High Protein Soft Food Diet – Real Food Meal Ideas after Wisdom Teeth Removal

High protein soft food diet meal ideas! For when you can’t survive on mashed potatoes alone… At 39 years old, I’m not exactly a spring chicken, so going into my wisdom teeth removal (a procedure that most people have done in their teens) I wanted to make sure I set myself up for the best possible outcome. The standard recommendations for a soft food diet …

Dill & Sour Cream Potato Salad Recipe

Favorite summer side dish ever– Dill and Sour Cream Potato Salad with tender creamy red potatoes! If you like fresh dill, you’ll love this one! I’ve been making this potato salad for many years, and it has definitely become a summer staple on our homestead. There are only 5 ingredients, so make sure they’re good quality (and definitely use fresh dill… dried just won’t do). …

Strawberry Basil Dressing Recipe

It’s one of my favorite times of the year on the homestead! We’ve worked hard all spring, and high summer finally brings the fruits of our labor. Fresh produce is starting to roll into the kitchen, and there is no shortage of herbs around. The garden is overflowing with basil just begging to be showcased! While I’m usually okay with a simple drizzle of olive …

Smokey BBQ Brussels Sprouts Recipe + How to Cook the Perfect Sprout

These are really really good brussels sprouts… about as good as you can hope for a brussels sprout to be. They’re crispy, salty, full of flavor, golden brown, and delicious. We love all things Brassica (that’s the cabbage-broccoli-kale-brussels family) in this household, so it’s no surprise we’re a couple of brussels sprouts fans. And if you’re not, might I gently suggest it’s because you aren’t …

Homemade French Onion & Herb Dip Recipe

I’m a dip person. I want to dip stuff into other stuff, all the time. And this Homemade French Onion & Herb Dip is one of my favorite dips- so that’s saying a lot! I think I love it so much because it combines two classics- it’s a little bit of a cross between a creamy ranch dip and a french onion dip. And it …

{Easy} Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles Recipe

For years I’ve tried making pickles- everything from bread and butter refrigerator pickles to classic dills… and for years I’ve never found a recipe I have fallen in love with, until now. I didn’t realize how much my general lack of pickling skills was weighing on me- I mean, a homesteader should be able to make a great pickle, shouldn’t they?! Well, I feel like …

Smashed Sweet Potatoes with Garlic Butter

I’ve always thought sweet potatoes were only okay- I’ve never been crazy about them… even the beautiful glowing purple ones we grow in our own garden. And Karl is simply just offended by sweet potatoes, maintaining that they are indeed “not a potato.” I had to start calling them Yams, just so that he would consider eating them! Yes, it worked. They really are a …

Roasted Ranch Cabbage

There was a time when cabbage was the king of vegetables… I’ve always thought I was born in the wrong time-period. No complaints here about the indoor plumbing, but I find myself drawn to objects of another time- whether it be an old-fashioned rug beater, blue mason jars, the 50s radio we keep in the bathroom, or… vegetables. Who is with me?! I dream about a …

Harvest Cobb Salad with Honey Dijon Dressing

I made something incredible the other night. Out of vegetables! Even Karl liked this Cobb Salad (read: big huge bowl full of vegetables)… and he’s still working through his vegetable-haters rehabilitation program. He’s conquered salad greens, asparagus, kale, and even Brussels sprouts! This year we’re working on squash. He gets so sad whenever I try to feed him squash, like I’ve done the most horrible and unthinkable thing. …

How to Roast Any Whole Squash, Including a No-Cut Method!

There are only a few things that Karl won’t eat- and much to my disappointment, one of those is things is winter squash. He acts like I’m offending him at even the mention of putting some on his plate. It’s become kind of a joke around the homestead now- where if he asks what’s for dinner I’ll often declare, “just squash.” And then a wave of …