Everyone knows why eating healthy is important, but I know that sometimes it's hard to do around the holidays!  Here are some really yummy recipes for vegetarian side dishes you could make to bring to a holiday gathering, or even use them to introduce your kids to some healthy cooking recipes! 

Enjoy, and please leave a comment to let me know what you think!

(Thanks to The Veg Family for the recipes)

Savory Wild Rice Stuffed Onions

* 6 Large Vidalia Onions or 8 med yellow onions.
* 1 cup mushrooms, chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 apple, peeled, cored, chopped (about 1 cup)
* 2 TBS fresh parsley, minced
* 2 TBS fresh marjoram, minced (used 1 tea. dried)
* 1 tsp. lemon juice
* 1/4 tsp. paprika
* Salt & pepper to taste
* 1 cup wild rice, cooked
* Vegetable stock (homemade or boxed)

1. Preheat oven to 400F

2. Cut 1/4 bunch off both ends of the onion and peel off dry layers. Bake onions, root end down in baking dish for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool and hollow out each onion from top, leaving 1/2 inch shell (outer most 2-4 layers).

3. Chop 1 cup of reserved onion and sauté with mushrooms in a medium hot pan for 3 minutes. Add garlic and apple and sauté 3 minutes. Add parsley, marjoram, lemon juice, paprika, salt and pepper; combine the sautéed mixture with the cooked rice.

4. Fill each onion shell with rice mixture. Pour enough stock to cover bottom of onions (about 1/2 inch). Bake for 20 minutes, basting the stuffed onions with stock occasionally. Makes 6-8 servings depending on which onions you use.

My suggestion on this is that the onions took A LOT longer to cook than 30 minutes. If you want to fix this for a dinner, I recommend that you bake the onions the night before, and then finish up the next evening with the filling. The onions will also be cool then, instead of working with hot onions that just came out of the oven.



Cauliflower Salad with Capers and Olives

* 1 small-medium cauliflower
* 2 cups of watercress or arugala or radicchio
* 2 scallions, including one inch of greens, thinly sliced
* 1 cup diced celery heart with leaves
* 1 small green pepper, julienned
* 1 cucumber, peeled seeded and chopped
* 12 olives, with pimento, halved
* 1 T capers
* 1/2 cup parsley

Slice off thin slices of cauliflower, working around the head. Quarter then thinly slice. Remove large stems from watercress and chop the rest. Prepare the vinaigrette (see next recipe). Toss with veggies, greens, olives, capers, and parsley.

Vinaigrette
Keep the dressing on the tart side, a little more vinegar than oil. Prepare vinaigrette -Any classic vinaigrette recipe will do. I recommend white wine vinegar, or white balsamic. Red vinegars will discolor the cauliflower. I would also recommend some Dijon mustard (2 tsps is fine) to the vinaigrette. I like to use a classic one part vinegar to three part oil recipe. Please use a fruit vinegar for the vinegar part. I LOVE Trader Joe's raspberry vinegar. I also add (blend or whisk) a fresh raspberry or two, a squeeze of lemon, some sea salt and voila! YUMMY!


Roasted Root Vegetables

* 8 medium shallots peeled
* 2 medium red skin potatoes, cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes
* 2 medium turnips, cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes
* 2 medium parsnips, cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes
* 4 medium carrots, cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces
* 2 cloves garlic minces
* 1/4 c olive oil
* 1 T chopped fresh thyme
* salt and ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450. In large bowl combine vegetables, oil, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper-toss evenly to coat. Transfer coated veggies to baking dish and bake until tender and browned, 35-45 minutes. Serve warm.