooking.

Let’s talk real life

Because I want you to actually make this! Earlier this week, I shared to my Instagram how I prepped this chicken dinner before I left to pick kids up from school. The beauty of a recipe like this is that it can be prepped a day or so in advanced, and put in the fridge until you need it. I prepped the pans for this dinner, left to get the kids, and came home to pop it in the oven. You can also bake this meal off, and eat lunch off from it all week long, dear momma. THIS is how we can get real food into real life mommas, my friends!

Print Recipe

Creamy Baked Chicken & Broccoli

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

For the Chicken & Broccoli ::

4 boneless chicken breasts rinsed & pat dry
2 tbsp olive oil
½ to 1 tsp sea salt
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ to ½ tsp sweet paprika
½ tsp Italian Seasoning
1 head of broccoli florets

For the Dairy Free Cheesy Cream Sauce ::

1 ½ – 2 cups coconut milk
2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 – 2 tbsp tapioca starch Depending on how thick you want the sauce
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp sea salt
Pinches of black pepper to taste

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.
Put the chicken into a 9×13 baking dish, and coat with the olive oil. Sprinkle the seasonings evenly over the top – no I don’t typically mix the seasonings separately, and I don’t usually even measure. This is just sprinkle and go on a busy day for me 😊
Place the broccoli florets around the chicken in the pan, nesteling it down on the sides of the chicken and around the pan.
In a liquid measuring cup, measure out your coconut milk, and then add in the rest of the Cream Sauce ingredients. Whisk the cream sauce to combine right there in the liquid measuring cup, and then pour the sauce over the chicken and broccoli
Bake the chicken, uncovered, for 25 – 30 minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken. Chicken is supposed to have an internal temperature of 165 degrees, so I tend to take it out around 160 degrees, and let it continue cooking to the 165 while it rests. No I don’t tend to take the temperature, but you can!
Once the chicken is done baking, let the pan rest about 5 minutes or so before cutting so the juices have a chance to redistribute back into the chicken.
Serve your creamy baked chicken & broccoli over your choice of pasta, baked potato, or sweet potato! See the Notes section for tips on baking the potatoes at the same time as the chicken.

Notes

You can swap the coconut milk for whole milk or cream if you can have the dairy. I’m not sure how almond milk would taste, but it should still make a good cream sauce if you prefer that.
You can swap the chicken breast for chicken thighs if that is what you have, or you prefer that taste – you’ll just want to pull the cook time down to about 15-20 minutes since those are smaller.
You can swap the tapioca starch for arrowroot starch, potato starch, or corn starch. If you leave the starch out, you will not get a creamy sauce – it will be runny.
Serving suggestions! Serving this meal over your pasta of choice works so well and feels so decadent! A lot of the times, I serve over a baked potato or sweet potato, which can bake at the same temperature as the chicken. Depending on the size of your potatoes, and how you cut them, you’ll need to put the potatoes in before the chicken, I usually bake potato halves, so I put them in about 15-20 minutes before the chicken goes in, OR I bake them on a prep day and just warm them up when the chicken is cooking.

More real food recipes you might like ::

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One Pan Paleo Chicken Divan Casserole :: Gluten, Grain, Dairy, & Egg Free!

January 4, 2022

This no fuss Paleo Chicken Divan Casserole is one of those “dump it all in,” one pan wonder dinners you can make even on a week day!

One Pan Paleo Chicken Divan Casserole :: Gluten, Grain, Dairy, & Egg Free!

Building progress, and winter comfort food made “busy life” easy!

We’re truckin’ along on the new home build, and with these new walls finally up, came a new sense of relief that soon (well, maybe more like soon-ish!), we’ll be “home.” There’s something about winter that makes me want to hibernate, and because of that, I’ve been busy in the kitchen creating comforting winter meals that not only help me feel like I’m cozy in my own home, but also work for a really busy season of life.

Chicken Divan…a childhood classic!

I don’t know one Mid-West adult that hasn’t grown up on some sort of version of a chicken divan casserole. I’m not even sure where it originated from, but in the Mid-West, a casserole is like a 6th food group. So, as a Michigan born and bred kid, it is pure childhood nostalgia for me.

Mid-West Casserole flavor, without the processed Mid-West casserole ingredients…

The biggest problem with most Mid-West casseroles from a health stand point, lies in those BPA lined red cans of creamed soups that are loaded with really crummy preservatives, and ingredients that are just not necessary. Years ago, I perfected a healthier condensed cream of chicken soup so that I could re-create all of my favorite casserole dreams, and that recipe is still so great! There is really nothing wrong with making that recipe to use in casseroles (it can even be done dairy free!), and there really isn’t even anything wrong with a little cheese in your casserole…that is, unless, you don’t have the time for a homemade canned creamed casserole assembly, and you don’t tolerate dairy well!

A faster, even tastier way to casserole!

I think one of the draws to a classic Mid-West casserole is the “dump it all in” style of prep work. We all have busy lives and dinner sometimes really does need to be that fast. While I loved the homemade “canned” condensed creamed soup I created years ago, I found myself having times where I just didn’t have it on hand, and really wished I could run to the store for a can! A couple winters ago this happened, and I decided to try making the creamed soup right in the pan that I was going to make the casserole in, and I truly haven’t looked back since! Everything went into ONE pot, there wasn’t any extra cooking or pans, and it was even faster than before!

One pan meal, creamy and delicious, and gluten, grain, and dairy free?!

Ah! You guys are going to just fall in love with this method, and I’m actually looking forward to hearing about any variations you make to use this method with your favorite childhood casseroles. I really feel like making the cream sauce in the pan, and then adding everything in, is a game changer, and can be used with just about any casserole. The secret to the rich, velvety cream sauce is all about using a little potato starch to thicken up your broth and coconut milk. It takes literally minutes to make, and the addition of the nutritional yeast adds a cheesy flavor without the dairy. The result is really decadent, and feels just like every casserole sauce you’ve had!

The Method :: The Cream Sauce

If you have an oven save casserole pan that can be used stovetop, you are literally going to be making a one pan meal! (And if you don’t, you can still make this! You’ll just be making your cream sauce separately on the stove top and then adding it to your casserole dish!) You’ll saute your onion, carrot, and celery right in the pan to create some deep flavors, before adding the garlic and seasonings. Once you stir in the potato starch, you’ll add the broth and coconut milk to thicken the sauce. It really does just take a couple minutes to thicken the sauce. Simmer your sauce for a few minutes to develop the flavors, and you’re ready to assemble the casserole to bake!

The Method :: Assembling the Casserole

That’s right! You aren’t going to be browning your meat separately, par-cooking the potatoes, making a separate sauce, or doing anything else outside of this pan! Once your cream sauce is thick, you can turn the heat off, and stir in the potatoes, broccoli, and chicken, all completely uncooked. Pop a lid on your casserole, put it into the oven, and you’re free for the next 30 minutes to get that homework done with the kids, change the baby’s diaper, or read your toddler a book!

The Method :: Baking the Casserole, and Adding the Topping

You’ll bake your casserole with the lid on for 30 minutes and then add the crunchy almond topping. If you are nut free, you can just leave the topping off, or use sunflower seeds. Once you sprinkle the topping on, bake the casserole for another 15 minutes, and you can even use the broiler for the last few minutes to get that golden crust on the top! From there you are ready to serve.

Print Recipe

One Pan Paleo Chicken Divan Casserole :: Gluten, Grain, Dairy, & Egg Free!

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter ghee, or olive oil
1 medium onion diced
2 medium carrots peeled and diced
1 celery stalk diced
3-4 cloves of garlic minced
2 tbsp potato starch tapioca starch or arrowroot starch would work here too
2 tbsp nutritional yeast divided
3 tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp pepper
2 cups full fat coconut milk
1 cup bone broth or water
3 medium yellow potatoes sliced thin into rounds (I don’t peel them, but you can)
3 chicken breasts cut into 2-inch cubes
1 ½ heads broccoli cut into florets about 5-6 cups
¼ – 1/3 cup almonds blended into a fine meal

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. You’ll need a large oven safe casserole dish or large cast iron skillet to cook with on the stove-top and then transfer to the oven. If you don’t have one, you can make the sauce in a skillet and transfer everything into your casserole dish when you are ready to bake.

Make the Cream Sauce ::

Melt the butter in your large casserole dish over medium-high heat, and add the onion, carrot, and celery with a big pinch of sea salt. Cook over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes until the veggies soften.
Add the garlic, and cook for a minute.
Add the potato starch, 1 ½ tablespoons of nutritional yeast, Italian seasoning, paprika, and pepper, and stir to coat the cooked veggies. Add the coconut milk and broth and stir until the sauce thickens. This takes a few minutes. Low simmer the sauce to allow the flavors to develop.
Taste the cream sauce and season to your liking. This cream sauce SHOULD taste like a very salty, condensed cream soup – it needs to be on the salty side because it will be seasoning and flavoring the unseasoned chicken and potatoes.

Assemble the Casserole ::

Turn the heat off the stove-top, and stir in the potato rounds, being sure that each of the potatoes are coated in the cream sauce.
Stir in the chicken breast cubes and broccoli next, coating everything in the cream sauce, and distributing everything evenly in the pan.

Bake the Casserole & Make the Topping ::

Place a lid on your casserole dish, and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
While the casserole is baking, blend up your almonds into a meal, put the almond meal into a small bowl, and stir in ½ tablespoon of nutritional yeast. This is your topping – set this aside for later.
After the casserole has baked for 30 minutes, take the lid off, sprinkle the almond/nutritional yeast topping, and put the casserole back in the oven for 15 more minutes without the lid.
After the casserole bakes the last 15 minutes, turn the broiler on high for up to 5 minutes to get the top nice and crispy and golden brown if you want too!

Notes

The Nutritional Yeast adds the “cheesy” flavor you are used to in a traditional chicken divan/casserole. You can leave it out, but you will want to season your cream sauce with a bit more sea salt.
If you have mushrooms around, I love adding them in with the carrots, onions, and celery part of making the sauce – I did not have them on hand the day I made this, but it does add an element of of the flavor you get from a can of mushroom cream sauce.
You can swap some of the broccoli for cauliflower or green beans for a change up!

More real food recipes you might like! ::

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Roasted Sweet Bell Pepper Soup :: Gluten Free & Dairy Free!

November 15, 2021

Give those sweet bell peppers a roast with creamy kid friendly sweet potatoes and carrots for a super smooth, velvety blended soup that the kids will ask for every time!

Roasted Sweet Bell Pepper Soup :: Gluten Free & Dairy Free!

First snowfall of the season, and a new kid favorite soup to warm up with!

The first snow of the season is quite possibly my kids’ most favorite day of the year. My little northern crew lives for fresh snow, and this weekend we got our first dusting, despite the fall trees not quite agreeing with the timing! We were visiting our new home, and the girls just had to make a snowman for the construction crew to enjoy this week. And with the plummeting temperatures around here, I hopped in the kitchen to play around with a new soup to the blog for you!

Weekly soup routine

During the cooler months of the year, I like to get a vegetable soup of some sort made every Sunday. Easy favorites like creamy broccoli soup (this one is in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook – it’s just like Panera!), this blended winter veggie soup done in the IP, and Copycat Campbell’s Veggie Soup are among some of our staples. Not only does this help me with an easy lunch for Sunday afternoons that I don’t have to think about, it also gives me soup to pull from for the week to fill up lunchbox thermoses…and fill up my soup mug during the week to get more healing bone broth in.

The Veggie Line-Up!

Sweet bell peppers may be the “star” of the show in this soup, but the real “secret weapon” lies in the sweet, creamy vegetables saddling up next to those peppers! Sweet potatoes and carrots are on most kids’ favorite veggie lists, and when you roast them, they get even sweeter. This veggie line-up also happens to be loaded with vitamins and minerals that the whole family needs to stay healthy and focused all winter long.

The Method :: Roasting the Veggies

To get the most kid friendly soup flavor for this soup, simply toss the veggies on a sheet tray with some olive oil and little bit of smoky paprika, salt, and pepper, and roast away. You’ll have the soup more than halfway done at this point, and completely hands free while it all roasts!

The Method :: Blending the Soup

Once the vegetables are done roasting, I dare you to snitch a little bite! You’ll have to hold yourself back from eating the whole sheet tray at this point, but I promise it will be worth the wait to quickly blend the soup up! Scoop the roasted vegetables into your blender, pour in some bone broth, and buzz away. I like to use the soup setting on my high powered blender for optimal smooth texture. Use whatever you have though! I didn’t always have one of these, and have made this soup using a regular blender, and an immersion blender works too.

The Method :: Finishing the Soup

After you blend the soup, pour it into a soup pan and stir in the coconut milk. You’ll want to warm the soup through from here, and season with salt and pepper to your taste once it has simmer a bit. If you like your soup to have a more “brothy” texture, add another cup of bone broth as well. You can ladle your roasted sweet bell pepper soup and finish with a swirl of coconut yogurt or olive oil too!

Freezer friendly?

Absolutely! That is the beauty of soups like this. That whole “cook once, eat twice” deal works well for blended soups, and this one is not any differently. Let your soup cool completely, and store in these freezer safe BPA free quart containers, or in these incredible BPA free silicone soup dividers – you can freeze in 1/2 cup portions, 1 cup portions, or 2 cup portions!

Print Recipe

Roasted Sweet Bell Pepper Soup :: Gluten Free & Dairy Free!

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
4 large red, orange, or yellow bell peppers quartered and seeds scooped out (you can use a combo of those colors)
1 small/medium sweet potato cut into 1-inch wedges
2 medium carrots peeled, cut into ½ inch strips
2 small onions halved and then sliced into strips
3 cloves of garlic peeled (leave whole)
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp pepper
2-3 cups bone broth
1 cup coconut milk

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. You’ll want to use a large, unlined baking sheet for the roasting.
On a large sheet pan, toss the bell peppers, sweet potato, carrots, onions, and garlic with the olive oil, smoked paprika, sea salt, thyme, and pepper. Roast at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.
Scoop the roasted veggies into a blender (high powdered blender, if possible, for optimal smooth texture), add 2 cups of bone broth, and blend until smooth. I use the “Soup” blending setting on my Blendtec pictured in this post.
Pour the blended soup into a soup pot, add the coconut milk, and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper to your preference. You can add more bone broth if you want a thinner soup.
Garnish with swirls of coconut yogurt and/or olive oil if you wish.

More real food recipes you might like!

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Dinner Ideas Healthy Kids and Teens Instant Pot Real Food 101 Real Food Tips

Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff :: Veggie Loaded, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, & Nut Free!

November 10, 2021

Use your Instant Pot or slow cooker to get the most tender and flavorful beef stroganoff! This one is veggie loaded for added nutrients and you’ll never know those extra veggies are there!

Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff :: Veggie Loaded, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, & Nut Free!

SOLD!

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve had the chance to write for you, and it’s for good reason! In a whirlwind month, our house was up for sale, sold, and we moved into a temporary rental – whew! We’ll be in our permanent new place by late January (hopefully!), and we are excitedly anticipating that! For now, we are settling into our temporary space, and I wanted to show you how I’ve been cooking during this really busy season, utilizing my Instant Pot!

Kid Friendly Veggie Loaded Beef Stroganoff :: Gluten Free & Dairy Free!

A sea of boxes…

We’ve been living amongst boxes for the last month, while packing up our home for the last 11 years, as well as while settling into this new space, and for a while there, I really did rely on my Instant Pot for a lot! My goal was to keep things simple, but nourishing as our bodies processed all the new changes, both exciting and sad. Moving really is really a very bittersweet season of life! Simple, one pot and one skillet meals like chili, skillet stuffed peppers, and one pan chicken & pasta have been my saving grace during this time. I found a bag of frozen stew meat while I was moving our deep freezer to our temporary home, and decided that beef stroganoff was due on the menu!

To Instant Pot or not to Instant Pot…

I have had really good luck with stew meat in the Instant Pot. Similar to how a long, Dutch oven braise, or all day slow cooker method of cooking stew, pressure cooking stew meat makes this typically tough cut of meat, very, very tender. And truthfully, as much as I adore slow, oven cooking all day, during seasons like moving your family to a new space, a faster, Instant Pot pressure cook is really the ticket to a quicker, more convenient, but still delicious meal outcome. But have no fear! If you are not a part of the Instant Pot crew just yet, I have left slow cooker instructions in the “Notes” section of this post, just for you!

Beef Stroganoff…veggie loaded?!

I know, I know…definitely not what we all grew up eating, but remember the season I’m in right now? Getting literally the entire meal, including the veggies for the meal, into the same pot all at once is totally my jam right now. No extra clean up, just a little extra chopping time. You can leave the veg out and serve a side salad if you wish, but I am really willing to bet you’ll never know the veggies are there. I purposely picked veggies that get super sweet and soft with sautéing, and they really blend right into the sauce once it’s all cooked. All the benefits are there, and no change to that delicious, rich, stroganoff sauce!

The Method :: The Veggies

It’s going to feel like a lot, but all these veggies really cook, down – promise! And you’ll be left with fiber rich, mineral loaded veggies blending right into your stroganoff meal! Simply chop the veggies super small – I used a shredder for the carrots even. You could pulse in your food processor to save on time if you wish (secretly, chopping is very cathartic for me, so during this time of change and unknowns, I find therapy in it!). You’ll use the “Saute” feature on your Instant Pot to melt some coconut oil to cook in, and saute your veggies up to 10 minutes. The secret to the sweet veggie flavor, and blending the veggies into the sauce is this saute step – do not skip it!

The Method :: Pressure Cooking the Stroganoff

Once the veggies are soft, sweet, and fragrant, you’ll add the flour to coat the veg – this will help create the sauce in the end. A little goes a long way, but you can adjust the amount to your sauce thickness preferences. From there, it’s just adding in the rest of the ingredients except the pasta and yogurt, and pressure cooking away. It goes so fast, and the pressure cooking method leaves the meat so tender. You will add the pasta after the meat has pressure cooked since it does not need a lot of cook time. Just a few minutes to pressure cook the noodles in and you’re done! Stir the yogurt in (you really can leave this out if you don’t have access or can’t have it!), and season to your taste.

Allergen considerations

My biggest goal in creating this stroganoff, besides getting all the veggies in, was to make it dairy free. Traditional stroganoff finishes with sour cream, and I don’t usually have that around since we are mostly dairy free. We also have gluten free covered using gluten free pasta, and since most stroganoff uses egg noodles, I also covered egg free in using a still curly spiralized rice pasta that the kids will love! If you are grain free, Jovial has cassava flour pasta now that you can use, or you can serve the stroganoff and sauce over a baked potato.

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5 from 1 vote

Instant Pot Veggie Loaded Beef Stroganoff :: Gluten Free & Dairy Free!

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil
1 medium onion diced
6-8 ounces white mushrooms sliced
1 heaping cup thinly sliced cabbage about ¼ of a small head of cabbage
1 heaping cup shredded carrot 1 medium carrot
1 heaping cup chopped cauliflower about ¼ of a head of cauliflower
1 tsp dried thyme
3 cloves of garlic minced
2 tbsp Namaste GF Flour Blend most GF flour blends should work here
¼ cup red wine of choice
1 ½ – 2 pounds grassfed stew meat
Sea salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp coconut aminos
3 cups beef bone broth You can also make beef broth in the slow cooker. Chicken bone broth does work if that is what you have.
8 ounces GF pasta I used the Jovial GF Spiral Pasta
½ cup plain coconut yogurt to your preference
Chopped parsley to garnish

Instructions

Turn the Instant Pot on to “Saute” and add the coconut oil to warm. Once the Instant Pot is nice and hot, and the oil warmed, add the onion, mushrooms, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, and thyme, with a big pinch of sea salt. Saute for 7-10 minutes until fragrant and golden.
Add the garlic and GF flour, stir to combine and coat the veggies, and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Add the wine, stir to combine, stir off any bits on the bottom of the pan, and cook the wine for 1-2 minutes.
Turn the “Saute” feature off. Season your beef stew meat with sea salt and pepper, and add to the Instant Pot. Pour in the coconut aminos and beef broth, and stir everything to combine.
Put the lid on the Instant Pot and seal the valve. Press “Manual” on the Instant Pot, and bring the time down to 15 minutes. The Instant Pot will take around 5 or so minutes to come to pressure before counting down the 15 minutes of pressure cooking time.
Once the Instant Pot has pressure cooked for the 15 minutes, release the valve right away. Open the lid, stir in the pasta, and put the lid back on. Seal the valve, press “Manual,” and bring the time down to 3 minutes. This will cook the pasta to al dente.
Once the 3 minutes of pressure cooking is done, release the valve right away, open the lid, and stir in the coconut yogurt, and season with salt and pepper to your taste. You can garnish with chopped parsley if you like too.

Notes

Slow Cooker tips! YES! You can make this in your slow cooker if you don’t have an Instant Pot! Every ingredient is the same EXCEPT you will be halving the bone broth (use 1 ½ cups) since you will need to cook your pasta separately. Saute your veggies in a skillet to give them more flavor, just like the saute in step 1 above. Put everything but the pasta and yogurt into the slow cooker, stir to combine, and cook on high low for 8-10 hours. Once the stroganoff has slow cooked for 8-10 hours, stir in the yogurt and cooked pasta, and taste for seasoning to your preference.
I get the So Delicious brand of plain coconut yogurt in 32 ounce tubs at our local grocer. You can also make coconut yogurt!
I love adding finely chopped baby spinach to the Instant Pot after the stroganoff has cooked – it will wilt into the hot stroganoff and give another layer of veggie and color!
I tend to pepper my stroganoff per bowl – it doesn’t taste like stroganoff to me without a good amount of pepper, but some kids might be sensitive to that. I set the pepper grinder at the table and the kids can do it to their preference.

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Roasted Pumpkin Chicken Noodle Soup

October 12, 2021

Give your chicken noodle soup a flavor upgrade using roasted pumpkin to create a creamy and sweet kid friendly broth!

Autumn changes and family transitions!

There are just “barely there” hints of the leaves changing colors around these parts in the last few weeks, and as we watch the autumn transition in Michigan, our family is moving into new transitions as well! We aren’t leaving our sweet little beachy town that we love so dearly, but we are moving into a new home, and while the build finishes in the next couple of months we will be making all of the transitions that come along with moving a family of five, while trying to keep a sense of normalcy for the kids.

Comfort food

It is absolutely a thing, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with easing the stress of temporary life happenings with a bowl of something familiar and comforting. One of my kiddos was having a particularly hard time with the thought of leaving her bedroom for someone else, and after we talked it through, and worked through all the life skills one little 10 year old can muster, we talked about what we could possibly move on with that evening and have for dinner. Her choice was chicken noodle soup, and that just made my real food momma heart burst. I want my kids to think of the food from home when they think of comfort, and this just hits that mark for me!

Classic chicken noodle with a comforting, creamy fall twist!

I just happened to notice the little pie pumpkin still sitting on my counter that needed to be used up, and decided to give it a quick roast to stir into the broth of my chicken noodle soup. Sure, a can of pumpkin would do the trick, but filling the house with that roasted pumpkin flavor after a day of hard emotions was exactly what my family needed. There is also nothing like the depth, sweetness, and creamy texture that you get from putting a roasted pumpkin puree into a soup broth. It is one of my tricks to incredible soup broth in 3 soups here on the blog – the Beef & Kale Soup, Smokey Sweet Pumpkin Corn Chowder, and also the Autumn Harvest Chicken Stew, and I just knew it would take this chicken noodle soup to the next level!

The Method :: Roasting the pumpkin

There is really nothing easier. And pumpkins are easier to cut than a thick butternut squash – promise! Just cut the pumpkin in half, and butter the flesh. Sprinkle the pumpkin flesh with salt and pepper and also a bit of cinnamon. YES, cinnamon in a chicken noodle soup! There is just the slightest hint of warm sweetness that will knock your socks off when it simmers with the sage once it’s in the broth. It’s truly everything about fall that we love!

The Method :: The pumpkin puree

While your pumpkin roasts, you’ll make the base of the soup. It is a very classic chicken noodle soup base with a slight twist because the sage brings the comfort level up about 10 notches! After you pour the pasta into the broth to cook, you’ll scoop your pumpkin flesh into a blender and to puree until smooth. Give the kids a taste if they have never tasted roasted pumpkin before – be warned you may not end up with much left for the soup though! It is one of my girls very favorite side dishes all fall and winter long!

Finishing the soup off

Once you’ve blended your cinnamon roasted pumpkin, you’ll add the puree to the soup broth while the pasta finishes cooking. The squash will melt right in, giving a sweet creaminess to the broth. But we’re not done there! Once the pasta is cooked, and the heat is off, a generous splash of creamy coconut milk adds to the decadency of this soup, and you can also wilt in some finely chopped spinach. The spinach leaves zero flavor, but adds pretty color and a pop of nutrients too!

A few tips for prepping ahead for faster soup making

From start to finish, this soup may not be the most weeknight friendly in prep considering the roasting time for the pumpkin, BUT you CAN do a couple of things to prep ahead before the week so that you CAN make this soup on a weeknight. Firstly, the pumpkin can be roasted and pureed days in advance. Pop it into the oven on the weekend when you are at home, and stash it away in the fridge for later in the week. The chicken can also be a prep ahead item. If you don’t have leftover chicken, you can brown up chicken breast cubes right in the soup pot before you make the soup, or make it days ahead of time. There are multiple ways to cook a whole chicken every week in order to have leftover chicken for weekly meals! If you aren’t in to a Sunday dinner roasted chicken, you can cook a whole chicken in your slow cooker, or cook your whole chicken in your Instant Pot!

If you don’t have leftover chicken, you can brown up chicken breast cubes right in the soup pot before you make the soup. Remove the browned chicken and start the soup from there. There are multiple ways to cook a whole chicken every week in order to have leftover chicken for weekly meals! If you aren't in to a Sunday dinner roasted chicken, you can cook a whole chicken in your slow cooker, or cook your whole chicken in your Instant Pot!

A note about our favorite fall squashes!

Dear momma, squashes are not just “baby food!” If you have veggie hesitant kids, greens are not the easiest place to start in my humble opinion! Squash not only tastes amazing, they are absolutely loaded with minerals. These kids need real, and substantial fuel. Squash will replenish electrolytes, fill them up with slow burning carbohydrate fiber, and open their palates to the idea of veggies tasting good. Give the kids a spoonful of that roasted squash before you add it to the soup – I really think you are going to see how a buttery cinnamon roasted pumpkin can quickly become a veggie favorite for your crew.

Print Recipe

Roasted Pumpkin Chicken Noodle Soup

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter divided (you can use ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, or avocado oil if you are dairy free)
1 small/medium pie pumpkin halved and seeds scooped out
½ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 medium onion diced
1 large carrot diced
1 large celery stalk diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp ground sage
2 cups cubed cooked chicken I use leftovers from our weekly roasted chicken
2 quarts bone broth
2 cups dry pasta of choice I use the GF Jovial Rice Spirals
½ cup full fat coconut milk
1 big handful of baby spinach finely chopped
Sea salt/pepper to taste

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.
Place your halved pumpkin flesh side up in a baking dish. Rub 1 tablespoon of butter over the flesh and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon sea salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and some cinnamon. Roast the pumpkin at 425 degrees for 50 minutes, until the flesh is fork tender and fragrant. While the pumpkin roasts, you can prepare the rest of the soup.
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large soup pot over medium high heat, and add the onion, carrot, and celery with a pinch of sea salt. Cook the veggies over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until the veggies are soft and fragrant, about 5-7 minutes.
Add the garlic, thyme, and sage to the soup pot, stir to combine, and cook for a minute or two.
Add the cubed chicken and bone broth, and bring to a boil. Add the pasta, and reduce to a simmer to cook the pasta until al dente. While the pasta starts cooking, you can prepare the pumpkin to add to the broth.
Scoop the pumpkin flesh out of the shell and into your food processor or blender. Blend the pumpkin until smooth. Add the pumpkin puree to the soup pot where the pasta is cooking and stir to combine.
When the pasta is cooked to al dente, turn the heat off, add the coconut milk and chopped spinach, stir to combine, and season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Notes

If you don’t have leftover chicken, you can brown up chicken breast cubes right in the soup pot before you make the soup. Remove the browned chicken and start the soup from there.
There are multiple ways to cook a whole chicken every week in order to have leftover chicken for weekly meals! If you aren’t in to a Sunday dinner roasted chicken, you can cook a whole chicken in your slow cooker, or cook your whole chicken in your Instant Pot!
You can use regular milk or cream in place of the coconut milk if you are not dairy free.
You can use canned pumpkin if you wish – about 1 cup of puree. The roasted flavor from cooking a pumpkin is super worth it in the flavor though just fyi!
Save your pumpkin seeds to roast! I like to soak them in sea salt and water, toss with avocado oil, sea salt, and cinnamon on a sheet tray, and then cook at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes.

More real food recipes you might like!

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Stuffed Butterkin Squash

September 21, 2021

A cross between a butternut squash and pumpkin, this little stuffed butterkin squash is sure to be a kid favorite!

Fall hikes and meal routines

We’re getting into the season of layers here in Michigan! We start out in hoodies and by the end of the hike the kids have peeled off all the layers to enjoy the golden warmth of the fall sun! We have a Sunday routine of hiking every weekend, and in the fall that routine also includes a roasted chicken for Sunday dinner. One of my favorite things to do with the leftover chicken is make an easy filling for a stuffed squash, and this week, we make it very weekday friendly – meaning super simple! So I thought you might like to see how to do it!

Stuffed squash basics!

While a stuffed squash looks fancy, I promise you this is a busy mom’s dream dinner. Comforting and satisfying without the fuss and time of usual comfort dinners, makes for the perfect weekday meal. Really, a stuffed squash is just a roasted squash filled with a protein/veggie stir fry, and topped with cheese or crispy topping. Its dinner all in one, hitting all of the protein, fat, and carbohydrate needs for growing kids. Win-win! You can truly use any squash, and once you try it, you’ll see why there are 3 other stuffed squash recipes on my blog, and one in my cookbook, Nourished Beginnings!

Ok, sounds good! But what in the world is a butterkin squash?!

We discovered these cutie little squashes a couple years ago, and it has become a family favorite. The butterkin squash is a cross-breed of butternut squash, and pumpkin – get it? Butter-kin! In my taste palate opinion, while it has more of the shape of a pumpkin, it tastes more like a butternut squash – buttery smooth, and sweet. It has a really kid-friendly texture and honey sweet taste. If you don’t have access to a butterkin squash, you can make this stuffed squash with a butternut squash, pumpkin, or acorn squash – all equally delicious!

The Method :: Roasting the butterkin squash

I promise the cutting part is not intimidating, so long as you have a proper knife! I will also promise you that while it is much faster to just plop any squash in the Instant Pot to pressure cook away, the flavor and texture that you will get from properly roasting a squash is second to none – the kids are going to inhale this! Using a sharp knife, slice around the width of the butterkin squash, so that you have the top and bottom, equal transverse halves. Scoop the seeds out, and put them into an oven safe baking dish or cast iron skillet. You can have the kids spread the butter all over the flesh of the squash, and then sprinkle it with salt and pepper. You’ll roast the squash for 50 minutes, which gives you plenty of time to make the filling – in fact you will probably have time to clean up and do other things as well!

The Method :: The stuffed squash filling

The sky is the limit here! This week called for the simplest of the simple. I just needed basic. Some weeks I like to get fancy with more veggie variety, but I just didn’t have it in me this week, and truthfully those kind of dinners are sometimes the best. I had a lot of spinach to use up, and mushrooms just jive so well with that, so I went with it. Use whatever you have in your veggie bin – this filling is a great way to use up leftover veggies from the week and clear the fridge out. You’ll cook the veggies in butter until fragrant and golden, and then add the chicken, garlic, and spinach. This filling really only takes 15 minutes to cook, and it can be done ahead of time too! I like to use a few splashes of broth for flavor and moisture since leftover chicken can be dry. The result of the broth cooked down with the mushrooms, onions, and garlic leaves a very flavorful filling for your sweet squash!

The Method :: Stuffing the squash, and finishing the topping

Once your filling is cooked, and the squash is done roasting, all you have to do is load up the squash with the filling – don’t be shy! Pack it in! And then you can sprinkle the topping on. Again, on this day I needed simple. I used the Ian’s Gluten Free Panko Breadcrumbs mixed with freshly grated parm, and called it good. You can do all cheese if you want, or there are some notes in the recipe card for a topping idea that is both grain and dairy free if you need that. Once you sprinkle your topping, get it up under your oven broiler for a few minutes, and you’re ready to eat!

Leftovers?!

If there happens to be any leftovers (a rarity in my house these days!), they truly make *THE* best breakfast the next day topped with a fried egg. Seriously heaven. It could also make a great leftover lunch too. If you think far enough ahead, you could technically roast off 2 full squashes and double the filling if you want more leftover (or have a bigger family!)

Print Recipe

Stuffed Butterkin Squash

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

1 medium butterkin squash cut in half across the width, seeds scooped out
2 tbsp butter divided
Sea salt/pepper to taste
1 small onion diced
4 ounces mushrooms sliced
1 clove of garlic minced
2-3 cups leftover cooked chicken shredded or finely chopped (you could also brown up ½ pound of chicken beforehand)
3-4 cups baby spinach or baby kale chopped small
½ tsp dried thyme
2-4 tbsp bone broth stock, or water for cooking in
¼ cup GF Panko bread crumbs see notes below for grain free option
¼ cup parmesan cheese see Notes below for dairy free option
Sea salt/pepper to taste

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.
Place the halved butterkin squashes flesh side up in a baking dish, and spread 1 tbsp of butter over the flesh of the squash. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast at 425 degrees for 50 minutes. While the squash roasts, you can make the filling.
To make the filling, melt 1 tbsp of butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and mushrooms with a pinch of salt and cook over medium high heat for 5 minutes until fragrant and golden.
Add the garlic and the chicken, stir to combine, and cook for 1 minute.
Add the spinach, thyme, and splashes of bone broth and cook until the spinach wilts and the broth cooks off – this takes a few minutes.
When the squashes are done roasting, turn the oven off, and take the baking dish with the squash out. Scoop the chicken/spinach skillet mixture into each half of the butterkin squash, patting the filling down into the middle.
Whisk the GF Panko breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese together in a small bowl and sprinkle over each squash half.
Put the stuffed squashes under the oven broiler on “HI” for 3-5 minutes watching carefully for a beautiful golden color. Every oven broiler can run differently so take a peek after a couple minutes in case yours runs hotter.

Notes

I like to use leftover chicken from my weekly roasted whole chicken. It makes meals like this so fast and cost effective to stretch that one roasted chicken dinner into 2!
If you don’t have leftover chicken, you can brown up about ½ pound of chicken or beef.
If you are dairy free and/or grain free, you can swap the gluten free panko crumbs for 3 tbsp almond flour mixed with 1-2 tsp olive oil.
This is such a simple veggie mixture for this stuffing. If you have different veggies on hand, go ahead and swap! Stuffed squashes are a great way to empty the leftover veggies in the fridge from the week.

More real food recipes you might like ::

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Butternut Squash Pasta Salad :: Gluten & Dairy Free!

September 14, 2021

Your favorite autumn flavors of butternut squash, greens, apples, and cinnamon, tossed in a gluten & dairy free pasta salad, perfect warm or cold!

A slow shift to cooler weather…

Other than the *most* amazing summer on the planet, with perfect 75-80 degree days, powdery beach sand under our feet, and glorious sunshine, early to mid autumn in Michigan is truly paradise. It’s a slow, subtle shift, really. The sky gets a little more golden. The mornings a bit more crisp. But it still warms up enough to enjoy our beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline most days. We swap bathing suits for light hoodies and shorts, and still get a chance to get our feet in the sand.

Holding onto our favorite summer pasta salad!

My girls don’t mind the weather change, in fact these born and bread Michiganders can hardly wait for snow! When they asked for their favorite summer pasta salad this week, I told them I’d give it an autumn twist since squash was a heck of an in-season deal this week. I flipped the oven on for the first time in a while, and set to work on a fun fall take on a pasta salad concept they love. (You can find my classic summertime pasta salad in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!)

Squash Prep Tips

One of our favorite household vegetables, squashes of all kinds hit our table multiple times per week. Squashes like butternut, pumpkin, and acorn squashes are loaded with minerals and vitamins that are vital to organ function and growing kids. Squash is also so kid friendly in taste, with a mild sweetness that amplifies with roasting – it is such a great starter veggie for any older kids that are veggie hesitant. I know that he actual cutting and prep of a squash can seem daunting, but just a quick peel (I find that a sturdy Y-Peeler works best for peeling hard squashes), and a few minutes to scoop the seeds out and cube it up is so worth getting the caramelizing sweetness on all sides of those little squash cubes! The kids will love it! You can also peel and cut the squash on a prep day, or hours in advance. Cut up squash keeps in the fridge for days, and then all you have to do on your weekday dinner night is toss it on the sheet pan to roast.

The Method :: The Roasted Veggies

There is something magical that happens when you roast just about any vegetable. The natural sweetness in the veggie shines, making them really hard to resist! Even the sweet purple onions get even sweeter with roasting, and give the most amazing flavor to the salad. I find these sweet purple onions to work well for kids – especially after they roast. The pungency is covered up with caramelized sweetness. Just toss the squash, onions, and garlic on the roasting pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper. While the veggies roast, you can prepare the pasta and get the dressing ready. In under a half hour your pasta salad can be ready!

The Method :: The Butternut Squash Salad Dressing

One taste of this creamy, comforting salad dressing, and the kids will be asking for this on every salad this fall and winter! You’ll take some of the roasted squash and onions from the sheet pan, along with the roasted clove of garlic and blend it up with honey, cider vinegar, cinnamon, and some seasoning. The result is a smooth, spoon-lickable dressing perfect for this pasta salad, or any salads you make this fall!

The Method :: Assembling the Butternut Squash Pasta Salad

The first thing you will add to your mixing bowl is the chopped spinach. Once the pasta is cooked and drained, you’ll toss that hot pasta with the spinach to wilt it down. Baby spinach has a beautiful way of adding nutrients to veggie dishes without a veggie taste – it just takes on whatever flavors the dressing have. It is such an easy thing to add in! Then, toss the pasta/spinach mixture with the rest of the pan roasted veggies and the freshly blended butternut squash dressing. You can eat the pasta salad warm, or chill it for a few hours to eat cold.

Work and/or School Pasta Salad Prep and Packing

This huge bowl of pasta salad would be fantastic to serve at an autumn party, gathering, or holiday! But it is even more versatile than just an occasional holiday. The pasta salad will keep in the fridge for around 5 days. That makes it a really great make-ahead meal prep for work or school. If you prefer the pasta salad warm, you can use a thermos like my kids use for school. Or, for adults, you can try this super handing mini hot plate slow cooker that I used to use when I worked full time outside of the home to warm the pasta salad up. Add some meal prep chicken, beef, or egg, for protein too if you like! Your kids might also like this pasta salad cold. That makes for even easier packing and this salad doesn’t drip, so it can go right into a container, or into a bento box slot easily.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Roasted Butternut Squash Pasta Salad

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 medium purple onion quartered, then cut into 1-inch pieces
1-2 cloves of garlic peeled (leave whole to roast)
½ cup plus 2 tbsp olive oil divided
1 tsp sea salt divided
¼ tsp pepper
1 – 12-ounce box GF pasta of choice I use Jovial GF Farfalle
2-3 cups baby spinach finely chopped
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp raw honey
¼ tsp cinnamon
Pinch of red pepper flakes this leaves a “barely there” heat to the dressing, suitable for children. If you like more heat add more!
1 small apple cut into 1-inch cubes (I do not peel mine, but you can)

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a large baking sheet with Silpat or parchment paper.
Toss the cubed butternut squash, purple onions, and garlic clove on the sheet pan with 2 tbsp olive oil, ½ tsp sea salt, and the pepper. Roast the squash, onions, and garlic at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. While the veggies roast, you can cook the pasta and get the dressing started.
Get the pasta boiling, and put the chopped spinach in a large mixing bowl (you’ll be putting the hot, cooked pasta over the spinach to wilt it later)
To make the dressing, put ½ cup of olive oil, ¼ – ½ tsp sea salt, apple cider vinegar, raw honey, cinnamon, and red pepper flakes into a blender or Magic Bullet. When the veggies are done roasting, add the roasted clove of garlic, and 1 cup of the roasted squash/onions to the blender. Blend the dressing until smooth and taste for salt. (Set the rest of the roasted veggies aside to toss with the pasta salad later)
When the pasta is done boiling to al dente, drain the pasta, and give the pasta a quick rinse. Add the hot pasta to the chopped spinach in the mixing bowl, and toss to combine and wilt the spinach.
Add the remaining roasted squash and onion to the mixing bowl with the pasta, along with the chopped apples and the butternut squash dressing, and toss to combine. Taste for seasoning and serve warm, or chill at least 3 hours to serve cold.

Notes

The pasta salad can be used as a make ahead meal prep lunch or dinner, keeping in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Warm it up with a splash of water if you prefer it warm, or eat it cold!
Change up the roasted veggies! You can swap some of the squash for carrots or parsnips, sweet potatoes, or another squash like acorn or pumpkin!
The dressing is…amazing! Make extra for your salads for the week. The dressing will keep for about 5-7 days.

More real food SQUASH recipes you might like!

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Nourishing 2 Week Meal Plan {Fall Inspired Part 1}

September 7, 2021

A cozy, fall inspired menu plan with busy families, school schedules, and nourishing goals in mind!

Nourishing 2 Week Meal Plan {Fall Inspired Part 1}

Getting back into the groove…

We are a couple weeks into school, and I feel like most of my readers are flowing back into fall school routines, so I’d say it’s safe to start talking about fall menus! Fall certainly has a different feel than going from spring to summer menu plans – does it feel like that to you? For the most part it felt like late spring and into summer, the meal planning goes a little more “fly by the seat of your pants” style, and then once September hits, everyone has no choice but to plan a little bit more, or dinner will never hit the table!

Before we get started!

If you have never seen one of my meal plans, I would invite you to start with the Winter Meal Plan Part 1 and the Winter Meal Plan Part 2. Even though we are not full swing into cold weather, the information at the beginning of each of those posts will help you understand my meal plan approach, how I like to handle macronutrients to balance meals, questions you might have about portions and family sizes, and even more. Make a pit stop there first, and then come back to get some fall inspired meals!

School staples, and some lunchbox shortcut favorites

With school starting back up, and the long, daunting thought of the lunchbox packing task that awaits us for the whole year, I thought I would put some lunchbox staple favorites all in one place. Some because I didn’t have a ton of room to always label and link veggie/cracker dips and dressings for salads. And also so that you can see some examples of some store bought snacks and favs that I keep in my pantry. I’ll break these up so that you can find them easily!

Staple store bought lunchbox sides

For the most part, these are used sparingly and minimally – a hand full here, and a few there. But they are great to have on hand in the pantry, and especially help kids that are newer to “real food” make the transition to healthier lunchboxes without giving up some comfortable favorites. I also have a post with 11 Healthy Packaged School Snacks for Kids that I use for morning snacks at school here and there, but they also work well in lunchboxes.

Simple Mills Crackers (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
Sweet Potato Crackers (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
GF Pretzels
Lindsay’s Natural Olives (I get these at Costco, but you can get them at most grocers and online too)
Tortilla Chips (I get these at Costco, but you can get them at most grocers and online too)
Plantain Chips (I get these at Costco, but you can get this Prime brand online too)
Olive oil potato chips
Sweet Potato Chips
Terra Veggie Chips (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
Bear Nibbles Yo-Yo Fruit & Veggie Strips (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
Pure Fruit Bars (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
That’s It Fruit Bars (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)

Charcuterie Board style lunchbox using the Simple Mills crackers & a Bear Nibbles Yo-Yo Fruit/Veg Strip!

Staple dressings and dips

I’m going to go ahead and list all of our favorite dressings below, and you can put your kids’ favs into your meal plan as you go. I also wanted to mention that we get guacamole cups and hummus cups at Costco. If you don’t have access to Costco, you can find them at most grocery stores these days. You can also find Wholly Guacamole cups and Go Go Dippers Hummus cups online. There are also fantastic, simple recipes for guacamole and super simple hummus in the Lunchbox Staple Chapter of my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!

Classic Ranch
Paleo Ranch
Thousand Island
French Dressing
Italian Dressing
Copycat Olive Garden Dressing
Classic Caesar Dressing
Paleo Caesar Dressing
Simple, Kid Friendly Pesto
Fajita Salad Dressing (from my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook – it goes with the Taco Tuesday Fajita Salad)
Fruity Poppyseed Dressing (from my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook – it goes with the Colorful Rainbow Chicken Salad)
Sweet Orange Vinegarette (from my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook – it goes with the Superhero Quinoa Salad)
Amazin’ Bacon Dipping Sauce (from my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook – it goes with the BLT Skewers, but is SO good with so many things!)

Fruity Poppy Seed Dressing in the Rainbow Chicken Salad from The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!

Veggie Soup Swaps

One of my goals each week in the cooler months of the year, is to get 1-2 bone broth based soups into the family by week’s end. Usually it is a veggie based soup, which the girls have devoured since infancy, and sometimes it is a heartier dinner soup with more protein and bulk. You’ll notice in the meal plan that usually my rhythm is to make the soup for the week on the weekend and that way it is easy to add to a thermos for school lunch later in the week. I know that not every kid will love every soup, and luckily for you, there are a myriad of soups to pick from both on the blog and in my cookbooks. If you have little guys at home, I would encourage you to start these young so that they develop a palate for these tasty soups that are such a great way to get nourishing bone broth and mineral rich veggies in! (Heartier, dinner type soups are linked in the dinner section below)

Roasted Pumpkin Soup
Nourishing Greens Soup (This is in my cookbook, Nourished Beginnings and my girls very favorite soup!)
Butternut Squash & Apple Soup
Creamy Potato & Spinach Soup
Simple Pea Soup – Baby favorite! (This is in my cookbook, Nourished Beginnings!)
Creamy of Zucchini Soup
Healthy Alphabet Soup – Copycat Alphabet Soup! (This is in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!)
Creamy Roasted Carrot Soup (This is in my cookbook, Nourished Beginnings)
Simple Broccoli Soup
Creamy Cauliflower Kale Soup
Classic Vegetable Soup – Copycat Campbell’s Vegetable Soup!
Creamiest Dreamiest Broccoli “Cheese” Soup (This is in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!)
Acorn Squash Soup
Split Pea Soup
Asparagus Soup
Creamy Cabbage Soup
Winter Blue’s Buster Creamy Chunky Potato Soup (This is in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!)

Copycat Alphabet Soup recipe from The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!

So let’s kick off this Fall Menu Plan!

Here is a PDF for you to download for the full 2 week fall meal plan with links to recipes included. {See below this section for a blank version if you want to fill in your own!}

Want to build your own meal plan?

Go for it! My way of doing meals is definitely not the only way! And my recipes are not the only recipes around! Here is a blank PDF for you to print and fill out your own.

Dinner swaps!

I know that not every dinner chosen on the meal plan below will fit with every family’s tastes. There are so many choices for how to fill this in, which is why I never posted meal plans before. I really want you to fill the meal plan in to your family preferences. The plan below is simply inspiration and a guide to show you how I flow certain meals into others, how I double up meals, and how I balance a day’s macronutrient needs for my family. Here are some fall inspired dinner swaps for anything on the menu that you might want to change. Most of this list is from right here on the blog. Any recipe links that have a page number are from my cookbooks. Those with page numbers in green are from The Little Lunchbox Cookbook, and those with page numbers in pink are from Nourished Beginnings.

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One Skillet Creamy Tomato Basil Spinach Pasta & Chicken

August 28, 2021

Get dinner done in one shot with this easy one skillet creamy tomato basil spinach pasta and chicken!

One Skillet Creamy Tomato Basil Spinach Pasta & Chicken

Birthday girl dinner requests!

The youngest member of our crew turns 8 this week! EIGHT! I have no idea how this is even possible, but she is just the kindest little spunk you ever did meet. The most perfect blend of sweet and spice! She is my rainbow after the storm, and without getting to emotional on you, our household is truly complete with her. In honor of her birthday, I wanted to share her dinner request! In true third kid form, she is incredibly go-with-the-flow, and while I would have made her just about anything, I’m *super* pumped that she picked this easy, one skillet dinner considering her birthday is 2 days before the new school year starts!

One skillet mealtime perfection!

Is there really ever a time of year where a one pot meal doesn’t work? I think not! Whether its the on-the-go summer days, or busy school routine winter weeks, having a dinner that can be done in one skillet is really a game changer! You may even want to use a larger skillet, or 2 of them to double up so that there are leftovers for lunch the next day – this skillet is sure to disappear fast!

Veggie packed, and macro-nutrient balanced

Because we’re doing a whole dinner in one skillet, I usually try to get every meal component into the skillet. Side salads are nice, but a truly one skillet dinner has it all. This also makes it much easier to get a load of nutrient packed veggies into smaller children without the fuss of a salad. Once the spinach wilts down, the kids will never know its there – and there is a lot of it! Protein from the chicken, healthy fats all around, and some slow burning, fiber rich carbohydrates – a balanced one pot meal!

A note on the protein

You really can change this up to your family’s preferences. If your crew prefers chicken breasts, by all means change that up! If you only have beef in the house, that would taste amazing as well. I think the flavor that chicken thighs lend into the pan is life changing – if you have some around give it a try!

Let’s talk about the pasta!

There are so many gluten free pasta choices around these days! If you don’t need to be gluten free, you can use whatever pasta you like to use. I prefer a brown rice pasta for gluten free versions and you can find them both at the grocery stores, as well as online now. The pasta will cook right in the liquid of the skillet, so there is no need to get a pot of water boiling. The starches from the pasta will give the sauce a creaminess that is so comforting, and once again, everything is done all in one pan!

Veggie change ups, and leftovers!

There is a myriad of ways to get even more veggies into this skillet. One of my favorites is to add finely chopped cauliflower. They take on the color of the sauce, and don’t change the flavor at all. My crew also loves when I add mushrooms. You can add both of these into step 3 where you are sautéing the sundried tomatoes and garlic. And speaking of sundried tomatoes! Costco has a great jar of them packed in olive oil! You can find them just about anywhere, but really be careful to take note of what they are packed in – either a really good healthy oil, or just dried in a package is best. You can also leave them out if you don’t have access. Leftovers taste amazing warmed up with a splash of water or bone broth. You can pack it in a thermos for work or school too!

Print Recipe

One Skillet Creamy Tomato Basil Spinach Pasta & Chicken

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

1 – 1.5 lbs boneless chicken thighs rinsed and pat dry
1 tsp sea salt
¼ – ½ tsp pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
1 tbsp coconut oil to cook in butter, olive oil, or avocado oil will work too
½ cup red wine
4 cloves of garlic minced
1/3 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp dried basil or 1-2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil
1 – 15 ounce can tomato sauce
1 cup full fat coconut milk
½ – 1 cup water or bone broth depending on how saucy you want the skillet – start with ½ cup, and after the pasta cooks you can add more if you want!
3 cups dry pasta of choice I used the Jovial GF spirals
1 – 5-ounce box of baby spinach chopped and divided

Instructions

Whisk the sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder in a small bowl and sprinkle over the chicken thighs, seasoning each side. I use my hands to get the rub onto both sides of the chicken.
Heat a large skillet over high heat, and melt the coconut oil. You will want the pan screaming hot so that it gives the chicken a good sear. Place the chicken into the oiled pan and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. You want a golden sear on both sides. Set the chicken aside to rest.
Turn the skillet temperature down to medium heat and add the red wine to deglaze the pan. Stir the wine around, and then add the garlic, sun dried tomatoes, and tomato paste. Simmer for 2-3 minutes until everything is fragrant.
Add the basil, tomato sauce, coconut milk, water, and dried pasta and stir to combine. Stir in half of the chopped baby spinach and cover the skillet with a lid.
Let the pasta simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes before stirring. Once you stir the pasta, add the chicken back into the skillet, along with the rest of the spinach, and put the lid back on. Cook on medium heat until the pasta is al dente – check your box of pasta to see how long it takes to cook and follow that.
Once the pasta is cooked, you can serve with grated cheese, fresh basil, or a dollop of coconut cream!

Notes

You can swap the wine for broth or water if you can’t have the wine – the flavor depth it brings is fantastic though so if you have it, use it! The alcohol cooks off so it is safe for children.
I get my sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil at Costco. If you don’t have access to a good sun dried tomato in safe packaging or oil, you can cook down some halved cherry tomatoes with the red wine and garlic at the beginning of the recipe, or leave them out completely.
If you can’t have the pasta, you can leave out the extra water and serve your creamy tomato basil and spinach sauce and chicken over spaghetti squash, or a baked potato or sweet potato.

More real food recipes you might like ::

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One Skillet Copycat Hamburger Helper :: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, & Veggie Loaded!

August 21, 2021

Hamburger Helper nostalgia with a nutrient loaded, healthy whole foods twist!

One Skillet Copycat Hamburger Helper :: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, & Veggie Loaded!

The slow transition from summer to fall routines…

I started noticing the sun a little lower in the sky during our after-dinner swims on the big lake a week or so ago. It’s always a little bittersweet to me. We had such a fun, carefree summer. We put school completely behind us. We played and hiked, read a zillion books, and swam (and swam some more!). But when the sun starts setting just a little earlier we are all at the point of being ready to get back to a little more routine. We’re certain to have another good month of beach days left, but I was ready to start thinking about fall meal plans! And I know you all have been asking for my “Hamburger Helper” copycat that I have posted a here and there to Instagram. Today is the day!

An 80’s classic…and some curious foodie kids

It’s no secret this momma grew up in the 80’s and 90’s. Boxed dinners were totally the thing, and while I really don’t remember my mom ever using this particular one that often, we did have our fair share of convenience foods. Earlier this summer the girls asked if they could try Hamburger Helper – I still have no idea where they heard about it, but it doesn’t matter. Our kids don’t live in a bubble, and I want to help them learn how to work through this kind of situation because it will be hitting them from every angle for the rest of their lives!

Kids that can use critical thinking…and creative solutions!

My approach to most of these kind of situations is to first show them them box ingredients and see what they think. No condemnation. It’s more of a “well before you decide to eat something, it’s probably a good idea to see what you will be putting into your body first.” When they were little, I’d read it for them and be more verbal in helping them draw conclusions (remember wayyyy back when Chloe, my oldest, was in preschool and the little boy wanted her to make him “mac n cheese” in the preschool play kitchen?!). They are old enough to see through the marketing now, but I still see the value in this exercise. We went to the store, found the Hamburger Helper, and it was a pretty quick peek before they asked “well, can we make it at home instead?!” I mean, saucy, cheesy, noodles and beef…what’s not to love?!

Same fun meal, same fun taste…with an upgraded whole foods twist!

I’ve been fussing around with this “copycat” Hamburger Helper recipe, as gluten, dairy, egg, nut, and sugar free, and it’s pretty spectacular! You can see in the pictures how I’ve also managed to veggie load it, and that is because I truly want this to be a one skillet, no other side items needed kind of a dinner. That is the whole point of the hamburger helper anyway, right? Something that will be a no-fuss, weeknight friendly comfort food. School nights can be hectic, and I’m hoping to help you fill the kids up with real food in a fun way.

But will my kids “taste” the veggies???

The flavor that comes from the aromatics and mushrooms is where the depth and amazing flavors build. If you think the kids will be funny about the pieces, just cut them smaller or buzz them up in the food processor. It does look like a lot to start, but it really, really cooks down. And the spinach? Well spinach is magical like that. Once it cooks in a dish like this, you never taste it, so you can get all the health benefits without the kids having to fuss over the taste!

Back to school meal plans, and a little prep help

I really hope this Hamburger Helper skillet makes the perfect back to school dinner for your meal plan this fall! I think if you are one of those families that comes home from the day super late, having the veggies chopped before-hand would help. You have a couple choices. Either chop the veggies the night before, so that you can just dump them in the pan when you get home. Or, you could just buzz them up in the food processor to cut the chopping step down a little – it really doesn’t matter if the veggies are cut in a perfect dice.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

One Skillet Copycat Hamburger Helper :: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, & Veggie Loaded!

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 tbsp coconut oil butter, avocado oil, or olive oil would work here too
1 medium onion diced
1 medium carrot shredded
1 medium bell pepper diced
4-8 ounces mushrooms sliced
3-4 cups baby spinach finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
1 lb grassfed ground beef
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp potato starch
½ tsp smoked paprika
¾ cup canned pumpkin or butternut squash
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp coconut aminos
1 cups bone broth or water plus more if needed for consistency as the pasta cooks
1 ½ cups coconut milk
2 cups dry GF pasta of choice I used the Jovial GF Elbow Pasta

Instructions

Heat your skillet to medium high heat, melt the coconut oil, and add in the onion, carrot, pepper, and mushrooms to cook for about 5 minutes with a big pinch of sea salt until everything is soft and sweet.
Add the spinach and garlic and cook for about a minute, stirring them into the cooked veggies.
Add the ground beef to the pan with another pinch of sea salt and pepper to season the beef, and break the beef up to brown up in the pan.
Once the beef is browned, stir in the nutritional yeast, potato starch, and paprika until everything is coated and incorporated. Then, add the pumpkin puree, tomato paste, coconut aminos, bone broth, and coconut milk, and stir to combine.
Add the pasta and bring everything to a simmer. Stir around after a minute and add a lid to the pan, bringing the heat down to medium-low to simmer until the pasta is al-dente. Take the lid off every few minutes to stir and make sure the pasta is not sticking to the bottom of the pan. If you need a little extra liquid you can add more broth or water. Once the pasta is cooked through, sea salt and pepper the skillet meal to your taste and serve!

Notes

The nutritional yeast gives a cheesy flavor to the skillet without the dairy. If you tolerate dairy and want to use cheese, just add the cheese in to melt at the end.
The potato starch helps thicken the sauce. You could also use tapioca starch or arrowroot.

More real food recipes you might like!

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Nourishing 2 Week Meal Plan {Summer Inspired Part 2}

July 12, 2021

The weather is hot, and the produce is abundant! Create a nourishing 2 week meal plan with this fresh summer inspiration!

Nourishing 2 Week Meal Plan {Summer Inspired Part 2}

Summer lovin’!

Whew! This summer is flying! I really wanted to get second summer meal plan up for you, and I sincerely hope that you are enjoying all that summer has to offer where you live! We have been hitting up all of the summer fruit U-Pick stands from strawberries to cherries, and this week, we’ll head out for those beautiful Michigan blueberries. The farmer’s markets here are loaded with veggies too, and I have some great meal ideas to help you through the rest of this summer!

START HERE!!!

If you are new to this space, I would recommend that you pop over to my PART 1 Summer Meal Plan before you go any further here. There is a load of really great information about how to cook in the summer heat, my approaches to meal planning, and some other helpful tips that will help make this whole process a whole lot easier for you! After you read through Summer Meal Plan Part 1, and get an idea of how those meals flow, you’ll be all set up to roll right into this Summer Meal Plan Part 2!

Let’s talk summer outings and packed summer lunches

One thing that I did not touch on in Summer Meal Plan Part 1 was that even though we aren’t in school for a few months, we DO still have to pack meals here and there! Whether its for a sunny beach day, a day trip to the park, or a road trip to the zoo, packed lunches don’t just disappear because school is done for the summer. I pack in different containers for family trips than I do for school lunches. When we go on family trips, there is usually a large cooler involved, instead of each child carrying their own individual lunchbox in their backpack. It’s just a different dynamic than school. As much as I am a sold-out, die-hard fan of our school year Planetboxes, they just don’t pack realistically very well in a cooler. They are heavy for one, and for outdoor spaces like the beach, I noticed how the sand would get in the metal hinges and it was just hard to clean. I have these Sistema lunchboxes That are super light weight and pack in a cooler well for the whole family. (There is also a larger one than the linked above and pictured below – my oldest uses THIS one)

Take advantage of your evening down time

Listen, I’m the FIRST person to raise my hand for an evening beach sunset swim and toes in the sand. We only get a handful of months to enjoy our powdery beach sand, warm sun, and gorgeous Lake Michigan sunsets! But we don’t do it every night, and on the evenings where the sun is just starting to think about coming down, a lot of times I’ll spend about 15 minutes getting *something* ready for the next day. It might be getting a batch of blueberry muffins baked off for the morning, or stirring up a summer salad to make lunchtime a little quicker the next day, or maybe you get a dozen eggs in the Instant Pot so that you have easy to grab hard boiled eggs for the next few days. If you have kids that stay up a little longer in the summer, pull them alongside you and make them a part of it. You’ll be surprised at how much it helps when there are 2 sets of hands in getting tasks done.

SUMMER MEAL PLAN PART 2!

Again, if you have NOT read through Summer Meal Plan Part 1, hop over there first, to see the flow, and then you can put both Part 1 and Part 2 together – that’s 4 WEEKS total of summer meals! Here is your free PDF of Summer Meal Plan Part 2!

Short and sweet!

So talk to me! How are summer meals going in your house? Are these summer meal plans helping you this season? Summer is so sacred. These few months are just so, so sweet, and I truly hope that having a little bit of a meal flow idea has helped you enjoy your summer just a little bit more!

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