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Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

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Loaded with fresh vegetables and tossed in a from-scratch dressing, Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect light side to accompany any main dish.

Loaded with fresh vegetables and tossed in a from-scratch dressing, Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect light side to accompany any main dish.

I bake a lot of sweets. That’s probably immediately clear to anyone who spends half a second on this site because I have a ton of dessert recipes. I do sell or give away a lot of what I make, so other than the necessary taste test here or there, I’m not actually eating too much of what I bake.

Let me be clear, though: I do have a killer sweet tooth. If things like nutrition and calories didn’t matter, I would live on desserts. But they do, so I make sure to whip up recipes like this Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette. It only takes a few minutes to put together, and it features some of my favorite vegetables.

Loaded with fresh vegetables and tossed in a from-scratch dressing, Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect light side to accompany any main dish.

Cucumbers don’t get enough credit. I can see why they may come across as slimy or flavorless, but I love them. They’re the perfect vegetable to carry this salad, and they’re a wonderful complement to the juicy tomatoes and the strong onions. Throw in a chunks of mild avocado, toss the whole thing in a tart homemade dressing, and you’ve got yourself an easy side dish that pairs well with just about any entree.

Loaded with fresh vegetables and tossed in a from-scratch dressing, Cucumber Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect light side to accompany any main dish.

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Roasted Garlic and Caramelized Onion Dip

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Roasted Garlic and Caramelized Onion Dip is a unique, sophisticated twist on a classic. You’ll find the bold flavors and creamy texture irresistible.

Roasted Garlic and Caramelized Onion Dip is a unique, sophisticated twist on a classic favorite. You'll find the bold flavors and creamy texture irresistible.

I first made this dip years ago, back when we still lived in Oregon. I don’t even remember now what I made it for, but I remember it was the first time I’d ever made caramelized onions. It was the first time I’d roasted my own garlic, too, and I felt like quite the successful cook afterward.

I went several years before making this Roasted Garlic and Caramelized Onion Dip again, but, in true foodie fashion, I thought longingly about it quite a few times. As a proud lover of both garlic and onions, I dream about this stuff. Don’t worry, though, if not all the people in your life are as fond of those ingredients as I am; the process of caramelizing the onions and roasting the garlic develops the flavors into sweeter, smoother, toned-down versions of themselves.

You can rest easy making this recipe for just about anyone.

Roasted Garlic and Caramelized Onion Dip is a unique, sophisticated twist on a classic favorite. You'll find the bold flavors and creamy texture irresistible.

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Instant Pot Refried Beans

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Forget the can, and forget sweating over a hot stove. Instant Pot Refried Beans have that smooth restaurant-style texture you love, with the perfect hint of spice.

Forget the can, and forget sweating over a hot stove. Instant Pot Refried Beans have that smooth restaurant-style texture you love, with the perfect hint of spice.

It all started with a bag of frozen Green Chile Chicken Taquitos. Two bags, actually. We had two bags, 14 taquitos in total, in the freezer at church. They were too old to give to people (“Congratulations on the birth of your baby! Here’s a bag of slightly freezer-burnt taquitos to help you out.”), but not too old to feed to the Wednesday night crowd.

14 taquitos wouldn’t be enough to feed everyone, of course, so I volunteered to make more. I volunteered before I was told just how many more would be. 100+, as it turns out. By that point I was all in, though, so I brainstormed a side dish, too. I’ve been making slow cooker refried beans for ages, so I knew immediately I had to replicate that recipe for the instant pot.

I’m used to having beans cooking all day when I make them in the slow cooker; it was so nice to have these guys ready in a fraction of the time, with the added bonus of not needing to stir them occasionally. The group at church Wednesday nights is mostly kids, so I wasn’t sure how refried beans would go over, but they were a hit! Several of the kids came back for seconds. At the end of the night, there hardly any left in the pot.

Forget the can, and forget sweating over a hot stove. Instant Pot Refried Beans have that smooth restaurant-style texture you love, with the perfect hint of spice.

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Homemade Green Enchilada Sauce

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Making homemade green enchilada sauce is easier than you think, and it’s the perfect way to turn up the volume on your favorite enchiladas recipe.

Making homemade green enchilada sauce is easier than you think, and it's the perfect way to turn up the volume on your favorite enchiladas recipe.

I’ve never been a fan of enchiladas made with red sauce. I do like them better when I use homemade sauce, but I much prefer enchiladas made with a lighter, green sauce. Plus, I’ll basically eat anything with roasted peppers, so there’s that.

Roasting fresh peppers gives them a depth of flavor that you just can’t find in a canned sauce. By combining the peppers with garlic and onions, you get a result that, in addition to being the perfect Homemade Green Enchilada Sauce, can be used as a salsa or a marinade.

Making homemade green enchilada sauce is easier than you think, and it's the perfect way to turn up the volume on your favorite enchiladas recipe.

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Avocado Tuna Salad

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No mayo here. Hearty, healthy ingredients like Greek yogurt and sweet bell peppers will make this avocado tuna salad your new favorite lunch.

Canned tuna is a pretty love it or hate it food. Obviously, I fall in the love it category, even though I’m not a fan of eating it plain. In the past few years I’ve started to substitute Greek yogurt for mayonnaise and sour cream in a lot recipes, so I decided to give it a shot here, too. I’m also on an avocado kick, so I tossed some of that in, too.

No mayo here. Hearty, healthy ingredients like Greek yogurt and sweet bell peppers will make this avocado tuna salad your new favorite lunch.

I love making my tuna more hearty by adding all kinds of diced vegetables. I just go with whatever I have on hand, which usually consists of diced jalapeño (from a jar), sweet bell pepper in any color, and red onion. Sometimes, if I have it, I’ll throw in celery and cucumbers, too. I love the crunch and the texture those vegetables add.

I don’t care for much for celery or sweet relish, which is why you won’t find either of those in this recipe. You can totally add those if that’s what you’re into, but I love it just the way it is. My favorite ways to eat avocado tuna salad are with pita bread or crackers, like the cracked pepper and olive oil Triscuits from the pictures.

No mayo here. Hearty, healthy ingredients like Greek yogurt and sweet bell peppers will make this avocado tuna salad your new favorite lunch.

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Pasta Salad with Sweet Tea Vinaigrette

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone. #SummerTastes #CollectiveBias

All your favorite summer flavors come together in one easy, hearty dish: pasta salad with sweet tea vinaigrette.

All your favorite summer flavors come together in one easy, hearty dish: pasta salad with sweet tea vinaigrette.

Pasta salad is one of my favorite summertime dishes. I love me some carbs, but I also love making those carbs guilt-free by tossing them with plenty of fresh vegetables and a light vinaigrette dressing. I love to have a batch of pasta salad in the fridge to eat on each day, but I also love to bring it to cookouts and get-togethers.

All your favorite summer flavors come together in one easy, hearty dish: pasta salad with sweet tea vinaigrette.

It’s a fairly crowd-pleasing recipe, and it can be made using any produce you want. I grabbed the veggies pictured when I bought the rest of the ingredients at Walmart; you can buy whatever sounds good to you.

All your favorite summer flavors come together in one easy, hearty dish: pasta salad with sweet tea vinaigrette.

I love sweet tea about as much as I love pasta salad. As a Southerner, I’m practically legally required to love the stuff, but I assure you it isn’t that hard of a task. What’s not to love? That’s why I considered it pretty ingenious to combine the two to create a pasta salad with sweet tea vinaigrette.

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