Hope there isn't a limit on question asking on here! As I have two others posted! So the new one - (sort of goes with a previous post, lol) I need new side dish ideas. I can always come up with great casseroles and just put with a salad. But, those times when I make meat dishes I struggle coming up with a side dish other than a vegetable of course. I would love to hear your family's favorite side dishes or those delicious ones that your parents or grandparents used to make you when you were kids! Thanks! :)
Thank you all for your side dish ideas/recipes. If anyone reads this and has additional ones to pass on I would still definitely LOVE to receive them! You can send them to me via messaging. :) Thank you again to each of you that posted!!! :)
Hi Roxanna,
I made a great pasta salad last night and it was so easy. I cooked penne pasta, cut up a cucumber, tomato and onion (it's what i had on hand) and added italian dressing....if you want you can add parmesian cheese on top...my kids thought it delicious. Very easy to do! I struggle with the side dishes too!
Take care, V.
baked sweet potato fries
asparagus (broiled with ginger & olive oil)
rice- mixed with frozen carrots and peas
we buy a lot of veggie trays and have that as our side dish
baked beans
green bean casserole
pasta salad with veggies in it
basically a lot of veggies
I know I have more but for some reason I can't think of them.
I am try to give my dinners color. We have steamed broccoli alot and my teenage boys love it with the melted velveeta on it. We also have a dish that is 1 8oz cream cheese, 1 stick of butter and 1 package of frozen corn. Put it all in a sauce pan and melt everything down and you are done. It's really tasty. My grandmother is from up state New York and you could buy whats called Salt Potatoes there. What they are is a bag of new potatoes and a package of salt. You pour the salt into the water and boil the potatoes in it. They are very tasty and really don't need any type of a gravy to put on them just a bit of butter and sour cream. My 14 year old daughter loves them. Good Luck to you. I know how difficult it is sometimes to come up with new and tasty dinners.
K.
Dealing with picky eaters it's hard to get a consensus on what to fix, one likes corn, the other hates peas. It gets silly.
SO we have solve alot of it by having side salad, and letting them fix it up however they like adding cheese or croutons or onion or whatever.
We routinely have some type of rice dish.
The kids also like cornbread casserole as a side to whatever meat we are having.
I don't think this response is going to be all that unique..I'll just tell you what we do for sides when we have meat dishes...
Corn
Various fruit (canned, fresh, or frozen)
corn bread
mac and cheese
mashed potatoes
rolls
biscuits
baked potato
grilled mushrooms/onions (just put them in the pan and let them cook, don't add anything)
I make our own fruit and yogurt parfaits like McDonald's has...kids love it
pasta salad (you can get it in the mac and cheese isle at walmart)
If I think of more I'll let you know :)
My kids are picky and always have been, so balanced dinners were rare. I was given permission by the healthy eating experts to put things on the table that they like that I could live with if that was all they ate. This included little bowls of: cheese squares, nuts, grapes, strawberries, carrot sticks & dip, sliced summer sausage, and the list went on. It seemed that they always filled up on these things because it was things they liked. They got protein, fruit, veggies. And I gave them permission to skip what they didn't like. So they looked at it like a smorgasborg.
Grab a spaghetti squash from the store, cut the ends off and cut it in half long ways so you end up with two little boats.(this particular squach has circular bands going through out it)Scrape out the seeds poor a little olive oil in the center and season in with a little garlic salt and some pepper. Put in in a deep pan with about and inch of water in the bottom and stick it in an oven that is preheated to 350 degrees let it stay there for about 35 to 45 minutes. Pull it out allow to cool for a bit. Then take a fork and follow the grain of the bands and scrape out the middle. You can toss this in some tomato sauce if you like. This is so simple because you don't have to tell your kids it is a veg. You can also use butter and other flavorings to go with your current theme to your meal. Our other favorite side is grilled zuccini and squash that is first marinated in our favorite vinagrette dressing.
A.
My mom told me about this recipe just last week, and I've already made it twice. One lb of new red potatoes, quartered. Add ranch dressing, toss to coat (about 1/4C, but I never measure), shredded cheddar or blend cheeses (probably about 1/2C), and about 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled. Bake in 9" square pan at 375 for 40 min, covered with alum foil. Uncover and bake for another 10-15 min. It's very tasty and so easy... as long as you remember to put it in the oven in time, heh. I forgot to do that last night, and the main dish was cold before this cooked. Real "Duh" moment for me.
Otherwise, I just do steamed veggies or Rice-A-Roni of some type, or a salad.
