Seasoned Oven Roasted Vegetables

This is a great side dish for some of our favorite dinners. I have never been one to "hide" vegetables so my kids would eat them and I'm glad - because they love this!

Seasoned Oven Roasted Vegetables
7 medium potatoes
1 small bag baby carrots
1/4 c. olive oil
1 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning

Chop the potatoes and carrots into bite-sized pieces, all approximately the same size and place ina large bowl. Add the oil and spices, toss to coat all evenly. Pour onto large baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees about 30 minutes.

Zesty Potato Salad

We had a cook-out the other day so I made my favorite potato salad to go along with it. What are hamburgers and hotdogs without potato salad? However... seeing as how I am a super picky eater, this can't be just any potato salad. It must be potato salad WITHOUT eggs. One of my friends humors my weirdness when we go over to there house and will always take a bowl of potato salad out for me before she adds eggs to it - which I LOVE! But my potato salad is egg-less. Because, well, yuck.

I got this recipe from my sister-in-law years and years ago. I still love it. Not all my kids are potato salad fans, but the ones who are also love this version. Which is too bad for me because I would eat all the leftover myself if I could, but they get to them first.

 

Zesty Potato Salad

3 lbs red potatoes

1/2 c. Zesty Italian dressing

1/2 c. sliced green onions

3/4 c. mayonnaise

2 Tbsp. dill

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 tsp. lemon juice

1/8 tsp. pepper

 Wash the potatoes and chop into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Boil until tender. While the potatoes are boiling, combine the Italian dressing, onions, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, and pepper in a large bowl. Mix to combine. When the potatoes are done, drain the water and add the potatoes to the bowl. Toss to coat. Cover and chill until serving. This is good warm, but is better cold after the flavors have had time to meld. Which doesn't mean I don't eat it warm... or hot.

Mashed Potatoes

This is one of those recipes that is difficult to write down because I make it a little differently each time. The boys (and I) love homemade mashed potatoes - boxed mashed potatoes are NOT the same and we don't eat them. Well, occasionally we'll pour chicken noodle soup over them, but that's about it. We are mashed potato purists. This is what we have at Thanksgiving and Easter dinner.

 

Mashed Potatoes

8 pounds potatoes

1 c. butter

milk

salt to taste

pepper to taste

Peel the potatoes and chop into pieces. The larger the pieces, the longer they will take to cook. Put the cut potatoes in a pot and add water to cover them. Place pot on stove and turn heat to high. Boil until the potatoes are cooked through. Pour off water and put potatoes in a large bowl. Add butter. Using a hand mixer,  begin mixing the potatoes and butter. Add milk slowly until you get the consistency you desire. You can add more butter if you feel they need it. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted Potatoes

This is one of my kids' favorite sides to a meal. They like to call them french fries, but they are not fries - no deep frying! They always ask if they can eat them with ketchup. Really? Why do they want to ruin the lovely potatoes with ketchup? How do they not see all the nice spices I flavor them with so they are delicious without ketchup? I don't get it - but then, as the only female in a house of males, there are a LOT of things I don't get!

 

Roasted Potatoes

5 large red potatoes

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese

Wash the potatoes. I used red potatoes this time, but I have also used Idaho potatoes or whatever else I happened to have at home. I don't peel them when I make roasted potatoes, but you certainly can if you are opposed to the skins being on. Cut the potatoes up into chunks. I didn't want them really small, but I also wanted them cook in about a half hour. The larger your chunks are, the longer they will take to cook. Put the cut up potatoes in a gallon bag and pour the oil over them. Add the spices, except the Parmesan, seal the bag, and shake well until all the potato pieces are evenly coated. Pour them onto a greased baking sheet and spread them out into a single layer. Sprinkle Parmesan over the top. Bake at 400 degrees about 30 minutes or until they are cooked through.

Fruit Salad

Holy cow! This salad is amazing. And it has a sad story. Years ago we lived in the Dallas, Texas area. We moved there for my ex-husband's job and went with another family in his company. Since we both were away from family for Thanksgiving, we decided to have Thanksgiving together. The other lady made this salad and it was delicious, so I asked for the recipe - and got it. The next year, we were back in Arizona with family and I was so excited to share this salad because it was so good! I knew everyone was going to LOVE it! We ate dinner with my ex's family and there were leftovers of the salad so I took it to my family's dinner as well. My mom asked what was in the salad, so I told her. She declared that it needed some more fruit and proceeded to open and drain a can of fruit cocktail before dumping in into my salad and mixing it in! Gasp! I don't do canned fruit. I don't do canned pineapple, which is in the salad, but I couldn't taste it, so the salad has retained the pineapple. But an entire can of fruit cocktail is not going to hide. I didn't have any more of the salad that year and I'm afraid that my mom has never been allowed near my salad again....

 

Fruit Salad - adapted from Tara Kropp

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 c. sugar

1 small can crushed pineapple, drained well

1 contained frozen, sliced strawberries, thawed and drained

3-4 bananas

large container Cool Whip, thawed

In a really large bowl, mix together cream cheese and sugar. Add in the pineapple, then the strawberries. The strawberries can be a little tricky to drain because of all the small pieces, but do the best you can. Mix well. Slice the bananas in the salad and mix gently. Fold in Cool Whip. Refrigerate until serving. This is best eaten the same day it's made, but is ok the next day. Most stores will have a large and small container of frozen, sliced strawberries. I get the large one. Sometimes I even get two of them to have more strawberries. I have added extra banana to it as well. It's hard to ruin this recipe - thank goodness! For the Cool Whip, I get the largest container of it I can find. Yum!