Want to get dinner on the table in under 30 minutes? These taco salads are a weeknight staple at our house. While there are all sorts of variations, I have a recipe for you that can be ready in under 30 minutes and that the whole family will enjoy. Seasoned ground beef, black beans, and corn get cooked down together and top a bed of fresh salad ingredients that is healthy and delicious. This recipe for the best taco salad is sure to become one of your favorite weeknight dinners to make on even the busiest of nights.
By now I know you have heard of an Italian grinder sandwich, but let’s take all of that goodness and turn it into a wedge salad instead! I love a good wedge salad and there are so many other options for flavor combinations other than the traditional wedge salad that you find at most steakhouses. With so many people going low carb or carb-free these days, this Italian grinder sandwich inspired wedge salad is the perfect way to get your cravings satisfied and is truly delicious too. This Italian grinder wedge salad is going to quickly become one of your favorite easy lunches or light dinners as we roll into the warmer months of the year.
There are chicken salads, and then there are chicken salads that you want to eat over and over again. This chicken salad is one of those salads that you are going to crave on a weekly basis. It’s full of flavor and texture and the spicy sweet serrano honey mustard really brings it all together. This is the salad that no one will ever be able to call boring and is easy to make on any night of the week. This recipe for my crispy chicken cutlet brussel sprout salad with serrano honey mustard dressing is going to delight your tastebuds in the best way!
It might be soup season, but let’s not give up on salads just yet. This Asian inspired salad is loaded with crunchy vegetables, a tangy and sweet dressing, delicious marinated apricot chicken, and is topped with salty cashews. It’s easy enough to make any night of the week and you can prep everything in advance for lunches or dinner. My recipe for this Apricot Asian Chicken Salad is one that you are going to want to make on a weekly basis.
You are probably familiar with chicken tortilla soup, but have you ever tried to turn that same delicious soup into a salad? I created this delicious salad using all of the same flavors you love in a chicken tortilla soup, but in salad form. It’s the perfect weeknight meal while we are transitioning into cooler weather and can be made with a store bought rotisserie chicken making this recipe a breeze on even the busiest of nights. Make the ultimate chicken tortilla salad with a creamy avocado dressing and get ready to fall in love this with recipe.
Squash season is here, and while most people tend to prepare it cooked, squash and zucchini can actually be enjoyed raw as well. I find that for people who tend to not love squash and zucchini cooked because of texture, actually prefer to eat them raw for this reason. A squash salad is the perfect side dish to use up all of that squash you have in your fridge all summer long. This recipe for raw squash salad with feta and herbs is a fresh salad that pairs perfectly with grilled meats or fish and is easy to prepare any night of the week.
Flank steak is one of my favorite proteins to add to a salad and grilling it is my favorite method of preparation. I marinate flank steak with some balsamic vinegar and then grill it and add it with some of my favorite summer produce like peaches and corn and the combination is pretty epic! I would go as far as to say that this is hands down my new favorite summer salad. This salad is simple to make, healthy, and so delicious too. I can’t wait for you to try this grilled flank steak and peach salad with a balsamic dijon vinaigrette, it’s going to quickly become a new favorite around your house.
Summer is almost here which means BBQ and picnic season are quickly approaching. Macaroni salad is a classic summer side dish that is perfect for bringing to a friends house or serving alongside your favorite main dishes. it’s one of those recipes that everyone loves and you truly can’t go wrong with it. I lightened my version up a tad by cutting the mayo with Greek yogurt and reducing the amount of sugar that is traditionally used plus I add a ton of crunchy veggies for texture and flavor. This recipe for classic macaroni salad will surely become one of your new favorite dishes to make all summer long!
This post is sponsored by Tony Chachere’s, but all opinions are 100% my own.
A Cobb salad is one that we have on rotation at our house. I love the combo of flavors, how you can switch ingredients around, and it’s always a crowd pleaser with my whole family. Traditionally, most Cobb salads have chicken on them, but I partnered with my friends at Tony Chachere’s to bring you a fun Cajun twist on the traditional salad with fried crawfish! This salad is everything you want in a salad and you are going to love the addition of fried crawfish tails on top of all of the crunchy and fresh goodness. This recipe for friend crawfish Cobb salad is one that you are going to want to make all summer long!
It’s that time of the year when we are all trying get more vegetables into our diets on a regular basis and salads are one of my favorite ways to get a variety of plants into my body all in one meal. When done right, a salad should be nutritious, filling, and full of flavors and textures. There will be no boring salads allowed on my watch which is why I am going to share my top ten tips when it comes to making a salad that you will find yourself wanting on a regular basis. Not only that, but I have also compiled my favorite toppings too! I am going to teach you how to build a better salad so that you will never eat a boring salad again.
While soups tend to get all the glory during the fall and winter months, let me remind you that a fall salad can be quite delicious, hearty, and satisfying too. It’s all about the combination of using seasonal ingredients to really make the salad shine. This combination of steak, roasted butternut squash, and apples come together on a bed of mixed greens and has the perfect combination of flavors and textures for the ultimate fall dish. This recipe for a fall steak and butternut squash salad is going to quickly become a weeknight dinner staple for the whole season.
Watermelon is hands down my favorite summer fruit. We go through at least one watermelon a week and I love not only eating it by itself, but also making summer salads with it. Cucumber and watermelon are a classic combo when it comes to summer salads, but I added a few twists to make this watermelon salad really stand out amongst the crowd! This recipe for smashed cucumber and watermelon salad with crispy shallots and an herby vinaigrette is going to hands down become your new favorite summer salad to enjoy all season long.
Fried chicken is one of those things that I get a hankering for from time to time and I happen to love it on a crisp salad! There is something about a crisp salad topped with warm crunchy fried chicken that is just the best of combos. Most of the time I tend to bake my “fried chicken” for a healthier version, but every now and then I just have to fry it just like all of the southern women in my family before me. This recipe for Southern fried chicken, spinach, and berry salad with a yogurt chive dressing is going to become your favorite summer salad I can guarantee it!
There are salads that are boring and there are salads that make you excited to be eating a salad. You feel me? An antipasto salad is one of those salads that I could literally eat every single day. It’s full of flavor, textures, and a few of my favorite things to eat in general. This antipasto salad is perfect for meal prepping for easy lunches all week and is also great for an easy no brainer dinner. This recipe for the best antipasto salad will quickly become on of your favorite salads no matter what time of day.
This delicious winter kale salad is one that takes the boring out of salad and will have you excited to dive right into this bowl. I recently had a salad over the holidays that inspired me to make my own version of it right in my own kitchen. This salad is healthy, full of flavor, texture, and couldn’t be prettier. I am obsessed with the dressing that uses one of my favorite seasonings, za’atar and has a hummus base that makes for a creamy dressing that is so good to have on hand in the fridge for any salad or veggies throughout the week that you might eat. This kale, grapefruit, and fennel salad with a citrus za’atar dressing is one that you will be making over and over again.
Summertime salads happen at least a couple of times a week at our house because when the weather is this hot outside, turning on the oven just isn’t an option. There is one salad in particular that we have almost weekly and that’s a classic Cobb salad. I have several different versions of Cobb salads that I have shared with you before, but for some reason I have managed to forget to share the one recipe that started them all. There is something so good about the mix of ingredients in a Cobb salad and I love making my homemade ranch dressing to serve with it. This is salad that got my son eating salads again so you know that it is delicious! Today I am sharing the best grilled chicken Cobb salad that you need to add to your weekly dinner rotation as soon as possible.
Summer melons are one of the reasons that this is my favorite season of them all. I stock up on all varieties when I am at the store each week and honeydew melon is the one that I tend to buy less often for some reason. I am not sure why because it is actually my husband’s favorite variety of them all. I decided to whip up a new fresh and healthy summer recipe using honeydew as the star ingredient. I have always been a fan of fruit in a salad, especially when you mix a little heat in with the cool fruit because it just is a magical combo. My honeydew cucumber salad is one of those salads that you will be making on repeat all summer long because it just that delicious.
This post is sponsored by Tony Chachere’s, but all opinions are 100% my own.
Pizza is one of those meals that I know my family will be on board with any night of the week. I started making my own pizzas years ago once I realized how easy and how delicious it could be. With the availability of store bought pizza dough in regular grocery stores nowadays, making homemade pizza has never been easier. I partnered with Tony Chachere’s to bring you a chopped salad pizza using their new line of salad dressings that combines pizza and salad together in perfect harmony. You may be thinking, salad on pizza? But trust me, it’s the best of both worlds and makes me feel a little better about serving up my weekly pizza to my family! Plus anytime I can get my toddler to eat more salad, is a meal that I will continue to make over and over. My chopped salad pizza is going to quickly become one of your family’s new favorite ways to eat pizza!
If your goal is to eat more plants this year, salads are a great go-to option for lunch or dinner. You can pack in all the veggies and on top of that, the possibilities are endless with the different flavor combinations that you can mix up. For me, a good salad is all about texture and the dressing that I use. Salad dressings can make or break whether I can really enjoy a salad or not. If the dressings are tasty, I can switch up my salads and eat them multiple times a week. Because of this fact, I started making my own dressings years ago and haven’t looked back since. The flavors are just so much better than store bought dressings that there is no comparison. I have so many different ones that I make, but I compiled my top five favorite dressings that I make the most for you to try at home too. I have 5 simple homemade salad dressings that will transform the way you think about salads and will help you eat more plants all year long!
I love the idea of starting my day off with greens. I feel like it sets the tone for the day and makes me feel really good after I eat them. Breakfast salads are becoming more popular for this reason and I love that you can truly use salad as a base for all of your favorite breakfast foods! From eggs, potatoes, more veggies, avocado, and more the possibilities are endless for breakfast salads! It’s another great way to meal prep at the beginning of the week and have a healthy breakfast ready when you are every single morning! My Spanish chorizo summer breakfast salad is the perfect dish to help you switch up your regular breakfast routine!
Happy Monday friends! Let’s start the week out with lots of veggies and gorgeous Spring goodness shall we? I was out of town last weekend and am need of all the veggies in my life and a salad full of all of my favorite Spring produce is just what my body is craving! The good news is, salads don’t have to be boring! In fact they are the perfect way to combine some of your favorite flavors and ingredients into one bowl! Right now I can’t get enough of strawberries and asparagus and together they make a lovely combo, believe it or not! My roasted asparagus strawberry herb salad with tahini honey mustard is sure to take your weeknight salad to a whole other level!
With Spring on the brain, I am suddenly in the mood for all sorts of salads and color on my plate! It has been unusually cold here this week in Texas, but that does not change the fact that I have been day dreaming about sunny Spring days that are in the very near future! While wintery meals tend to be more laborious, I love how with the switch of seasons, meals become more simple and effortless. Simple salads are one of my favorite things to make at this time of year when the days gets longer and the weather gets nicer! Even better, are salads that can be prepped in advanced and eaten throughout the week for easy lunches or dinners! My Chickpea BLT Salad with Cilantro Dill Dressing is a salad that is packing serious flavor and will quickly become one of your new favorites!
This post was kindly sponsored by PURA Collective, but all opinions are 100% my own.
I love taking traditional recipes and turning them into something new. Spring rolls are one of my favorite takeout items, but for some reason I never make them at home! I love that they are light, packed with flavor, and usually packed with veggies too! If you saw my Spicy Garlic Sesame Chicken post, then you already know that I am currently obsessed with my Ecotierra Organic Sesame Oils! They have become one of my favorite oils to keep in my pantry and I have been using them for everything from sautés to dressings! One of my new favorite recipes that I have been making is my Shrimp Spring Roll Salads that has everything that I love about a traditional spring roll, but deconstructed in salad form!
We spent the weekend baking batch after batch of cookies and although it was so much fun and we were making such special memories, I feel like I could use a salad in my life this week! I figured that you might be feeling the same way in a season of Christmas cookies, treats, and more being at the forefront of everyone’s minds. I find that we tend to eat less salads in the winter time mostly because the weather shifts, but I have a few of my favorite salads that are seasonally appropriate for this time of year! These salads are heartier, full of flavor, and nutrition, and you are probably going to want to work one or two of them into your meal plan this week! My top 10 favorite winter salads are going to help you balance out all of the cookies you might be consuming from now until Christmas!
At this time of year, warm and cozy dishes seem to get all of the attention! From soups, to pastas, and everything in between, it feels like sometimes we forget about eating salads during this season! I don’t know about you, but I still crave some freshness in the midst of all the cozy! A good fall salad is one of my favorite dishes to make and I took one of my favorite wedge salads and turned it into the most delicious autumn wedge salad that you have ever tasted! My Autumn wedge salad with green goddess dressing is perfect for any night of the week, but also makes a great addition to any holiday menu too!
Can someone please tell me where September went? Honestly I can’t believe that October is next week and my baby boy turns 3 on Monday! This year is going by at a scarily fast pace, don’t you think? I love this season of cozy foods and all that comes with it and want to savor it while its around! (Time slow down please.) While I may not be getting to wear my fall favorites, because Texas fall doesn’t like to allow for flannels and sweaters, I am embracing fall flavors in the kitchen! This fall chicken salad with pepita granola and a pumpkin vinaigrette is going to knock your socks off in the flavor department and is the perfect fall salad to make all season long!
This week I managed to take my child to school on a day that he didn't in fact have school (I may have almost cried), on top of that Parks has woken up at 5am or somewhere in that time frame every single day leaving me feeling more tired than usual, and it seems like I can't get into my routine this week! Do you ever have weeks like that where you just feel off? (Please tell me I'm not alone here.) Thank goodness for easy recipes that save the day when my brain clearly isn't working so I don't have to put much effort into creating a delicious recipe that the whole family loves. My sumac roasted chickpea Caesar salad is just the kind of meal that nourishes your body, tastes delicious, and is easy peasy too!
I cannot believe August has arrived and back to school has already started! Where did the summer go? But let's be honest, summer actually isn't over yet is it? The heat is still sticking around and we still have a good month or two left of some of my favorite summer produce! Last week I made a random salad based upon what I had in the fridge, and omg guys...it was one of the best salads I have made in a long time! I knew that I was going to have to make it again, and that I needed to let you guys in on this amazing salad combination too! My grilled bbq chicken and peach salad is the quintessential summer salad and it needs to be on your dinner table asap while the gettin' is good!
Nothing quite beats a good burger and these easy turkey burger salad bowls are a simple and healthier way to satisfy your burger craving any night of the week. This is a 20 minute meal from start to finish, making it ideal to whip up on even the busiest of nights. Ground turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, pickles, and a delicious special sauce dressing make for a delicious salad option that tastes just like your favorite burger. These easy turkey burger salad bowls are going to quickly become a family weeknight dinner favorite.