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Name: Roasted Lemon Asparagus
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 9 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 lemon; 1 pound asparagus; 1 tablespoon olive oil; salt; pepper

Roasted Lemon Asparagus

Roasted Lemon Asparagus made with fresh lemon, olive oil and just a pinch of salt and pepper for a really simple side dish to any entrée.

We are right in the middle of asparagus season and my family definitely eats their fair share of the vegetable. This Roasted Lemon Asparagus is fresh, crisp, quick and so easy to toss in the oven.

To prepare : Preheat the oven to 425 degrees as you give the asparagus a rinse and trim the ends by 1/2 inch. Lay the asparagus on a baking sheet and grab a small bowl to mix the olive and lemon juice. Cut the lemon in half and use half as juice and the other half is sliced for garnish. Pour the olive oil and lemon juice mixture over top and make sure to thoroughly cover each asparagus. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and lay the lemon slices over top. Roast in the oven for about 9 minutes and serve.

How to pick the best asparagus from your grocery:

Make sure the stems are not dried out. Often, asparagus is stored in shallow water at the store.
The stems should be firm and not limp.
The tops should not be mushy.
They should have a rich green color with some white at the bottom and purple hues at the top.

If you are storing your asparagus a couple days before cooking, make sure to trim the ends and wrap in a wet paper towel or in a jar filled with a bit of water to keep fresh.

Roasted Lemon Asparagus

Roasted Lemon Asparagus made with fresh lemon, olive oil and just a pinch of salt and pepper for a really simple side dish to any entrée.

Yields: 4 servings

1 lemon
1 pound asparagus
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Wash and trim the asparagus. Place on a baking sheet.
In a small bowl, add 1 tablespoon olive with juice from half the lemon (about 1 tablespoon, more for a stronger lemon flavor). Mix together.
Pour lemon juice/olive oil mixture over asparagus. Make sure to coat the asparagus thoroughly.
Season with just a pinch of salt and pepper.
Slice the other half of the lemon. Place lemon slices over asparagus.
Place in oven for 9 minutes.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 9 minutes

Cheesy Mashed Potato Casserole

Cheesy Mashed Potato Casserole with russet potatoes, sour cream, butter, crispy bacon, cheddar cheese and green onion.

The cool weather is approaching and holidays are near which means comfort foods are on the menu! Mashed potatoes is a favorite comfort food in this house. Add cheese and bacon and it is a huge hit! This is one of those dishes that you just cannot stop eating. So make sure there will be plenty for everyone. Big crowds will probably need two of these casseroles!

For the holidays, we always serve mashed potatoes of some sort. Cheesy Mashed Potato Casserole pairs perfectly ham. Try our Crockpot Holiday Ham for an easy main dish!

Cheesy Mashed Potato Casserole

Should we get cooking?

You want to start by peeling all your potatoes and cutting them into quarters before dropping them into a large pot of boiling water. Also cook your bacon at this time until crispy and set to the side. Cook potatoes until soft which takes about 20-25 minutes. Drain and add all the goodies. Loads of cheddar cheese, some butter, milk, sour cream and crispy bacon are added in and mixed. Sprinkle some of the cheese and bacon on top.

Place the Cheesy Potato Casserole into the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Take the casserole out of the oven and place green onion on top before serving.

Cheesy Mashed Potato Casserole

Cheesy Mashed Potato Casserole with russet potatoes, sour cream, butter, crispy bacon, cheddar cheese and green onion.

5 pounds russet potatoes
1 cup sour cream
.5 cup milk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
.5 pound cooked, crispy bacon
2 green onions
Salt
Pepper

Peel the potatoes, quarter and place in a large pot of boiling water for 25 minutes.
While potatoes are on the stovetop, cook the bacon until crispy and chop into small pieces. Set to the side.
Once the potatoes are softened, drain and place into a large bowl (or use the same pot you cooked in). Add the butter, sour cream, milk and desired amount of salt and pepper.
Use a hand mixer to mix until creamy.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Add 2 cups shredded cheese and most of the cooked bacon. Mix again.
Transfer the mashed potatoes to a large casserole dish and sprinkle the remaining cheese and bacon on top.
Place the mashed potatoes into oven for 20 minutes.
Chop up the green onion and sprinkle over top.
Let sit for 5 minutes and serve!

What are some dishes that your family must have during the holidays? Are mashed potatoes on the menu?

Garlic & Herb Smashed Potatoes

Garlic & Herb Smashed Potatoes with loads of fresh parsley, garlic and ghee. Perfect side dish for chicken, steak, pork, ham, meatloaf…. oh my gosh I could go forever with the list of foods it pairs well with. Bacon Wrapped Turkey Meatloaf possibly? I think so.

By the way, what the heck is ghee? To simply put, ghee is much like butter but produced slightly different. Ghee is commonly used in Indian and Pakistani cuisine, especially with rice. Most grocery stores should have ghee or you can check out a specialty store. Can’t find ghee where you are? That’s okay. Swap with butter.

It is that time of month once again for Recipe Swap Club and Simply Made Recipes got tasked with Cook at Home, where you can find a lot of Whole30, gluten free and lactose free recipe options! I browsed and browsed the site for what I wanted to recreate and found these Herb and Garlic Smashed Potatoes. We are potato lovers in this family and I jump on any chance to try a new potato recipe. Plus, there is garlic…. tons of garlic. Who can say no to that?

Check out the original recipe here.

I made just a couple changes to the Garlic & Herb Smashed Potatoes recipe. One, the recipe calls for almond milk and I used regular 2% because that’s what I have on hand. Two, I chopped up some fresh parsley over dried because I prefer fresh herbs and spices. Third, the instructions were to steam the potatoes but I made a large batch and my steamer does not hold the amount of potatoes I needed so I boiled them and added the garlic after cooking the potatoes. If you steam the potatoes, add in the garlic while cooking and keep the same cook time. Either way you cook your potatoes, the outcome will be right on.

Potatoes skins on or off before cooking? I leave potato skins on as often as possible, especially for yellow or red potatoes. What is the benefit of leaving the skin on? Well, to get the full nutritional value of the potato you need to eat the whole potato full of fiber and numerous nutrients.

Garlic & Herb Smashed Potatoes

3 tablespoon ghee
2.5 pounds small yellow potatoes
1/4 cup-3/4 cup milk (almond milk is recommended)
1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley
6 garlic cloves
salt
pepper

Wash potatoes and chop into quarters.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and drop your potatoes in. Add a pinch of salt.
Let cook 30 minutes or until potatoes are softened.
Drain and place into large mixing bowl.
Mince 6 garlic cloves and add to potatoes along with freshly chopped parsley, 3 tablespoons ghee, pinch of salt and pepper.
Use your potato smasher (I use my avocado smasher) to smash the potatoes and mix all the ingredients together.
Add 1/4 cup milk and mix. If you want to thin out your potatoes more, add another 1/4-1/2 cup milk.
Garnish with a pinch more of fresh parsley and a bit of ghee.
Serve.

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What are you going to cook up first with these garlic & herb Smashed Potatoes?

Spicy Honey Roasted Carrots

Spicy Honey Roasted Carrots are made with carrots, garlic, honey, olive oil, just a pinch of salt and pepper. A spicy kick is added with Sriracha.

Carrots aren’t a side dish I make often. We enjoy baby carrots in snack or julienne a carrot in soup or on top of salad. Eating a hot side dish of carrots at dinner doesn’t happen all the time though. These Spicy Honey Roasted Carrots have the power to change that! These go perfectly with many dishes like chicken, fish, tofu or steak with sides like potatoes or rice. Like carrots and spice? I think these are for you.

Spicy Honey Roasted Carrots

Spicy Honey Roasted Carrots are roasted int he oven to keep a nice crunch and texture. Plus, roasting in honey, garlic and hot sauce add so much great flavor!

Want all the delicious flavor but not so much kick of spice? Reduce the amount of Sriracha in this recipe to half the amount.

Spicy Honey Roasted Carrots

Spicy Honey Roasted Carrots are made with carrots, garlic, honey, olive oil, just a pinch of salt and pepper. A spicy kick is added with Sriracha.

Course Side Dish

Keyword carrots

Prep Time 4 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 29 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Author Amber

Ingredients

1 pound carrots
1 Tablespoon honey
1/2 Tablespoon Sriracha hot sauce
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove minced
salt
pepper

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Wash carrots and grab baking sheet, bowl, whisk, peeler, and measuring cups.
Peel carrots and and chop. I chop them in half. Then chop those pieces in half lengthwise. Then, chop those in half lengthwise once more. Place on a baking sheet.
Add honey, olive oil, minced garlic clove and Sriracha into bowl. Whisk until blended.
Pour mixture over carrots. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake carrots for 25 minutes.

Notes

This cooking time will give you carrots with a little crisp and texture. For softer carrots, cook longer.

Corn Dip

Corn Dip is a hot appetizer cooked in the crock-pot made with corn, cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, green chiles and jalapeños.

This Corn Dip recipe is perfect for game day snacking or pot lucks. It is simple, has great flavor and always a hit with everyone. I actually received this recipe from a co-worker many years ago and have tweaked it a bit over that time. Everyone at work would request this dish for EVERY SINGLE luncheon we had. It is addicting and tastes great with Fritos! I do have the dip pictured with tortilla chips today and that works great too.

You may also enjoy this recipe for Chicken Enchilada Dip!

Corn Dip

Corn Dip is creamy with a hint of spice from the jalapeño with a more subtle flavor coming through from the green chiles. The cream cheese adds that great creaminess and holds the dip together on your chip. Cheese is added because, well… it’s cheese and cheese makes everything taste good. I guarantee you can’t stop at just a few bites! You will want to eat the whole batch.

Tips & Tricks

You can serve this dip in a bowl or platter with some yummy toppings like extra cheese, sliced jalapeños and cilantro. You can also just serve straight from a crock-pot. For a game day appetizer I like to just let it cook, then place the crock-pot on warm without any extra toppings. This way, everyone can snack away as they please!

Corn Dip

Corn Dip is a hot appetizer cooked in the crock-pot made with corn, cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, green chiles and jalapeños.

Course Appetizer

Keyword cheese, corn, dip, game day

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 3 hours

Author Amber