5 DELICIOUS SALAD RECIPES | LUNCH AND DINNER IDEAS | SPRING & SUMMER MEALS | OUR FAVORITES

In today’s video, I’ll be sharing 5 of our favorite salad recipes with you! These easy and delicious meals are perfect for the upcoming spring and summer seasons. They make great lunches or light dinners. I hope these give you some ideas of new salads to try. Enjoy!

Please like this video and subscribe to my channel for more What’s for Dinner videos, grocery hauls, and more.

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In today’s video:

0:00 Intro
0:33 Copycat Calypso Cafe Black Bean Salad
2:46 Taco Salad
5:25 Grilled Chicken Caesar Cobb Salad
9:52 Aunt Lillie’s Pea Salad
12:00 Copycat Ninja Star Salad

Cuban Black Beans
https://bit.ly/3LEQSNT
Note – This recipe is the one I normally use. I did a simpler version for dinner this night.

Melissa’s Taco Salad
Ingredients:
8 oz Thousand Island dressing
1/3 cup sugar (or to taste – start by adding 2 TBSP)
3 TBSP taco seasoning, separated
1 tsp hot sauce (to taste)
1 lb ground beef
1 head of iceberg lettuce, chopped
1 cup tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup cucumbers, diced
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1-15 oz can dark red kidney beans, rinsed & drained
1-9.25 oz bag of Doritos, crushed
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine thousand island dressing, sugar, 1 TBSP taco seasoning, and hot sauce. Mix well and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. In medium skillet over medium heat, cook ground beef until no longer pink. Add in taco seasoning and about ¼ cup of water and simmer for 15 minutes. Allow to cool for a few moments. In a large serving bowl, layer lettuce, taco meat, shredded cheese, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and crushed chips. Add dressing and toss to combine. Serve.
Note – I like to add 2 tablespoons of salsa to the dressing.

Grilled Chicken Caesar Cobb Salad
https://bit.ly/3r54RGd
Note – I followed this recipe loosely. Instead of the dressing in the recipe, I used the below measurements which I combined from this recipe and a few others.

Caesar Dressing
Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP lemon juice
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons anchovy paste
3-4 cloves of minced garlic
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon black pepper
Directions:
Combine all in a small bowl. Taste and adjust seasonings to your taste. Cover and chill for 1-2 hours before serving.

Aunt Lillie’s Pea Salad
Ingredients:
4 cups shredded lettuce
1-10 oz package frozen green peas, thawed & drained
2 cups chopped cucumber
2 cups chopped tomatoes
4 oz shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups Miracle Whip
2-6 oz cans tuna, drained & flaked
4 oz medium shell pasta, cooked & drained
Directions:
Layer lettuce, cooked shells, cucumber, tomatoes, tuna, peas, and cheese in a 3 quart bowl. Spread Miracle Whip over salad to edge of bowl. Refrigerate several hours or overnight. Toss to serve. Makes 8 servings.

Honey Nut Chicken Salad
https://bit.ly/3yu324v
Notes – I omitted the celery.

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#salad #salads #lunch #dinner #saladrecipe #lunchideas #dinnerideas #whatsfordinner #favorites

Hi I’m Megan and welcome to my kitchen in today’s video I’m going to be sharing five of our favorite salad recipes with you these are so yummy they are perfect for this spring and upcoming summer season these are great for light lunches or light dinners great to take to potl

For Mother’s Day brunch all kinds of things so I hope you enjoy this video and I hope you find a new salad or two that you want to give a try I’m making a copycat Calypso Cafe black bean salad now Calypso Cafe is a restaurant in Nashville they used to

Have like two or three locations I think maybe during the pandemic two of them closed down they only have one open I’m not sure but um the location isn’t real close to us and it’s always like crazy crazy busy so we don’t get out there very often but I love their food it’s

Like a I want to say Caribbean style like Deli almost they’ve got sandwiches and salads but they’re really known for their like rotisserie style chicken um but anyway it’s really good so I’m going to try to recreate this at home to get started I’m going to make some Cuban

Black beans for the black bean salad in this saucepan I have my like quick style Cuban black beans took a can of black beans did not drain it added it to this pot with some water chicken bullion garlic powder onion powder cumin and a little adobo brought it to boil

And I’m just simmering it for about 15 minutes here’s what I’m going to use for the rest of the salad I have some romae lettuce that I’ve wash I’m going to chop that up I’ve got some leftover rotisserie chicken then I’m going to warm up with some of this Caribbean

Style barbecue sauce I have no idea what kind of barbecue sauce Calypso Cafe uses um but I do know it’s a thinner sauce and this kind of looked right to me I found this at Publix and I will say it I really liked it I really feel like it’s

Close to whatever barbecue sauce they use I’ve also got some shreded cheese tomato I’m going to chop up and sour cream and then last but not least are some bite-sized tortilla chips that’s just what Calypso uses but you could use whatever kind of tortilla chip you prefer here are the plates so to

Assemble the salads I laid down a bed of the lettuce added some shredded cheese added the uh barbecue sauce tossed chicken that I warmed up I did allow the black beans to cool for just about 5 minutes and then added those added some of the chopped tomatoes and sour cream I

Didn’t add any sour cream to my salad and drizzled a little more of that barbecue sauce on top along with some of the tortilla chips and this was so yummy and it’s super super filling with the black beans and the chicken it’s just delicious so I recommend you all give

This a try for dinner this next night I’m making Taco salads now this recipe I got from a lady that I used to work with not the same lady as the steak tips different company different lady um but she used to make this and bring this in

For lunch and it was so good I asked her for a recipe and I’ve made it for years I’m going to get started on the dressing now with this dressing the ingredients might sound a little bit weird to you and to be completely honest if she would

Have told me what was in this dressing and the taco salad before I ate it I probably wouldn’t have eaten it but luckily she didn’t um so it might sound a little bit weird but it’s actually delicious I recommend you give this a try so in this bowl I’ve just added in

The Thousand Island dressing and then all of this is to taste you’re going to add in some taco seasoning some hot sauce and sugar the recipe calls for a third of a cup of sugar which is kind of a lot so I would recommend you adding like a tablespoon or two and then

Tasting it and adding more if you feel like it needs it and then the recipe doesn’t call for this but I like to add in just like a tablespoon or two of salsa I’m going to whisk that together really well and then you want to refrigerate this for at least 30 minutes

I mean if you can make it a couple hours in advance that’s best next I’m going to assemble the salads now you can use whatever you and your family like I’m just making it the way that my coworker uh you know made it for me that’s how we enjoy it but again

Do whatever you’d like so in these bowls I’m just going to add some salad you can use whatever lettuce you’d like then I’m going going to add in some tomatoes next I like to add in some diced cucumber I just like the crisp coolness that this brings to the

Salad next I’m going to add in my beans now she used to make it with the dark red kidney beans that’s what I like to use but you could use black beans Pinto beans whatever you like I’ve just drained these I’m going to add that then I’m going to add some shredded cheddar

Cheese next I’m going to add my taco meat now most of the time I make this with with ground turkey but today I just happened to have some leftover ground beef from a different recipe I just warmed that up in the saucepan and then added my taco seasoning and water this

Is a great way to use up leftover taco meat then I’m going to add some Doritos now I happen to have some of these taco flavored Doritos that’s really good but I didn’t have enough for both of our salads so I’m just adding some regular Doritos that I’ve crushed up and then to

My husband’s salad I’m going to add some guacamole and then I’m just going to add on the dressing and here are our finished salads like I said I know the ingredients for the dressing might seem a little bit weird but this is actually really good I

Recommend you give this a try this was really really delicious for dinner the next night I made a grilled chicken caesar cob salad I’ll have the recipe that I took inspiration from linked down in the description box below I didn’t follow the recipe for the dressing exactly um I

Kind of combined a couple different things but let me show you how I put it together in this bowl I’m going to add in some mayonnaise followed by some sour cream I’m sure you could also use just some plain Greek yogurt if you’d prefer to do that all right this next ingredient is

Controversial I know we’re going to add in some anchovy paste now I know you may be like Megan anchovies nasty yuck GH but I promise you cannot taste the fishiness it does not taste fishy at all it just adds like a brininess saltiness to it if you’ve eaten Caesar salad out

At a restaurant you’ve more than likely had an chovies and if you think no Megan you’re wrong I’ve never eaten anchovies in my life go to your refrigerator take out your bottle of Worster sauce and read the ingredients because I bet you anchovies is an ingredient that’s listed

On there I know it’s an ingredient in the Walmart brand Hines and Le parents so like I said if if you’ve eaten warer sauce and you know you haven’t tasted the anchovies you can totally put anchovies in this now if you’re just completely opposed to it just double up

On the warer sauce a little bit but I got this little tube for like two bucks it was like 250 or something like that at Walmart so I’m going to add that in now while I was yammering on about the ancho I added some minced garlic oil

You can of course use olive oil I have avocado on hand that’s what I’m going to use some fresh lemon juice Dion mustard that wasure sauce some black pepper and then you can add in some salt according to taste but you’ve got some um really salty ingredients in there so go easy on

The salt if you do add it I’m going to add in some freshly shreded shreded shredded parmesan cheese you can use grated the stuff in the can doesn’t really matter we’re going to whisk that until it’s combined really really well and then give this a taste and adjust

The seasonings to your taste I wanted to add a little bit more pepper you can add you know a little more wasure a little more lemon juice however you like it but that’s ready to go I’m going to set that to the side while I make the rest of

Dinner for this Caesar salad you can absolutely use just store bought croutons that’s what I was going to do but a few hours before dinner I was kind of going through the pantry and I found this package of hot dog buns and they were you know kind of getting a little

Hard I was going to throw them away and then I thought no you know what I’ll make homemade croutons with the Caesar salad so here’s what I’m going to use to make them use whatever bread or seasonings you want what you’ve got on hand I’m going to keep these pretty

Simple tonight so I’ve got the Buns some of that shredded parmesan cheese oil salt pepper and garlic powder so all I did was cut up those hot dog buns into cubes tossed them with the oil added some of the salt pepper garlic powder and the shredded parmesan on cheese I

Baked these in the oven at 375° for about 12 to 14 minutes and I toss them halfway through for the chicken part I’ve got a couple chicken breasts I just seasoned them with some garlic powder and Cavenders I cooked them in the air fryer at 360° for about 8 minutes gave them a

Flip cooked them for another 8 to 10 minutes you just want to cook them until they’re at least 165° and then you’re going to want to let them rest for about 5 minutes before you slice them up I’m going to assemble the salads now especially with Caesar salads I like

Everything mixed really well together but you can do this for separate portions if you don’t want to make like one big salad so to my salad bowl I’m going to add in some romae lettuce and I like to take just some kitchen scissors and chop up the lettuce a little bit

Next I’ve got some hardboiled eggs that I chopped so I’m going to add that followed by some avocado I um just gave that a rough chop and I’m going to scoop that out into the bowl next I’m going to add some cooked chopped bacon you could also just do

Bacon pieces I’ve got some grape tomatoes that I quartered next I’m going to add some uh parmesan cheese I just took a vegetable peeler and peeled the little triangle of Parmesan cheese before I grated the rest of the block next I’m going to add in those croutons

That we made followed by the um diced up chicken breast and then that’s pretty much it now you can add whatever else you want to the salad but I’m just going to stick uh close to the recipe I’m going to add my Caesar dressing and give

That a really good toss until it’s uh coated well and yes my husband and I like our Caesar dressings well dressed but you can use as much or as little as you’d like here’s the finished salad and here are the bowls and this salad was so delicious next up I’m making my great

Aunt Lily’s pea salad my aunt Lily was my Granny’s sister and this was one of her recipes I’ll include her recipe as well as the recipe for the cashew chicken pasta salad in the description box below here are the ingredients that you’ll need you’ll need some shredded lettuce her recipe specifically calls

For Miracle Whip so that’s what I’m going to use some small shell pasta that you cook according to the package instructions drain and allow to cool some frozen peas that have been thawed some chopped cucumber chopped tomatoes shredded cheese and then some tuna that has been drain now just a quick note

Here I am having her recipe once your pasta is cooked your peas are thawed and your vegetables are chopped you basically just layer everything together I’m using this glass dish just so you can see the different layers but you could use whatever serving dish you’d like I’m going to add

In the lettuce add in the cooked pasta then the chopped cucumbers the chopped tomatoes and the recipe doesn’t call for this but anytime I eat tomatoes or cucumbers I always like a little salt and pepper on them so I just sprinkled a little salt and pepper over the cucumbers and the

Tomatoes next I’m going to add in my can tuna and I’m just going to kind of sprinkle that over the salad I’m going to use a spoon to kind of spread that out then I’m adding my Tha peas then the shredded cheese lastly I’m going to add a layer

Of Miracle Whip and spread that over the top now I didn’t measure this and I ended up using more Miracle Whip than what the recipe called for so at the end result the salad was a little bit overdressed but it was still really good I just added some extra lettuce to kind

Of soak up that dressing so here are all the layers I’m going to cover this and place this into the refrigerator overnight is best but if you don’t have overnight a couple hours works just fine here is the finished salad one once it’s out of the refrigerator you’ll just toss

It together really well and then that’s it this was a really easy and simple salad I don’t remember ever having this I may have when I was smaller but this made a really yummy lunch and as I was cooking it or rather putting it together I thought you know what crumbled bacon

Would be really good in this so as I was eating a serving of it I added just a little bit of crumbled bacon and it was delicious for the last lunch idea in this video I’m making a copy cat ninja star salad now I know that might sound

Like a really weird name to you you and it kind of is but let me explain there’s this restaurant here in Nashville they’re kind of a funky little Deli they’ve been on diners Drive-In and Dives before but they have all different kinds of salads chicken salads pasta salads tuna salads wraps sandwiches all

Kinds of things and on their menu they used to have something called A Honey Nut chicken salad oh my gosh it was delicious it was a chicken salad with of course honey pecans carrots and you could get the chicken salad just the chicken salad or you could also get what

They call a ninja star salad and so you could get um some of their chicken salad on a bed of lettuce with sunflow seeds granola and then a raspberry vinegret and this is delicious I crave this um they stop selling the honeynut chicken salad though during the pandemic and so

I was kind of bummed about it so I’ve tried to recreate it and this tastes pretty darn close so let me show you how I make this first up I’m going to make the chicken salad in this bowl I’m going to add add in my mayonnaise the honey some

Salt and pepper and I’m going to whisk that until it’s well combined now you can give this a taste and adjust the honey and salt and pepper according to your taste next I’m going to add in my shredded chicken now this is a great way to use up leftover chicken or rotisserie

Chicken this is chicken that I previously made and placed into the freezer I’ve just thought it out I have a separate video on this which I’ll include it in the description box below I’m going to stir my chicken in and next you can add really whatever kind of nuts

You prefer I like using candied pecans which I didn’t have any just candy pecans on hand but I did have this little bag of candy pecans and cranberries that I got from Walmart so I just kind of picked through it I did get a few cranberries in here which is fine

For me um but I tried to add as many of the pecans as possible I’m going to stir that up and then I just covered this and place it into the refrigerator for just a few moments just to let the flavors combine now you can just use that chicken salad for chicken salad

Sandwiches that would be delicious on a croissant SA or a wrap I’m going to go ahead and turn it into the ninja star salad I know this combination might sound a little bit weird but trust me it is really tasty I’ve laid down a bed of

Lettuce I’m going to add a nice scoop of that chicken salad then some shredded carrots a little bit of sunflower seeds and then some granola I like to use just the uh like plain granola uh I I wouldn’t recommend using like a chocolate or chocolate chip granola

Obviously and then for the dressing uh the restaurant makes a homemade raspberry vinegrette which is delicious but I didn’t have any of that on hand and I didn’t feel like making it so I just use some of this bottled raspberry vinegret and that’s it here is the

Finished salad this was a tasty lunch this is so fresh tasting and it is a unique salad but it is so good all right that is it for today’s video thank you so much for watching I hope you liked this video if you did hit the Thumbs Up

Button below and subscribe to my channel if you’re not already and I hope you have a great rest of today thanks so much bye-bye