Real Food

Favorite Fall Recipes

Favorite Fall Recipes {gluten-free}

Slow Cooker Season I use my crock pot pretty heavily all year long, but fall always seems to kick off the slow cooker season.  Don’t you agree? Here are a few favorite recipes just right for colder weather, many of them made in the crock pot…

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pear crisp

Pear Crisp

  Recently, we enjoyed a morning of pear-picking with some of our favorite friends.  The kids had a blast, and picked way too many pears for us to eat in a reasonable time frame. So I tracked down this recipe from Elana Amsterdam of Elana’s Pantry, and tweaked it just a bit.  It turned out…

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Spaghetti Squash

The Secret to Cutting Spaghetti Squash

One of my absolute favorite fall and winter dishes is this Ragu Meat Sauce.  We serve it over roasted spaghetti squash, because it allows us to avoid pasta and because it tastes amazing. So by now, I’ve cut open my fair share of those hard-as-bricks, yellow, oblong vegetables.  At first, the task seemed nearly impossible.…

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London

Gluten-Free in London

  In honor of our recent 10th anniversary, Mr. Native Texan and I are headed across the big pond to celebrate London-style. I’m so excited! I always do my research before we travel, but this will be our first major trip since we’ve completely overhauled our diet.  Thankfully, I easily found quite a few GF…

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Quinoa

How to Soak Quinoa

Recently, I mentioned my efforts to incorporate more quinoa in our diets here at the Yankee Homestead, for a variety of reasons. Why Eat Quinoa? Grain-free–There is much controversy over the consumption of grains.  Quinoa is actually a seed, but sort of behaves like a grain, making it a perfect substitute for rice. Nutritious–Quinoa is…

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Green Beans

The Canning Bragging Club

I did it!  I finally learned how to can.  (Maybe there’s hope for my sewing skills…) Thanks to my friend Diana, who was so very generous with her time and with her canning equipment, I can now proudly inform folks that I am indeed from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  And mean it. Even without the sewing…

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Tomatoes & Green Beans for Canning

Learning to Can (Can)

Somehow, I spent an entire childhood in the beautiful farm country of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and emerged without any knowledge or skills in the culinary art of canning. A family friend pointed out that the this likely had to do with the fact that my mother was born and raised in east L.A.  Canning was not…

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Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe

Chocolate Zucchini Bread {gluten & dairy-free, Paleo}

This Chocolate Zucchini Bread is so easy, and so tasty.  You might also like to know how fantastic it tastes cold, straight from the fridge.  Especially while your children are resting upstairs and you’re all alone downstairs.  Just a thought. It’s also gluten-free and Paleo, and it freezes well.  Plus it’s a perfect way to use up…

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Green Beans Galore

Green Beans Galore

  Holy green bean harvest!   I might need to serve some with breakfast this morning, and at every meal thereafter, to ensure they’re all eaten up. And to think…we almost didn’t plan beans this year.  They’ve turned out to be our most successful, low maintenance crop! Green beans do make for somewhat tedious harvesting,…

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How to Keep Homemade Salad Dressing from Separating

How to Keep Homemade Salad Dressing from Separating

Check out How to Get Kids to Eat Salad for a list of my favorite salad ingredients and an inexpensive tool that has revolutionized my salad game. Easy {and delicious} Homemade Dressing For a while now, I’ve been making my own salad dressing from quality olive oil and my favorite balsamic vinegar. Sometimes I add…

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