If I had to pick a favorite way to prepare potatoes, it would have to be oven roasting them. I love how they get perfectly crisp on the outside, but still soft on the inside when baked at high heat in the oven. I love seasoning them up real well too; potatoes can be like a blank canvas with endless possibilities with help from your spice cabinet.

This potato side dish is one of my favorite recipes to make – and one of my family’s favorite to eat, it’s one of my main go-to recipes. I can’t tell you how many times I have made them for my family. (Another family favorite are these Cheddar-Dill Roasted Red Potatoes – you’ll have to give them a try too).

Like this Side Dish Recipe? Pin It Here!

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I’m not sure about where you live, but this week has been all about back-to-school in our household. This is a big year for my family, my youngest is starting kindergarten, my daughter in the middle is entering 7th grade and my oldest son is a freshman! I have no idea how we got here, but we are here now. It’s exciting, but also a bit of an adjustment having 3 kids in 3 different schools.

With back-to-school comes the need to plan for dinner. Summer break is so laid back for us that I basically wing it every week for the most part. I don’t know if I would necessarily recommend that but that’s typically how summer rolls for me. Right now though I’m in more of a meal planning mode, looking for simple dinners that everyone will eat (per the usual!).

Although it’s back-to-school, let’s be real. It’s still very much summer. It’s also still my favorite produce season.

#FRESHSUMMER 2019 PROJECT:

My dear friend Lora and I have teamed up this summer to share our love of summer produce with you – we came up with a theme for each month of our #FreshSummer recipes. August’s produce pick is tomatoes! I am sharing today’s super simple Chopped Tomato and Spinach Salad. This salad would pair up nicely with grilled chicken or seafood. Lora is sharing a recipe for her Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce, it is a beautiful dish and is making my mouth water.

In case you missed it, for the month of June we chose to share something we both made with cucumbers. Be sure to check out my Cucumber Avocado Salad  and Lora’s Sweet Summer Corn and Cucumber Salad. For July, we chose watermelon. Lora shared her recipe for Asian Watermelon Salad and I shared my daughter’s new favorite salad this Watermelon Feta Salad with Basil.

If you make a tomato recipe this month, be sure to tag us on Instagram with #FreshSummer. Follow us @aggieskitchen and @savoringitaly to see our stories and what we are dishing up!

If you make this tomato salad recipe or any of my summer side dish recipes please be sure to tag me on Instagram @aggieskitchen #aggieskitchen and #freshsummer!

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I don’t know about you, but I tend to consider watermelon a complete food group in the summer. It’s my absolute favorite and for good reason too. There is nothing like snacking on cold, refreshing watermelon on a hot summer day, period.

I remember the summers I was pregnant with both of my boys and how much watermelon I ate, it could possibly have been record breaking.

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You know I’ve been to Costco when you start to see recipes with pesto and goat cheese popping up frequently on the blog. I can’t help it. There are a few staples from Costco that I can’t be without and their pesto and goat cheese are two of them.

I have to admit, since trying the pesto from Costco I really haven’t made any at home – it’s that good (for store bought!) and you just can’t beat the convenience or price.

These Roasted Red Peppers with Pesto and Goat Cheese were inspired by my neighbor who made for us once and brought some over for me to try. He actually cooked his on the grill and wow, they were amazing. I could not wait to make them for myself. I wanted to try them on the grill, but honestly this past week here in Florida has been so brutally hot and muggy that the thought of standing over a grill “testing” a recipe just didn’t appeal to me. Roasting them up in my oven worked just as well, and I got to enjoy the a/c while doing it.

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We are officially in my favorite food season. All the fresh vegetables! I have to say, in Florida we are in this season most of the year, but when the weather is as hot as it is right now all I crave is cool, refreshing salads like this Cucumber Avocado Salad.

I have made this simple salad several times over the last few weeks and each time I make it my daughter and husband dish out the compliments. They are currently the only salad eaters in the family (in addition to me) although my oldest son does like his veggies, just served in a more deconstructed version and not in salad form. I’m good with it.

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I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time containing myself from buying too much every time I’m at my farmer’s market or favorite local produce shop.

How could you resist not going home with one of everything here??

Greens of every kind (I came home with swiss chard, fresh spinach and dandelion greens on this trip), local tomatoes (ours typically come from Ruskin, FL and you can literally smell the freshness as you walk up to the boxes of tomatoes), and a variety of beautiful eggplants, peppers and squashes you don’t typically see on your regular trip to the grocery store. Produce heaven!! I love it. Absolutely love it.

I pretty much always come home with a big bag of tomatoes. That’s a given.

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This post is sponsored in partnership with Produce For Kids.

If there is one thing that can make or break a busy week in our family, it’s meal prep and planning. As our kids have gotten older, they are involved in more and more activities and sports after school which keeps us moving before, during and after what used to be our dinner hour. It’s a short season of life, and what I’ve learned is how important it is for me to meal prep and plan to help things run a little more smoothly during the week (weekends too!), helping us to eat more meals at home.

Mission For Nutrition

I’ve partnered with my friends at Produce For Kids during the month of March in celebration of National Nutrition Month and their Mission for Nutrition program. Produce For Kids has recently launched the Mission for Nutrition program that will raise awareness on the importance of meal planning and prep to achieve regular healthy family eating.

Produce For Kids is providing a free e-book for you to download that includes a weekday meal plan and ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. On the Mission for Nutrition website, you will also find several articles for meal planning tips as well as links to meal planning podcasts. These are all great resources for anyone in need of meal planning ideas!

Partners of Mission for Nutrition are donating 80,000 meals to families in need through Feeding America®.

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If there is one thing I’m learning it’s that I will always thank myself on Tuesday night for cooking up a batch of brown rice Sunday. Food prep like cooking grains, baked potatoes and even shredded chicken in the slow cooker ALWAYS saves me during the school week.

When I find myself unsure of what I want to make for dinner (not to mention, short on time), it’s always incredibly helpful to have a few staples already cooked up and waiting in the fridge. Brown rice is one of those staples and helps to make this super quick and easy Vegetable Fried Brown Rice possible even on the busiest of nights.

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If you asked me who is playing this weekend for Super Bowl I honestly would only be able to name one of the teams – and only because of all the major love or hate for this particular team do I even know that they are playing. Super Bowl is fun, but for me it’s not about the football. I’ve never been a big NFL fan but I do enjoy watching sports and participating in sport watching festivities that include food and beverage so there’s that.

Anyone else feel me here?

We all need good appetizer recipes to put out during Super Bowl and if you can throw in a few healthier ones even better! Here are a few of my favorite healthy appetizers I think would be a hit on Sunday whether you are hosting a party at your house or going to watch somewhere and need to bring a dish.

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Another year, another Goodreads challenge met. I started using Goodreads several years ago and I truly believe it has encouraged me read more. I love having a place dedicated to books and reading and keeping it all organized in a sense – and seeing what my friends are reading as well. Joining the yearly Goodreads challenge always motivates me to read more. This is definitely the most I’ve ever read! Reading relaxes me and takes me places – sounds hokey, I know, but I swear it’s true.

Every time I post what I’m reading on social media (Instagram specifically) I get comments from friends wanting to read more. My advice is always to just pick up a book and start. I know from personal experience that having my phone nearby keeps me from reading so I really make an effort to put it somewhere I can’t reach when I am sitting with a book to avoid the distraction. It really helps.

For 2018, I set my reading goal at 45 books. I achieved that goal, barely. I read my 45th book just last week and it ended up being one of my favorites this year (A Place For Us, see below). I love sharing book posts like this with you, mostly because I know I personally love to read book posts like this.

Please leave a note in the comments and share what you’ve read and loved, I love hearing from you!

Books I Read in 2018:

(Each link below will bring you to Amazon – affiliate link – where you will find a summary and option to purchase. Or find them on my 2018 bookshelf here on Goodreads where you can see ratings and add them to your To Read bookshelf. I’ve also starred ** the books I enjoyed and recommend!)

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine | The Child Finder | The Lying Game ** | In A Dark, Dark Wood | Seven Days Of Us | Little Fires Everywhere ** | Watch Me Disappear | The Good Daughter |                           The Great  Alone **

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