We’re definitely into the dog days of summer. Have you been enjoying the weather? For me, this really hot weather almost keeps me out of the kitchen… almost. I’ve held off on turning the oven on most nights the past few weeks and opted to cook out on the grill instead. It’s easy and I love putting together simple, tasty and fresh sides to round out our meals like this Italian Green Bean & Tomato Salad.

Simple Summer Dinner sides are made even more delicious when they come from your very own garden. Fresh and tender green beans along with colorful sweet grape tomatoes are tossed with freshly grated Parmesan and a homemade Italian Vinaigrette dressing in this flavorful salad.

One of the things I love about summer is how easy it is to “eat the rainbow” and get in your daily fruit & vegetable dietary requirements.

But if you don’t have your own garden, that’s no problem! Your local farm stand, farmer’s market or even grocery store should have these summer favorites available this time of year in their produce section.

Start this recipe by preparing the dressing. Add your red wine vinegar, garlic and spices to a blender and combine well. Slowly drizzle in your extra virgin olive oil and store the vinaigrette in a glass dressing bottle or container. Set aside.

Next, trim and cut your beans into thirds and rinse them. Blanch the beans for 3-4 minutes and then remove them to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. This gives the beans a bright green color, makes them slightly tender, while still keeping them fresh & crisp.

Rinse and then quarter your grape tomatoes and place them into your favorite glass serving dish.

Add the green beans to the bowl of tomatoes, add the Italian Vinaigrette, the Parmesan cheese and toss well.

Cover the salad with plastic wrap, and let it marinate for at least 2 hours at room temperature.

Bring this dish to your next summer get together or serve it along with your family’s favorite grilled meats for a simple but delicious meal this season!

Enjoy!

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Summer is now officially here and there’s nothing I love more this time of year than a good old fashioned cookout! It’s time to fire up your grill, get together your family and friends to enjoy this beautiful time of year. Your favorite grilled meats, a nice big fruit salad, refreshing Gold Peak Iced Tea and this colorful Summer Garden Veggie Pasta Salad are sure to make your next picnic a hit!

I feel like you can’t have a summer cookout without a pasta salad. It just goes great with everything and I don’t know about you, but I always like to enjoy any left overs for lunch the next day! Yum!

On my last grocery shopping trip to Walmart, I was sure to buy Barilla Rotini Pasta. This pasta’s curly shape is perfect for holding little bits of everything and it’s fun for the kiddos too.

What’s really nice about this pasta is how easy it is to prepare.

Freshly chopped zucchini, orange pepper, cherry tomatoes, red onion, summer squash, and the green beans for this salad can all be done the night before. Just store them together in a plastic container in the refrigerator overnight and add them to the pasta the next day.

After cooking your pasta and letting it cool, add your fresh garden veggies, a squeeze of fresh lemon, fresh basil pesto (homemade or store bought), a generous amount of Italian Blend shredded cheeses and give it all a good stir.

Cover and let it chill in the refrigerator until your cookout begins! That’s it!

As long as you have a box of Barilla pasta in your pantry this summer and Gold Peak Iced Tea in your refrigerator you can put this delicious salad together with a simple trip out to your own garden and have a refreshing drink in your hand in no time.

We like to purchase these convenient Gold Peak Iced Tea 6 packs at Walmart too because it pairs perfectly with this Summer Garden Veggie Pasta Salad and it can easily be kept chilled in your cooler on your patio on a hot day! Gold Peak Tea comes in several delicious home-brewed tasting flavors like Sweet Tea, Unsweetened, Diet Tea, Green Tea, Raspberry Tea, Peach Tea, Lemonade Tea, Lemon Tea & Summertime Lime Tea!

For a special treat, keep glasses, pretty straws and fresh lemon slices available for your guests. They’ll love it!

SAVE TODAY!

Get $1 off when you buy any two (2) 64 fl oz bottles of Gold Peak Tea on Coupons.com!

For More Tasty Summer Recipes Click HERE.

Have a great summer!

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Who doesn’t love a nice picnic? Being outdoors, enjoying a warm summer breeze and spending time with someone special. Sounds good to me! As a matter of fact, picnics make a great, inexpensive but thoughtful date activity. As long as you have a few tasty items on hand, you can Plan the Perfect Picnic Date in only a few minutes, even last minute!

Often times summer reminds me of rides in a pick up truck on country dirt roads, going for walks and hikes through local parks and simple picnics with my high school sweetheart, my husband.

Summertime around our house these days is loud, sometimes crazy but full of family fun with our 4 children.

Sometimes though, we plan a little picnic for just the two of us, just like we use to 20 years ago.

Whether we head up to the special park we use go to or pack a basket and set up a blanket at the back of our property for 30 minutes or so… we can always seem to squeeze in a picnic date.

I have a sweet memory of my husband trying to pick me some pretty wildflower (probably pretty weeds) on the side of a country road as we were walking one evening when we were dating in high school. He couldn’t break off the just the stem, so he pulled the whole plant out, roots and all and pulled them out from behind his back with his arm stretched out to me with a smile on his face. It was really cute.

Wild flowers or pretty weeds are easy to pick on your way to finding the perfect spot under a shade tree to lay out your blanket to make your picnic date a little more special. For me, those types of flowers always take me back to that memory…

What makes your picnic special is you. You have your own unique memories and moments that connect you with the one you love. It doesn’t have to be fancy to be special. It has to be thoughtful. That’s what makes for a wonderful lifetime of memories! Make your Picnic date your own.

Now lets not forget the food! When I was at Wegman’s grocery shopping last week, I picked up a few Ready Pac elevAte Salads! Varieties include Organic Sunny Caesar, Organic Nutty Cranberry, Organic Southwest Salad, and Organic Spinach Pow. Yum!

These can easily be found in the middle of the produce section in a small case display.

elevAte USDA Organic Salad Kits are fresh, delicious and perfect on-the-go or for your next picnic lunch, all while helping you stick to a healthy lifestyle.

Their salads are Anti-oxidant rich, high in omegas, and include plant-based proteins. They really do taste so good too!

I believe you need to eat good to feel good! Salads allow you to get a good amount of healthy ingredients all in one meal. Ready Pac elevAte salads are so convenient. They even come with a fork inside so you’ve got everything you need. I even pack these in my husband’s lunch for work.

Keeping elevAte salads in your refrigerator so they are ready-to-go is an easy way that you can enjoy a tasty and healthy meal that fuels you up and helps you feel great even on the busiest of days.  Grab a few on your next trip to Wegman’s this summer & Plan the Perfect Picnic Date too!

Find out more about elevAte Superfoods & follow along on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.

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I just love a good pasta salad! It’s great for picnics, cookouts and sometimes I like to just have it by itself for lunch with a piece of fruit. I’m always looking for simple ways to incorporate vegetables and fresh flavor into our meals and sides, especially during the summer months. I really enjoy making a dish that tastes like the season. This Fresh Summer Salsa Verde Pasta is just that. Fresh, full of summer flavor and absolutely delicious!

Al dente Cavatappi pasta is chilled slightly and then tossed with grilled fresh sweet corn, ripe and juicy grape tomatoes and crisp sweet peas in a slightly spicy but fresh salsa verde along with plenty of fresh cilantro (you must like cilantro for this recipe) for a pasta salad you won’t be able to get enough of.

The heat from the salsa verde, combined with the cool freshness from the cilantro with the other fresh ingredients just makes this side dish wonderful! The best part about this recipe is that is is so easy to make. After the pasta is cooked, it will only take you about 10 minutes to prepare. It can be made the night before a picnic so you will be ready to go the next day too.

This year the corn in our garden was doing excellent. That is until the turkey started wondering around and nibbling at it. They did ruin a few dozen pieces, but since we had a few rows planted, we were still able to get some delicious corn.

I think corn is one of my favorite summer foods. You just can’t get that taste any other time of year, you know? I love grilling it quickly for this salad too. It only takes a few minutes, but it adds such nice flavor and color to this dish.

As for those turkey lurking around my garden…my children chased about 20 of them away with their bicycles and I haven’t seen any of them since!

To make this yummy salad into a filling meal you can always add some grilled chicken to the mix too. Yum! Served with any meat from the grill or simply alongside a sandwich at lunch, this recipe is has now become a summer must have at our house!

If you are having a Labor Day picnic try this tasty pasta salad! You won’t be sorry!

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Summer is a great time to load up your plate with freshly picked fruits and vegetables. Summer is also a great time (especially with this heat & humidity we’ve been having) to cool off with delicious homemade fruit filled desserts and creamy ice cream. To help keep things balanced, I try to eat a salad everyday for lunch. Sometimes salads can get boring, so I love coming up with tasty combinations that keep me coming back for more, just like this yummy Blueberry, Almond & Goat Cheese Spinach Salad.

A few generous handfuls of fresh baby spinach are layered with plump, juicy blueberries, creamy goat cheese and crunchy slivered almonds for a simple salad that’s delicious and makes you feel good. This salad is really refreshing and completely satisfying for lunch or a simple dinner. To be honest, after a long day of working in my garden, I’ve even had this salad for a snack. There’s just something about those sweet berries, salty cheese and nutty flavor that goes great with those fresh greens. I think it’s perfect with a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, but it’s nice with your favorite vinaigrette dressing too.

If I don’t have fresh spinach from the garden, it’s always nice to stock up on it when you go to the grocery store. It’s great to have on hand to add to smoothies, soups and of course to use in your summer salads to get in your daily dose of veggies. At our house it’s okay to have dessert as long as you’ve gotten in your fruits and vegetables first. Sounds good, right?

If you’re having a hard time getting your 5 a day, this salad can also be made ahead of time on the weekend for lunches during the week. This way you can just grab it and go with absolutely no excuses as to why you didn’t get some of those great vitamins and minerals into your meals. Having family over for a cookout? Make a big bowl of this salad and serve it as a side. Take advantage of those fresh summer flavors while they are here! I know I’m going to miss them in a few months.

Enjoy!

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*Linking up at The SITS Girls, Miz Helen’s Country Cottage, Home Stories A to Z, Foodie Friends Friday

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The weather is getting warmer and that usually means we’ll be spending more time outdoors.  One of my favorite things to do when Spring comes around is to get cooking out on our grill.  Grilling chicken, hamburgers or even hot dogs always makes for a simple, but delicious meal.  The meal wouldn’t be complete without some yummy sides though.  This simple Shrimp & Tuna Macaroni Salad is a tasty side dish that will go great with your favorite grilled meats, serve a crowd and can even be eaten by itself for a light meal.

When it comes to macaroni salads, I really like to keep things simple.  I try not to steer to far away from the classic-style macaroni salad that most people grow up with and come to expect at a cookout.

For this recipe, elbow macaroni is cooked al dente, completely cooled then blended with albacore tuna, extra small shrimp, finely chopped onion, celery, creamy mayonnaise, freshly grated carrot, green peas and chopped red pepper for a Macaroni Salad your family is sure to love.

We don’t eat a lot of seafood meals at our house, but I’m always trying to introduce or incorporate different foods to our children without making a huge deal about it.  This macaroni salad is nice because the shrimp are pretty small, and even though we don’t eat them on a daily basis, the pasta is a familiar food which makes this salad something that my kiddos will eat without to much hesitation.

This recipe makes quite a bit of Macaroni Salad.  It can be made ahead of time and is perfect for a large family get together.  If it’s just made for your family, you can enjoy the leftover salad throughout the week for lunch or another cookout later on in the week.  My husband really likes shrimp, so he was very happy to eat this salad for a side with his sandwiches for lunch.  You can also serve this on top of a fresh bed of Spring Mix Greens or Spinach! Yum!

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*Linking up at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage

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During the Summer I cannot get enough of all the fresh fruits and vegetables in my garden and at the road side stands.  There are many healthy meals and snacks that are made from those fruits and vegetables, and then there are some not so healthy, delicious, old fashioned dessert recipes that one must absolutely make in the Summer as well!  To kind of balance out my over indulgences of fresh fruit pies, cobblers and shortcakes, I decided to get back to my “vegetables for lunch” routine.  Eating just vegetables for lunch allows me to really get a good dose of those good for you vitamins and minerals you need everyday, and allows me to make good use of all the produce that is coming out of my garden this time of year.

This Summer Garden Salad is loaded with fresh veggies right from the garden.  My father in law was telling me the other day how he’s been putting just about every kind of vegetable onto his salads.  He (or my mother in law ) chops the veggies really small and then adds them to a bed of lettuce. It’s a simple and great way to fill up and get your “5 a day” in!

I have been a little overwhelmed with the harvest from my garden, trying to freeze and prepare dishes ahead of time so nothing goes to waste, so I thought it would be great to use all of my garden veggies in a salad.  I used fresh lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers and beans that were just harvested from my garden and started chopping!  Of course you can add whatever is plentiful in your own gardens this time of year.

This salad was so colorful and pretty.  My children didn’t mind eating it at all either because everything, with the exception of the lettuce (which IS under those veggies- I promise) was in bite sized pieces.  This is the freshest, most delicious salad I’ve had in a long time.  Add your favorite dressing and you’ve got yourself one healthy lunch or side.  Now I made these salads individually, but I think this would be a beautiful dish to bring along to a family picnic or get together don’t you?

*Linking up at:

Feeding Big

Pint Sized Baker

Inside BruCrew Life

Living Well Spending Less

Best Blog Recipes

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Does this nice Summer weather make you feel like eating a fresh salad everyday?  Well that’s what I’ve been doing!  The last few weeks were really busy here at our house, and I wasn’t very good when it came to my Daily 5.  Fruits & Veggies that is.  I wasn’t feeling that great, and I had gotten off track from my exercise routine too.  I knew I had to get back on track fast.  After all, it’s summer, it’s hot, and who wants to feel yucky and not have energy when you can be enjoying this great time of year?  I started walking again and decided to eat a big salad for lunch everyday to make sure I got my veggies in.

This Grilled Chicken and Nectarine Salad is bursting with flavor.  Nectarines have always been one of my favorites since I was little.  My grandparents use to watch my brother, sister and I in the summer when we were younger and we always had fresh nectarines for a snack.  That sweet, juicy fruit is so good by itself or with just about anything really.  So I thought why not add it to my salad?!  I used a generous bed of Spring Mix Salad and added sliced, lightly seasoned grilled chicken breast on top, ripe nectarines, Bleu Cheese crumbles, and a small handful of chopped pecans for a nice crunch.  I also like to drizzle this salad with a little Ranch dressing.  If you follow me on Instagram, you may have caught a glimpse of one of my lunches and my new, all natural, low calorie favorite dressing!  It’s really, really good!

This salad is really easy to make and is very satisfying.  I don’t want my lunches to get boring, so I am trying all sorts of fruits and vegetables together this Summer.  What type of salads have you been eating lately?

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*Linking up at :

Buns In My Oven

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Simply Gloria

Just A Girl and Her Blog

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Once the warmer weather is here, more fresh fruits and vegetables are available in the grocery store and at local stands, and I just can’t get enough.  I love the bright colors and delicious taste!  Salads are such a quick and easy lunch or dinner that can fulfill your daily fruit and vegetable requirements too.  Have you ever spent all day in the garden, to come inside and find that it’s already late and you have nothing prepared for dinner?  I have!  For evenings like that, I make a simple salad.

My children have always eaten salads, even when they were very little.  It use to take me a little bit of time, but I would chop up their salads into the smallest bites possible and they just loved it.  As they have gotten older, their tastes have changed slightly and everyone has their own list of things they will or will not eat.  I deal with this problem by coming up with a basic type of salad and if they want to leave a few things off or put a few more things on, then they can.

This Spinach & Watermelon salad is really versatile and is actually one of my children’s favorite salads.  Baby Spinach is topped with sweet and juicy fresh watermelon, roughly chopped walnuts, feta or bleu cheese crumbles and a few ripe blueberries for a healthy and flavorful meal.  Two of my children don’t like dressings, so they eat this plain.  My son likes this with a little drizzle of olive oil and no blueberries.  Me, I like it with whatever I have got on hand!  Spinach and Watermelon go so well with a variety of different things, so use what your family loves the best.  If I am serving this for dinner, I will often top this salad with grilled chicken and a little blue cheese dressing.  The possibilities are endless!

Do you make salads for dinner a lot in the summer?  What are your favorite fresh fruit and veggie combinations?

*Linking up at:

Cherished Bliss

Living Well Spending Less

Best Blog Recipes

Cooking with Curls

Simply Gloria

Yummy Healthy Easy

3 Little Greenwoods

Feeding Big

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Pint Sized Baker

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Buns In My Oven

New Mrs. Adventures

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