Wellness Mama®
Simple Answers for Healthier Families
Butternut squash soup is a delicious fall favorite at our house. The kids love its bright color and sweet flavor, and it is usually an appetizer at Thanksgiving too! Why Butternut Squash? When in season, butternut squash is extremely inexpensive (often 29 cents or 39 cents a pound at the farmers market) and keeps for …
Liquid stevia extract is a relatively easy tincture to make at home, and it is a less expensive alternative to the store bought versions. If you grow your own stevia, you can preserve the leaves while still fresh to make the most potent extract. This is my basic stevia recipe, and it is suitable for …
One of my favorite ways to prepare chicken is to to slow cook a chicken in the Crock-Pot. If you haven’t roasted a chicken in your Crock-Pot yet… try it! Not only is slow cooker chicken the easiest and least expensive way I’ve found to prepare it, but you get a couple quarts of chicken broth from …
Chili is a wonderful and filling easy meal that can be made ahead and tastes great reheated. It is also a meal that can easily be made grain free, bean free, etc. and served to guests who aren’t used to “health food” without anyone even noticing. 5 Ingredient Crock Pot Chili Recipe This chili recipe …
Ribs are one of those foods that always intimidated me, and while I liked them, I was never brave enough to cook them for the first few years I was married. Then, one day, there was a huge sale on ribs at our local store, and having no better idea for dinner, I bought them. …
Ever had spinach artichoke dip in a restaurant? This recipe is similar to that but with more protein and no chips. I had a craving for spinach artichoke dip one night and decided to turn it into a whole dinner: spinach artichoke chicken in a slow cooker. Spinach Artichoke Chicken The chicken is topped with spinach, …
This is my latest healthy Italian dish variation. I never really liked chicken Parmesan until I had it at a friend’s bridesmaids luncheon. It was the most grain free item on the menu, and it was wonderful (I later found out it was breaded in some type of potato starch and not flour!). When I …
Coconut cream concentrate (also sometimes called coconut butter) is an incredibly tasty and filling way to get in your healthy fats from coconut! In essence, coconut cream concentrate or coconut butter is like a coconut version of peanut butter. Coconut flesh is blended at high speeds to create a creamy, buttery consistency. It is dense, …
This is one of those foods that I was very hesitant to try when I was younger, and I absolutely love it now! If you haven’t had gravlax before, the basic idea is that you are curing raw, wild caught salmon in salt, sugar, and spices. It. Is. Delicious. I tried a lot of recipes …
Smoothies can be a great and fast meal on the go. If made correctly, they can be a source of nutrients, protein, healthy fats, and probiotics. Without these healthy ingredients, many smoothies contain as much sugar as juice or soda. If protein powder is used, many contain processed whey or artificial sweeteners. As with any …
If you eat grain free, you likely eat a lot of eggs for breakfast. I’m always looking for new ways to mix up the breakfast menu, and this is my latest creation. Huevos Rancheros… Huevos rancheros, or “ranchers eggs” is based on a traditional Mexican recipe. Originating on rural Mexican farms, this breakfast fare is …
Stir-frys are one of my biggest mommy hacks. They are full of flavor, only take one pan to make, and come together in just minutes for a fast and simple meal. This summer squash sausage stir-fry is especially good as a seasonal recipe when squash and zucchini are in season because they are so inexpensive …
Often a healthy diet and fried foods seem incompatible, but this doesn’t have to be the case. When using quality ingredients and oils that are safe to use at high temperatures (like coconut oil or tallow), fried foods can be an acceptable part of a healthy diet. This onion rings recipe is one of my …
One of my favorite things about spring is the fresh lettuce at the farmer’s markets and the return of the amazing flavors of fresh vegetables and herbs. When spring finally arrives, we are all excited for radishes, peas, fresh strawberries, and greens! These spring salad recipes are the perfect way to really showcase garden produce and …
Since my husband is Italian, I’m always looking for healthy versions of Italian dishes that he likes. Some favorites so far have been one-pan spaghetti over cabbage noodles, zucchini lasagna and chicken cacciatore. We had a lot of eggplant recently in the garden and CSA, and since all I’ve ever known to do with eggplant …
If you are as busy as I am, a meal that requires little attention and only needs one pan to cook makes life a little simpler. This recipe is also a delicious way to introduce Brussels sprouts (aka baby cabbages in our house) to your family if they haven’t had them before. Oh, yeah, and …
This isn’t one of the most visually appealing recipes to emerge from my kitchen, but one of the simplest! It’s a quick and easy take on spaghetti without the grains. It even got an un-prompted “This is actually pretty good,” from my Italian husband! My favorite part… it only takes one (oven-safe) pan to make …
Now that we are just on the verge of tomato and pepper season, I wanted to share this recipe for cultured salsa. Fermenting salsa is an easy way to make it last longer without canning and it adds a probiotic boost. We eat and drink a lot of fermented foods, from water kefir soda to …
If you’ve ever bought spices from the store, you probably noticed that they often contain ingredients like “anti-caking agent” or “natural flavor” (aka MSG). Many often contain trace amounts of soy or other fillers, and sometimes these don’t even have to be listed on the ingredients. Mystery fillers aside, these spices also often sit on …
I’ve talked a lot about fermented foods and drinks lately, from my favorite water kefir, to homemade sauerkraut. Lately, I’ve been enjoying trying things like fermented condiments, salsas, and more. Most of these recipes use whey to speed the lacto-fermentation process and for a long time, I avoided these recipes because I simply didn’t have …
Are you grain free now, but sometimes wish you could indulge in a pasta dish without the insulin spike and “brick in the stomach” feeling? My husband had been requesting pasta for a long time, and I’ve been meaning to experiment with a good grain-free lasagna recipe. Thanks to reader Desiree for the inspiration! I …
In my younger years, I absolutely loved Chinese food (especially of the PF Chang variety) and ate it often. I cringe to think how much MSG, high fructose corn syrup, and other terrible ingredients I consumed back then. When we switched to real food, I stopped eating the processed versions of my favorite foods, but …
It’s a probiotic… it’s a carbonated drink… it’s water kefir! I started making this as part of my mission to get more probiotics in our diet and it has worked like a charm! The kids love it and ask for it each morning. Water Kefir Culture You will need one unusual ingredient for this recipe: …
I’ve written before about water kefir, and it is definitely my husband’s favorite way to get probiotics naturally. It doesn’t have the strong taste of kombucha and is faster to make. Where to Get Water Kefir Grains? If you’ve never made water kefir, it is really simple to make. I get live water kefir culture …
