Southwest Tortellini Pasta Salad

A fresh and easy southwest tortellini pasta salad that can be made in less than 30 minutes! It’s loaded with veggies and protein and coated in a deliciously simple and healthy southwest dressing. 

This is one of the healthier meals I like to feed my kids. They LOVE it, and I love that it’s loaded with veggies and good protein from the beans. The dressing is pretty mild–definitely not too spicy for my family. If you do want to add a little “heat” to the dressing you could add some Valentina hot sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• 20 oz package three cheese refrigerated tortellini
• 1 cup corn fresh from 1 ear of cooked corn, canned or frozen corn
• 1 can black beans rinsed and drained
• 1 red bell pepper chopped
• 1 avocado chopped
• 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes halved
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Dressing:

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• Juice from 2 fresh limes
• 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 tsp EACH sugar, chili powder, cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cook the tortellini according to package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2. Add tortellini to a large bowl. Add cooked corn, black beans, bell pepper, avocado, cherry tomatoes, onion, and cilantro.
3. Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a resealable jar. Shake until combined. Pour desired amount of dressing (you may not want to use it all) over the pasta and toss to coat.
4. Please visit Southwest Tortellini Pasta Salad for full instructions.

Garden Veggie Chickpea Salad Sandwich

This tasty Garden Veggie Chickpea Salad Sandwich is a plant-based powerhouse of a lunch! Make it in advance for a party or picnic or to take along as an easy weekday lunch for work or school.

This crunchy chickpea salad is vegetarian with an easy peasy swap to make it vegan. It’s also dairy-free and gluten-free and packed to the brim with all things veggie.

Whether you raid your garden, your local farmer’s market, or even the grocery store produce aisle, this salad is sure to rock your plate and veg up your eats!

INGREDIENTS

For The Salad:

• 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained + rinsed
• 3 stalks green onion
• 2 stalks celery
• 1/4 cup chopped shredded carrots
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup finely chopped dill pickle
• 1/4 cup store bought or homemade mayonnaise (vegan or regular)
• 1-2 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp yellow mustard
• 1/8 tsp dried dill (or fresh, to taste)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 3 TBSP unsalted roasted sunflower seeds
• 2 TBSP fresh chopped basil, plus extra to taste

For The Sandwich:

• multi-grain sandwich bread
• arugula or romaine lettuce
• extra basil as desired
• optional tomatoes and/or red onion

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Drain and rinse your chickpeas and add them to a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher until texture appears flaked, almost like tuna salad. I use both a potato masher and follow up with a fork to make sure every chickpea is deliciously smashed. You could also use a food processor and skip the arm workout!
2. Chop your green onion, celery, shredded carrots, pepper, and pickles.
3. Add to the bowl with your chickpeas, then add mayo, dijon, yellow mustard, dill, salt, and pepper. Stir well to coat.
4. Fold in sunflower seeds and basil (as much or as little as you'd like) and adjust any ingredients to taste.
5. Please visit Garden Veggie Chickpea Salad Sandwich for full instructions.

CUCUMBER GREEK SALAD

This Cucumber Greek Salad is light and refreshing, and full of healthy ingredients. With minimal prep, it makes an easy side dish for any meal!

This Cucumber Greek Salad makes a great side dish to serve at almost any meal, and especially at summer barbecues. When there’s lots of yummy desserts and other heavy dishes to chow down on, sometimes I like to prepare a healthier alternative.

It’s nice to have a fresh side to balance everything out, and this Cucumber Greek Salad definitely fits the bill! This salad is so easy to throw together. The hardest part is chopping the veggies, and that really only takes about five minutes. Add in some spices, lemon juice, olive oil, and feta, and you are ready to go.

RECIPES BY belleofthekitchen [THANK YOU]

Very tasty. Didn't add the olives. Added some rice vinegar. Marinated the cucumber and tomatoes for an hour before adding the feta cheese. Would be good to add pepperoncinis.

Made this for the first time last night. My wife and I both thought it was awesome! Adding this to our "favorites." Highly recommended.

really refreshing summer salad. make sure you cut the cucumbers to the same size. also, letting the salad set for awhile to get the seasoning distributed.

The family loved this! I doubled everything and made it for Thanksgiving and it was a big hit! I know it's more of a summer dish but I figured with all the starchy sides it would do a body good.

Delicious and easy to make. I doubled the recipe for a party and it made a lot. Make it fresh because it's not as good the next day.

Ingredients

• 2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped into 1/4 slices
• 4-6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 of a red onion, sliced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• Black olives, pitted and sliced (to taste)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions.
2. Visit CUCUMBER GREEK SALAD By https://belleofthekitchen.com/ For Full Instructions

Doritos Taco Salad

This Doritos Taco Salad is loaded with seasoned ground beef, black beans and more! What makes this salad so delicious is the nacho cheese Doritos!

My family and I love this salad. It is packed with all kinds of deliciousness. Seasoned ground beef, black beans, cheese, lettuce and don’t forget the Nacho cheese Doritos.  They make the salad! 

INGREDIENTS

1. 1 pound lean ground beef
2. 1 packet (1.25 oz) taco seasoning
3. 2 Romaine lettuce hearts, rinsed then chopped
4. 1 cup black beans, rinsed
5. 1 large tomato, seeded then chopped
6. 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
7. 1 cup nacho cheese Doritos, broke into bite size pieces
8. 1 cup Catalina dressing
9. 
   
10. INSTRUCTIONS
    1. Brown and crumble ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drain grease. Add taco seasoning and water called for on packet. Stir until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let meat cool slightly.
    2. Visit Doritos Taco Salad https://life-in-the-lofthouse.com/ For Full Instructions

Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad

Our family’s favorite classic cucumber and tomato salad just got better with the addition of avocado, a light and flavorful lemon dressing and the freshness of cilantro. Easy, excellent avocado salad.

This salad is also super healthy and it fits pretty much every diet out there. 

Ingredients

• 1 lb Roma tomatoes
• 1 English cucumber
• 1/2 medium red onion sliced
• 2 avocados diced
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil or sunflower oil
• 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (from 1 medium lemon)
• 1/4 cup 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1 tsp sea salt or 3/4 tsp table salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper

Instructions

1. Place chopped tomatoes, sliced cucumber, sliced red onion, diced avocado, and chopped cilantro into a large salad bowl.
2. Visit Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad By https://natashaskitchen.com/ For Full Instructions

PALEO CHICKEN SALAD WRAPS

Some recipes are just too good not to share. These Paleo Chicken Salad Wraps are one of those recipes. It’d just be wrong for me to keep this recipe to myself. 

This recipe idea came from her, she has a staple chicken salad recipe that she makes weekly, and we get really creative with 100 million ways we can eat it. After finding these completely Paleo wraps, we decided to stuff them with her chicken salad. It was deeelicious. I love all different kinds of chicken salad. I actually have another Chicken Salad Recipe on my blog, which is a bit more complicated. This one that I’ll share today is much easier and perfect to make each week. 

Chicken Salad

1. 1 whole roasted chicken or 2 pounds of chicken
2. ½ cup finely chopped celery
3. Juice from 1 lemon (about 2-3 Tablespoons)
4. ⅓ - ½ cup Paleo mayonnaise (see recipe below)
5. ¼ teaspoon salt
6. ½ teaspoon pepper
7. 1 teaspoon Creole Seasoning

Mayo

1. 1 large egg, at room temperature (very important to be at room temperature)
2. 2 teaspoons lemon juice, at room temperature
3. 1 cup light olive oil (or 1/2 cup olive oil + 1/2 cup avocado oil)
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt
5. 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard, optional

Wraps

1. 1 Paleo Wrap
2. 1/2 cup chicken salad
3. Extra mayo (optional)
4. 
   
5. Chicken salad
   1. Put cooked chicken in a food processor and pulse a few times to rough chop. Continue pulsing for about 30 seconds until the chicken is finely chopped. *If you turn "on" the food processor, your chicken will become a "paste" instead of very finely chopped. Don't do this.
   2. Visit PALEO CHICKEN SALAD WRAPS By http://bravoforpaleo.com/ For Full Instructions