Stuffed peppers always make a satisfying and delicious meal. There are several versions of stuffed bell peppers out there, but we are keeping things classic here! You can’t go wrong with a classic. Sweet bell peppers are stuffed with a savory mix…
Stuffed peppers always make a satisfying and delicious meal. There are several versions of stuffed bell peppers out there, but we are keeping things classic here! You can’t go wrong with a classic. Sweet bell peppers are stuffed with a savory mixture of ground beef, rice, tomatoes, herbs, and cheese. I roast the peppers before…
Ramen Noodle Salad is a potluck favorite! This easy salad has crisp cabbage and ramen noodles tossed together in a simple sweet Asian vinaigrette! Top with sunflower seeds or toasted almonds for a delicious nutty crunch!
Ramen Noodle Salad is a potluck favorite! This easy salad has crisp cabbage and ramen noodles tossed together in a simple sweet Asian vinaigrette! Top with sunflower seeds or toasted almonds for a delicious nutty crunch!
These DIY salad bar ideas are easy to prep for a satisfying meal! Load up a plate with salad toppings…
These DIY salad bar ideas are easy to prep for a satisfying meal! Load up a plate with salad toppings for an easy dinner on a weeknight or feeding a crowd.
Not everyone loves vegetables. But almost everyone can get behind a good salad bar! We love the concept of salad bar for an easy dinner idea—something about calling it “salad bar” makes it more glamorous!
There are certain salad toppings that scream salad bar and make it even more special, like peas, hard-boiled eggs, or cottage cheese (or bacon bits!). Below, we’re sharing our favorite salad bar ideas so that you can recreate this simple weeknight dinner yourself.
Top salad bar ideas
The key to making a salad bar into a filling meal is to offer good protein options. If you’re making a vegetarian or vegan salad bar, use ingredients with plant based protein like beans, legumes, and nuts. Here are our top salad bar ideas for building your own at home (or jump to the recipe):
Greens: Romaine lettuce, spinach, and mixed baby greens.
Hard boiled eggs: With 6 grams of protein each, eggs are also one of the most nutrient-filled vegetarian protein sources around.
Chicken: Make a recipe of pan seared chicken and slice it into strips of cubes.
Cheese: Cheese is a great vegetarian protein: try shredded cheese, cheese cubes, or cottage cheese.
Legumes: Try green peas, cooked lentils (like brown lentils or French lentils), black-eyed peas, and beans, like garbanzo beans / chickpeas, black beans, lima beans, white beans, or kidney beans.
Croutons: Top it all off with crunchy homemade croutons and your salad bar will be a hit.
Tips for prep
The key to making a salad bar at home? Allow some prep time for all the vegetables; it does take a bit of time for cleaning and chopping. We like preparing extra veggies to use for lunches or dinners for days later. If you’re a hard-boiled egg fan like we are, make them in advance or leave enough time for easy prep (about 30 minutes total).
Salad dressings for a salad bar
Another key to salad bar dinner is a good salad dressing! We have a whole collection of delicious homemade salad dressings that are perfect for salad bar ideas. Honestly, we like leaning into classic salad bar nostalgia with ideas like Thousand Island and Blue Cheese! Here are some of our favorite salad dressing recipes to use on salad bar night:
Wash and chop the vegetables; place them in serving bowls.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas or beans, if using.
Make the salad dressing. Serve!
Notes
These salad bar ideas are a meal concept, not a recipe: get creative and customize your toppings based on your preferences and what you have on hand! Add cooked meat for a non-vegetarian option. For a vegetarian option, be sure to include enough protein-filled items to satisfy, like eggs, chickpeas, cheese, and nuts.
A steak sandwich may sound fancy, but I promise this steak sandwich recipe is easy to make at home and BETTER than any sandwich you can get at a restaurant. Tender, juicy pieces of steak with melty provolone cheese, peppers, onions, the most amazing ch…
A steak sandwich may sound fancy, but I promise this steak sandwich recipe is easy to make at home and BETTER than any sandwich you can get at a restaurant. Tender, juicy pieces of steak with melty provolone cheese, peppers, onions, the most amazing chimichurri sauce and peppery arugula are piled between crusty bread to…
These fajitas on the grill are the best fast and easy dinner! The charred veggies and black beans make a…
These fajitas on the grill are the best fast and easy dinner! The charred veggies and black beans make a total crowd pleaser.
While Alex and I do eat meat occasionally, we generally eat vegetarian or plant-based when we cook for ourselves at home. It’s been a great way to force creativity in general, but especially at the grill in the summer.
Grilling is well-known to highlight meat, but we’ve been surprised at how it can make humble vegetables into something brilliant. Such is the case with this fajita grill recipe. Bell peppers, portobello mushrooms, and onions transform into the most delicious meld of savory flavors. Keep reading for this fantastic grilled dinner idea.
What we love about this recipe
These fajitas on the grill are the brain child of my grill master partner Alex. We happened to have a fajitas spice blend on hand for the recipe, but you can also make homemade fajita seasonings, too. We also tried “bean packets” on the grill for the first time for this one, and were happy to find they were successful.
Fajitas on the grill are a quick grilling idea that is an explosion of flavor! Vegetarian fajitas are a great option for any special diets you’re cooking for. This recipe is vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy-free and vegan if you serve it with cashew cream. It’s on repeat for simple summer meals with friends.
These vegetarian fajitas are a breeze to make. Just keep these few tips in mind when making them:
Grilled vegetables don’t require much babysitting. You want the peppers and portobello mushroom to develop those lovely grill marks, so don’t turn the vegetables too often. With that said, if you’re grilling your vegetables directly on the grill and not in a grill pan, you’ll want to watch them a little more closely just to be safe.
Be aware of the salt. If you’re using a pre-made fajita spice blend like we did, you may need to adjust the amount of additional salt you add to this recipe. Many fajita spice blends contain salt, so you don’t want to add too much!
Try the beans in foil. We really enjoyed the smoky flavor of our beans after we made them in foil packets over the grill. But if you don’t have time for this step, you can also heat up the beans over the stove.
Storing grilled fajitas leftovers
These grilled vegetarian / vegan fajitas serves 4 people, so you may wind up with leftovers (always a good problem to have!). I recommend storing the fajita ingredients separately to keep all the flavors as fresh as possible.
When you’re ready to enjoy your leftovers, reheat the peppers and portobello mushrooms in a skillet with a drizzle of olive oil (if you microwave the veggies, the mushrooms become rubbery and the peppers get soggy). The beans can be reheated in a small saucepan with a little water to prevent them from drying out.
More vegetarian grill recipes
Outside of these fajitas on the grill, there are so many great vegetarian grill recipes for summer! Try these favorites:
This vegetarian fajitas recipe is vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free (using Cashew Cream).
Frequently asked questions
What’s the best way to grill fajitas if I want to add meat?
Preheat your grill to medium-high heat. Grill your meat first, followed by the vegetables. Cook the meat to your desired doneness and the vegetables until they are tender-crisp with a slight char.
Can I make fajitas on the grill ahead of time?
It’s best to grill them right before serving to ensure they are fresh and flavorful. But, you can grill in advance, making them slightly underdone, then refrigerate until serving. Rewarm them on the grill or in a 350F oven.
What can I serve with grilled fajitas?
Warm tortillas, guacamole, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, sour cream, and your favorite salsa are all perfect accompaniments to grilled fajitas.
Wash the peppers, and clean the dirt from the portobello mushroom. Slice the peppers and slice the onion into thick strips. Slice the mushroom (if not using a grill pan or basket, chop into larger pieces). Mince the garlic (separate and set aside 1 clove minced garlic).
In a large bowl, mix the vegetables with the 2 cloves minced garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons fajita seasoning, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt (decrease the salt if the fajita seasoning contains salt).
Drain and rinse the beans, and place them on a square of aluminum foil. Mix the beans with 1 tablespoon olive oil, the other clove diced garlic, 1 tablespoon fajita seasoning, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Fold up the sides of the foil to form a square packet.
Place the vegetables in a grill pan, then place it on the grill and cook for about 10 minutes, until tender, turning occasionally. (If not using a grill pan, place larger vegetable pieces directly onto the grill.)
When the vegetables are nearly done, place the bean packet on the grill to warm the beans, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the vegetables and bean packet from the grill, and serve with tortillas and garnish with sour cream.
This breakfast quiche recipe is hearty and easy, starring a well-seasoned filling of hashbrowns and vegetables encased in pastry crust!
Looking for a standout quiche recipe to make mornings more delicious? Try this easy Breakfast Quiche! We’ve become positive quiche experts over here, trying every different flavor. This one has come out on top! Hearty hashbrowns, bell peppers, and feta cheese for a perfectly-seasoned savory filling. Encase it all in a flaky pastry crust, and it’s simple to bake up as a make-ahead breakfast or fancy brunch. Here’s how to do it!
Ingredients in this breakfast quiche
A quiche is a French pastry filled with a custard and savory fillings. Many quiche recipes you can eat for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner, making them extremely versatile! You can also eat them warm or cold, making leftovers a great snack or simple dinner. This breakfast quiche we created with ease in mind: the ingredients are simple and evocative of a breakfast casserole. Here’s what you’ll need:
Dried mustard, dried oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper
Cheddar cheese
Feta cheese
Frozen or refrigerated hashbrowns
Green onions
Red bell pepper
For the crust: purchased is quickest
The best way to make a quiche recipe is with homemade quiche crust! But with a breakfast quiche, you may want to learn towards purchased crust to make preparation simpler. For this recipe, we used a purchased crust! Here are the pros and cons to each method:
Homemade crust holds its shape better and tastes better. This quiche crust tastes so much better than store-bought: it’s more buttery and flaky. It can also hold a crimped crust better.
Purchased crust is faster. Purchased crust works too: especially for this breakfast quiche. We’ve had some issues with refrigerated pie dough holding its shape in a crimped pattern. For refrigerated or frozen crusts, we recommend using the decoration where you press the fork tines into the crust (see the photos).
Tips for blind baking
The biggest key to making this breakfast quiche? Blind bake the crust! This means you bake the pastry crust without the filling first to avoid a soggy bottom. This is essential with quiche because the filling is so liquid (but not required with say, apple pie which has a chunkier filling). Here’s how to blind bake a crust:
Prick holes with a fork all over the crust. This is called docking: it helps keep the crust from puffing up while in the oven without filling.
Add parchment paper then pie weights, dried beans, or rice! Pour them right into the crust. We use two sets of these pie weights. Bake for 12 minutes at 400°F, then reduce the heat to 350°F.
Remove the pie weights. Remove the weights and bake 20 to 25 more minutes until the crust is golden.
For the pie crust shield
For this breakfast quiche recipe, you’ll also need to use a pie crust shield. This prevents the pie crust from burning in the oven by covering just the crust, allowing the filling to bake uncovered. There are two options for a pie crust shield:
Make a pie crust shield with aluminum foil. Cut a hole in the center of a large sheet of foil that’s the diameter of your pie plate. The foil will rest on the crust, but allow the filling to bake uncovered. Here’s a video with instructions for more details.
There are lots of ways to make a breakfast quiche! This one is flavored similar to our hashbrown breakfast casserole. But you can swap in different seasonings or filling ingredients to your liking! Here are a few ideas and tips:
Don’t overfill the quiche. Try to keep the approximate volume of vegetables similar to the recipe below.
Try other sauteed vegetables like very small broccoli florets, mushrooms, or onions.
Add fresh vegetables like sundried tomatoes, finely diced bell pepper, or frozen and thawed spinach (with all liquid squeezed out).
Vary the cheese. Try adding smoked gouda or smoked mozzarella in place of the cheddar cheese, or add grated Parmesan.
More quiche recipes
Love a good quiche? Here are a few other recipes you might enjoy:
1 cup (4 ounces) frozen or refrigerated hashbrowns
2 green onions, sliced (white, light and dark green portions)
¼ cup finely diced red pepper
Instructions
Prepare the crust: If using Homemade Quiche Crust, prepare it in the pie pan using the steps in the linked recipe. If using refrigerated pie dough, transfer the dough to the pie pan (make sure it is standard and not deep dish). Fold the overhanging dough backwards and seal it to form a rim. With refrigerated crust, it’s easiest to press in the tines of the fork to decorate the edges (like in the photos; it’s harder to get the crimped edges to keep their shape while baking). Use a fork to gently prick holes in the bottom and sides of the crust (which helps it to not puff up while blind baking).
Freeze the crust: Freeze the crust in the pan for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven: Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Blind bake the crust at 400°F: Place a sheet of parchment paper on top of the crust. Fill the dough with pie weights (we used two sets of these), dry beans, or dry rice. Bake for 12 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature and blind bake at 350°F: Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and carefully remove the parchment and weights. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until the bottom is lightly browned (or more if necessary for refrigerated pie crust). Remove from the oven and add the filling once it is ready.
Make the filling:In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, dried mustard, dried oregano, garlic powder, kosher salt, and several grinds black pepper. Place the cheddar cheese in the bottom of the crust, then add the hashbrowns. Pour the egg mixture over the top. Sprinkle the top with green onions and diced red pepper. Add feta and another handful of shredded cheese.
Bake: Add a pie crust shield (purchased or homemade with foil**). Bake at 350°F for 40 to 50 minutes minutes, until the center is set and the top is lightly browned. Cool at least 30 minutes, then serve or refrigerate. Re-warm in a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes. (You can also serve it cold.) Leftovers stay for 5 days refrigerated.
Notes
*Typically we recommend a homemade quiche crust, but to keep this breakfast quiche simple we used purchased crust.
**To make your own crust shield, cut a hole in the center of a large sheet of foil that’s the diameter of your pie plate. The foil will rest on the crust but let the pie filling be uncovered. Here’s a video with instructions for more details
Stuffed peppers always make a satisfying and delicious meal. There are several versions of stuffed bell peppers out there, but we are keeping things classic here! You can’t go wrong with a classic. Sweet bell peppers are stuffed with a savory mixture of ground beef, rice, tomatoes, herbs, and cheese. I roast the peppers before… 
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A steak sandwich may sound fancy, but I promise this steak sandwich recipe is easy to make at home and BETTER than any sandwich you can get at a restaurant. Tender, juicy pieces of steak with melty provolone cheese, peppers, onions, the most amazing chimichurri sauce and peppery arugula are piled between crusty bread to… 
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