Healthy Whole Food Recipes and Grocery Swaps

If you’re trying to eat healthier in this new year, but you are struggling to find healthy foods that you enjoy, I’m here to help! In this video, I’m going to show you some very easy swaps that you can make at the grocery store without sacrificing your favorite foods. And I’m also going to share some of my go-to meals, snacks, and even a delicious dessert that I eat on repeat, all of which are low-carb, high protein, whole foods that are packed with the nutrition your body needs to perform at its best!

One of my goals on this channel is to help people feel more confident in their ability to cook from scratch. It can be very intimidating if no one has ever taught you how to do it. But I’m hoping that by sharing these videos with you, you will see that it IS actually attainable and not as hard or labor intensive as you may think.

In an effort to keep things simple without overwhelming you, we are just going to focus on 2 meal recipes this week, as well as a delicious high protein low sugar snack and an indulgent low sugar dessert. (And don’t worry if you have food allergies, because I will give you substitutions for that as we go). Let’s start with the meals. We will be making:

Spaghetti squash and meatballs (optional roasted red pepper sauce or spaghetti sauce)
Butternut squash with ground beef, and goat cheese (optional- throw some peas in it)

As you can see, both of these recipes include winter squash. I will try as much as possible on this channel to give you recipes for the fruits and veggies that are currently in season. This will not only lower your grocery bill, but will ensure that the produce you eat is at its freshest.

The first thing we are going to do is to roast the squash. Winter squash takes a while to roast in the oven, but it is very easy to prepare. All you need to do is poke some holes in it on all sides with a fork and throw it in the oven. That’s it!!! I like to cover my roasting pans with foil to make cleanup super easy, but that is optional. Roast your squash at 400 degrees F for about an hour and 15 minutes, more or less depending on the size of your squash. Test for doneness by sticking a fork in it to see if it is soft to the core. (Watch out for steam that may release when you do this!)

Once your squash is soft all the way through, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10-15 min. Then cut off the stem end of the squash, cut it in half with a sharp knife, and allow it to cool a bit more before handling. Remove the seeds (they can be roasted just like pumpkin seeds for a healthy snack if you desire, but I feed mine to my chickens. Then scoop the flesh out of the skin and discard the skin. (It can go into your compost pile, if you have one.)

Now, I cooked my squash the day before I made the rest of this food, but you can actually cook your quinoa, brown your ground beef, AND get your meatballs thrown together all while your squash is cooking in the oven, if you prefer to do it all at once.

Before cooking your quinoa, be sure to rinse your quinoa really well in a fine mesh strainer. This will remove any bitter aftertaste that you may have experienced otherwise. A standard strainer has holes that are too big for quinoa, so it MUST be a fine mesh strainer if you don’t want to wash all of your quinoa down the drain! I can link my favorite fine mesh strainers for you down below.

Now, I like to cook my quinoa in bone broth instead of water to make it even more nutritious. Bone broth has sooo many health benefits! It provides your body with protein, collagen and calcium, AND it actually helps to heal your gut from the inside out. I try to cook all of my grains in bone broth whenever possible. I make my own bone broth, but if you are buying yours from the store, try to find one with minimal ingredients, and buy an organic one, if you can.

There will be directions on your package of quinoa that tell you how to cook it, but it’s cooked the same way as rice. You just add twice as much liquid as grain, bring it to a boil, then turn it down to low, cover it with a lid and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Then, turn off the heat and let it stand for 5 more minutes before removing the lid. I’m using 1 cup of dry quinoa and 2 cups of bone broth because I want to have leftovers, but you will only need about half of that amount to make the meatballs.

While your quinoa is simmering, you can brown your ground beef. I find that I don’t need to add any additional fat or oil to my beef, but if yours is sticking to your pan, you can use some avocado oil or bacon fat if needed. You could also substitute a different type of ground meat, if you don’t eat beef or don’t have any on hand. I go simple with my seasonings on the beef, adding only sea salt and black pepper.

Once your beef is cooked through, you should still have time to mix up your meatballs before your squash finishes roasting. I use ground pork for this recipe, but you can use beef, turkey, chicken, sausage, venison, or whatever meat you prefer. I’m using the Never Any brand of meat that I talk about in the video above, which I get from Aldi.

To make about 35-40 meatballs that are about 1 Tbsp. each, use:

2 lbs. of ground meat
1 egg
1 ¼ cups of cooked quinoa.
salt
pepper
oregano (see note below)

*I like to season my meatballs with sea salt, pepper and oregano, but you can use any seasonings you like. Onion, garlic and Italian seasoning would be delicious in this recipe! I usually don’t measure my seasonings, but a general rule of thumb is to start with about ½ tsp. of salt per pound of meat, and you can always sprinkle on some additional salt at the table, if you find it needs it.

The seasonings really are to taste, so start with a little, and if you find it too bland, add more seasoning at the table and make a note to increase the amounts of your seasonings next time you make it.

So much of cooking from scratch is trial and error, but with some practice, you’ll be able to just eyeball your measurements like I do without having to dirty your measuring spoons. 😊

I used a Tablespoon scoop to make uniform size meatballs, plopped them on parchment lined baking sheets, and rolled them into balls. I baked these at 400 degrees for about 18 minutes, then used a food thermometer to make sure they were cooked all the way through. I can link a good food thermometer down below that I really like, if you are looking for a recommendation.

Since the meatballs cook at the same temperature as the squash, they can cook right along side each other, if your oven is big enough. If not, they’ll cook up pretty quickly while the squash is cooling after being removed from the oven.

Now it’s time to put all of these ingredients together into a delicious meal! I like to combine the butternut squash with ground beef and goat cheese. Remember to add a little salt and pepper to the squash before mixing in the other ingredients, since we haven’t seasoned the squash at all yet. A lot of times, I will add peas or green beans to this dish as well, which is also delicious! If you can’t do goat cheese, you can actually just mash up the butternut squash to create a kind of “sauce” and you could even add in some of your extra quinoa, if you like, just to give the dish a little more protein.

For our other meal, I like to dress up the spaghetti squash just like a real spaghetti dinner. (Again, remember to season the squash itself when combining the ingredients.) I am topping my spaghetti squash with some meatballs, a roasted red pepper sauce that I made last summer with peppers from my garden, and some shredded cheese. You can use your favorite spaghetti sauce or jarred roasted red pepper sauce in this recipe to make life easier, but if you would like me to make a video in the future to show you how I make my roasted red pepper sauce, leave me a comment down below to let me know. After making this sauce last summer, I froze it in a silicone muffin pan to get little single serving frozen discs. Then I transferred them to a Ziplock bag to store in the freezer.

That is one of my best tips for cooking from scratch. Once you have a recipe down that you know you like, cook it in big batches and freeze it in individual portion sizes so that you can throw together a delicious, home-cooked meal with very little effort or time. It makes the whole process so much less overwhelming!

But for now, go ahead and use whatever sauce you prefer, and top it with some shredded cheese, if you are able to do dairy. If not, skip the cheese. I am going to sprinkle some of that grass-fed Irish Cheddar cheese that I showed you in this video onto my meatballs.

Since I made my ingredients ahead of time and had them waiting in the fridge, I’m just going to throw it all together in a bowl and microwave it.

That’s another tip that I have for you. Don’t wait until dinner time to start cooking. For me, I have much more energy earlier in the day, and by the time dinner rolls around, I’m usually ready to be done working. That’s why I try to get as much done as possible before lunch, while my kids are working on their schoolwork and my husband is at work. It also takes the pressure off at dinner time, in case the cooking process takes you a little longer than expected. You don’t have hangry children or spouses upset with you because dinner is running late.

If you’re not a microwave person, you can warm up your food up in the oven, on the stove, or even in an air fryer before dinner.

Next I’m going to show you a SUPER simple, healthy and delicious snack option. These candied pecans are so good, you would never believe that they are sugar free!!

All you need for this recipe is:

2 cups raw, unseasoned pecans (or another nut of your choice. I prefer organic ones.)
2 Tbsp. butter
3/4 tsp. cinnamon (or 1 tsp. for a stronger cinnamon flavor)
3/16 tsp. of pure stevia powder (this is equivalent to filling a 1/4 tsp. measure 3/4 of the way full.)
1/8 tsp. sea salt

To make the candied pecans:

Melt the butter in a frying pan or saucepan on the stove.
Add in the cinnamon, stevia and sea salt, and stir well to combine.
Add in the pecans and stir to coat. Then remove from the heat and enjoy!

That’s it! In 5 minutes, you can have a delicious, sweet and savory, HEALTHY snack that is loaded with wholesome nutrition! With all those healthy fats and omega 3’s, your body (and your tongue!) will thank you! See how easy this is??? You can do this!!!

By the way, the pan that I am using for this is a ceramic nonstick pan made by a company called GreenPan. I’m sure you’ve all seen the ads for the Caraway brand ceramic pans which are quite expensive. But Green Pans are a fraction of the cost of Caraway, and they work amazingly well!! I’ll link the ones that I have down in the description box for you. I have been so happy with them! Nothing sticks to them, and they are so easy to clean! You can just hold them under running water, and the food slides right off. I do still wipe them with a soft sponge with dish soap on it to sanitize them, but there is no scrubbing required! One disclaimer, though, and this goes for ANY ceramic non-stick pan… DO NOT use these for high heat cooking! These are for low to medium-low heat cooking only! Using high heat on these pans will ruin the non-stick finish. But I use these pans almost every single day, I’ve had them for years, and they are still going strong! By the way, this is not a sponsored product, I just like to share my secrets with others when I find something that I love. 😊

Another snack that I eat quite often is organic baby carrots dipped in Sunbutter. If you are unfamiliar with Sunbutter, it is a nut-free peanut butter substitute that is made from sunflower seeds. I like to buy the organic one, which does not have any salt or sugar added to it, though I do sprinkle a little sea salt or pink Himalayan salt into it when I eat it. Sunflower seeds are another highly nutritious food, full of vitamins, protein and healthy fats.

The last recipe that I’m going to share with you today is my recipe for goat milk ice cream. (If you need a dairy-free option, I will link my recipe for easy homemade cashew milk down in the description box, so you can use that instead.)

I have been experimenting with different flavors of goat milk ice cream. The one that I am going to share today has a milk chocolate flavor, but it is actually made with carob instead of chocolate. Also, the only sweetener I use is pure stevia powder, so you get the flavor of milk chocolate ice cream with no caffeine, no sugar, and all of the nutrition of a glass of milk! Also, goat milk is easier to digest than cow’s milk, and its thicker texture and richer taste makes for a great ice cream base!

I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker, which I will link down below. I have never tried to make this without an ice cream machine, so I’m not sure how it would turn out. If you give it a try, leave a comment down below and let us know how it turns out, but I do love my Cuisinart!!

To make the ice cream, you will need:

4 cups goat milk
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. carob powder
1/2 tsp. pure stevia powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. sea salt

Whisk all of these ingredients together in a bowl, start the ice cream machine, and pour the liquid into the machine. Cover with the lid, and sit back and relax while your deliciously satisfying dessert churns itself to perfection.

Side note: This recipe will give you a slightly more icy texture as opposed to super creamy like a recipe that uses heavy cream would give you. But, if you are looking for a thicker, creamier ice cream, you can use goat milk powder and add less water than what it calls for to rehydrate it. I am still working out the exact ratios of doing it that way, but once I perfect it, I will definitely post that recipe as well.

If you haven’t worked with carob before, it is a chocolate substitute that is caffeine free. But the thing you need to know about carob is that it won’t taste like chocolate until you add a little bit of cinnamon to it. I found this out by accident while I was experimenting with different ice cream flavors, and then I confirmed it by checking the ingredients list on a bag of carob chips, and wouldn’t you know it- they contained cinnamon!

There are a lot of things like this that I have learned over many years of trial and error, and I am very passionate about sharing that knowledge with others. I remember how hard and overwhelming it was when I was first diagnosed with food allergies decades ago, and I maintain a strong desire to help people who may be facing something similar. Whether you have food allergies, you are on a special diet for other medical reasons, or you are just trying to become a healthier version of yourself, I hope that you will find this channel to be a helpful resource in your journey!

I absolutely LOVE helping people to find recipes that fit into challenging diets, so if you are having trouble finding the right foods for your body or your family, please reach out to me in the comments, and I will do my best to include recipes in my future videos that not only fit into your diet, but actually taste good!!! You can lean on my over 20 years of experience in this area before you buy a bunch of expensive ingredients that you end up throwing away because they taste like cardboard! Let me know what your limitations are in the comments section of the video above, and I will do my absolute best to help you find delicious foods that will keep you on track.

Thanks so much for watching, guys, and I will see you in my next video. God bless!

LINKS:

(As an affiliate, I may receive a small commission on products purchased through the links below, at no additional cost to you. Thank you so much for supporting my blog and my YouTube channel, “That Homesteading Mom”! 😊)

GREEN PAN CERAMIC NON-STICK SKILLETS

BETTER DISH BUTTER DISH

PURELY ELIZABETH GRANOLA