A great place to come, share your blog posts and make new friends.
We are so glad you are here with us each week.
I am so excited to be a part of the Home Matters Linky Party Team! I have been participating for quite some time and am eager to make some more contributions to this party. A little about me – I’m a Wife and Mom. My husband, four kids, 5 dogs and 75+ chickens (and counting) all currently live in the rural Montana. We are embarking on the adventure of a lifetime as we live out our dreams of being Homesteaders! Like the name implies – I love to make homemade meals every night of the week for my family. I care about what types of things we are eating and I like to try new things. This blog is all about sharing those journeys and adventures with you.
Now on to this week’s party! I can’t wait to see you there.
Please take some time to poke around and visit some of the other links.
Please take some time to check out your hosts and co-hosts on social media.
We appreciate the variety of blogs on the www; however, the Home Matters Party is for links on matters of the HOME. Please link accordingly.
We ask that you do not add other Linky Parties, Blog Hops, or Giveaways–unless you begin the party with a new project, recipe or post.
On the same note, please do not add links of an extremist, political or strong controversial nature. (The hosts and co-hosts read each and every blog post linked and will contact you directly if you have linked something that does not fit into the realm of the party.)
With your help, we can continue to grow the Home Matters Party! Thank you!
We are looking for Co-Hosts. Help us Rock this party! If you are interested, please contact Donna at radforddesignstudio@gmail.com.
Link Up!
By joining the Home Matters Linky Party you are giving permission for all hosts and co-hosts to use and share any part of your post, including pictures, for party promotion, as featured posts, in party photo collages, on blogs, across social media, etc. All credits will be given to the original source.
Thank you for joining in the fun and excitement at the Home Matters Linky Party. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. We look forward to chatting with you in the comments.
Time is the cruelest ingredient in any weeknight kitchen. You’re tired. The kids are hungry. And the clock says 6:47 PM. Still, a homemade dinner lands on the table. How does that actually happen for families who make it look effortless?
It’s not magic. It’s a system.
Why Weeknight Cooking Feels So Hard
The average American spends just 37 minutes per day on food preparation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number sounds manageable until you factor in commute stress, homework battles, and a fridge that somehow contains nothing useful. Weeknight cooking isn’t failing because families are lazy — it’s failing because nobody built a real strategy around it.
The good news? Small shifts in how you plan, shop, and cook change everything.
The Foundation: Meal Planning That Actually Holds
Most meal planning advice tells you to plan seven dinners. That’s a fantasy for a busy household. Start with five. Leave two nights loose — for leftovers, for takeout, for the chaos that always shows up uninvited.
Write the plan on Sunday. Post it somewhere visible. When you can see Monday through Friday laid out with real family recipes attached, the mental load of “what’s for dinner” vanishes before it ever starts.
Batch Cooking: The Smartest Hour of the Week
Spend sixty to ninety minutes on Sunday doing the boring parts. Chop onions. Cook a big pot of rice or grains. Roast a sheet pan of vegetables. These are not full meals — they’re the building blocks that make quick dinner ideas possible on Tuesday night at 6:30.
A cooked batch of chicken breast, for instance, becomes tacos on Monday, a grain bowl on Wednesday, and a simple pasta on Thursday. Three dinners from one cooking session. That’s leverage.
The Kitchen-Tech Balance: Staying Safe While Finding Inspiration
Finding new family recipes online is part of modern home cooking. Food blogs, YouTube channels, international cooking communities – the inspiration is endless. But foreign browsing culinary sites raises a real cybersecurity concern, especially on shared family devices.
Many regional food platforms, particularly those based in Southeast Asia, collect data aggressively or serve intrusive ads that carry malware risk. A VPN is a practical layer of protection here. Tools like VeePN let you access recipe resources from countries like Vietnam — where fermented, fresh, and balance-forward cooking traditions offer brilliant inspiration for easy home cooking. At the same time, make your connection encrypted and your family’s data private.
This matters more than most parents realize. Children using the same device to look up cooking videos are one click away from an unsafe redirect.
Comfort Food Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
There is a stubborn myth that comfort food takes all day. It doesn’t. A good pot of lentil soup takes 35 minutes. Baked pasta — real, cheesy, satisfying baked pasta — is done in 40. Busy family meals built on these kinds of dishes are not shortcuts. They are smart cooks.
Keep a short list of five to seven comfort food recipes your household genuinely loves. Rotate them. Don’t reinvent every week. Familiarity is not boring — it’s efficient, and it’s the backbone of every great family kitchen.
Quick Dinner Ideas by Day Type
Not every weeknight is equal. Monday after a long weekend needs something almost automatic. Friday just needs to be fast and feel like a reward.
Monday — one-pan meals, sheet pan dinners, or anything from the batch-cooked fridge. Tuesday/Wednesday — slightly more involved but still under 45 minutes: stir-fries, tacos, simple curries. Thursday — use up what’s left; fried rice is the hero here. Friday — pizza night, loaded sandwiches, or the one thing everyone in the family requests without fail.
Structure like this removes decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is what sends families to fast food — not laziness.
The Grocery List Is Part of the Strategy
A meal plan without a matching grocery list is just a wish. Write the list directly from the plan. Organize it by section of the store — produce, proteins, pantry — so you move through quickly. According to the Food Marketing Institute, shoppers who enter with a list spend 23% less time in the store and make significantly fewer impulse purchases.
Buy pantry staples in bulk when possible: canned tomatoes, dried pasta, lentils, soy sauce, olive oil. These don’t expire fast, and they fill in gaps on the nights when the plan falls apart.
Involving Kids Without Losing Your Mind
Children who help cook are more likely to eat what’s served. That’s not just parenting folklore — a 2012 study in the journal Appetite found that kids aged 6–10 who participated in meal preparation ate significantly more vegetables than those who didn’t. Give them a job that matches their age. Tearing lettuce, washing vegetables, stirring things — these are real contributions.
The kitchen becomes a shared space rather than a one-person performance. And the family recipe becomes their recipe too.
Protecting Your Family’s Digital Kitchen Habits
One more thing worth saying plainly: as families increasingly rely on apps, subscription meal platforms, and online resources for their recipes, digital hygiene matters. Parental controls help, but they’re not enough on their own. Tools like VeePN provide an additional layer of security when browsing cooking communities or accessing region-locked food content. This is particularly important if your kids share the family laptop for both homework and YouTube recipe searches.
Keeping the Pantry as Your Emergency Backup
The pantry is underused as a cooking resource. A well-stocked pantry absorbs the nights when the plan completely collapses. Pasta and canned tomatoes become a real dinner. Rice and eggs become fried rice. Chickpeas and spices become a 20-minute curry that tastes like it took longer.
Stock the pantry intentionally — not just with what looks good at the store — and you’ll pull off easy home cooking on even the most chaotic nights.
The Bigger Picture
Weeknight cooking isn’t about perfection. It’s about having a plan loose enough to bend and strong enough to hold. Meal planning, batch cooking, a stocked pantry, a short list of go-to comfort meals — these are the real tools. Use them consistently and homemade meals stop feeling like a heroic act and start feeling like just what your family does.
That’s the goal. Ordinary, sustainable, and genuinely good.
If you are looking for a quick breakfast, brunch, lunch or even breakfast for dinner recipe – you clicked on the right post! This super simple Sausage & Pepper Breakfast Pizza recipe has just a few ingredients and takes less than 10 minutes to get into the oven. You can also customize it to what you have in the fridge to clear up some things.
Sausage & Pepper Breakfast Pizza
It is important that you use the extra large burrito tortillas – not just the 10 inch ones. But the super big 14 inch ones that you get your burrito from at rhe burrito truck. You need the tortilla to lay flat on the bottom of the cake pan and still have enough tortilla to reach above the sides. You also want to be generous with the oil in the bottom of the pan so that it coats the sides of the pan when you press the tortilla in, and gets nice and crispy all over!
Sausage & Pepper Breakfast Pizza
Substitutes and Variations:
As I mentioned above, you can mix and match on this. You could do dice ham, crispy bacon, more than one meat or no meat at all. If you have a handful of cherry or grape tomatoes you could split those and drop them in. You could also do green onions, spinach, broccoli (cut up small) or kale. If you want onion, I would suggest sauteing them with the sausage for a bit. As far as cheese goes – use what you have and like. Feta, cheddar, gruyere, Monterey jack, mozzarella – these would all work.
Sausage & Pepper Breakfast Pizza
Suggestions for Sides:
This is really a full serve dish so sides aren’t strictly necessary. That said I would suggest some country potatoes or hashbrowns to go with. You could also do some fresh cut fruit and toast if you like.
Sausage & Pepper Breakfast Pizza
Tools that may make this recipe easier:
You will need a good nonstick cake pan for this one. I like one with some extra handles so it is easy to maneuver in and out of the oven.
A super easy, just a few ingredient tortilla pizza great for breakfast, lunch or dinner!
Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner, Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine American
Keyword bell peppers, breakfast sausage, cheesy eggs, egg, egg recipes, flour tortillas, mini sweet pepper, pepper jack, pepper jack cheese, tortilla
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
Servings 6
Equipment
1 9-in Nonstick Cake Pan
Ingredients
3tbspAvocado Oildivided
1Extra Large Flour Tortilla
8Large Eggsbeaten
1lbBreakfast Sausage
2cupsPepperjack Cheesecrumbled, divided
½cupSweet Peppersdiced
1tspSalt
1tspPepper
Get Recipe Ingredients
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400degF.
In a frying pan over medium-high heat, cook and crumble sausage until no longer pink.
Add two tablespoons of oil to the cake pan. Then press the tortilla in to the pan until the bottom is flat and the oil is pressed up the sides of the pan to coat the tortilla.
Pour beaten eggs, half of the cheese and then the sausage into the tortilla. Then sprinkle bell peppers, remaining cheese and remaining oil over the top.
Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Let rest in pan for about 5 minutes, then remove from pan to a cutting board and slice into 6 even pieces.
I love to link up my posts to lots of blogs around the internet – check out this Ultimate Handy Linky Party List to find some of the places I share to!
Estelle Forrest self-published this cookbook after a lot of playing around in the kitchen. You can purchase your own copy here:
Welcome to this week’s Weekly Wrap-up and Blog Link-up.
It’s a new year at the Senior Salon Pit Stop and it’s time to vroom-vroom to all the great posts that everyone is creating all around the the blogosphere! Scroll down to check out my Weekly Wrap-up along with my Featured posts from the previous Pit Stop!
What’s been going on at Homemade on a Weeknight?
The seasons are definitely starting to change over here at the homestead. We are getting the garden in order, we have new ducks and chicks running around, we have bees starting to settle into to their hive and I am fairly tired! But it is all worth it. We have been foraging for some things to make oils, salves and tinctures. It is so fun to learn what all the different plants that naturally grow on our property. Have you ever made your own homeopathic herbal remedies? And also…. would you be interested in learning about the recipes that I make for my family and friends to get back to the Farm and away from Big Pharma?
Share and support by linking unlimited family-friendly posts and engaging with others through thoughtful comments. We welcome a wide variety of content, including recipes, crafts, tips, and more; all family-friendly niches are encouraged.
Please note that any content not aligned with our family-friendly guidelines will be removed. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in helping us maintain a positive and respectful community.
To help grow your reach, we encourage you to add the Senior Salon Pit Stop image to your posts (HTML code available on EsmeSalon) and share your entry numbers along with your Facebook and Instagram handles for added visibility.
Ready to join in? Sign up at EsmeSalon for reminders, link-ups, and the opportunity to showcase your blog. We’re glad to have you participate!
By joining the Senior Salon Pit Stop, you signify permission (EsmeSalon privacy policy) to share your posts and images here and receive an email reminder when our next Senior Salon Pit Stop is LIVE.
**PS: Feel free to sign up at EsmeSalon Personal Invite
To ensure that you are properly recognized in case when featured, please provide your entry numbers in the blog comments along with your Facebook Page and Instagram handles. This will make it easier for me to tag you.
Show off your feature by adding the “I was featured at the Senior Salon Pit Stop” image to your post. Use this code:
A few simple rules for the Senior Salon Pit Stop Link Party:
For every post that you share – make one comment on someone else’s post. Help make their day a bit brighter.
Unlimited sharing BUT we ask that you visit one other blog post for each link you share.
Posts can be on any subject that is family-friendly.
Posts with direct sales, shops, or affiliates must contain relevant post content.
That’s it! Come and join the fun and let’s make it worthwhile!
If you are looking for more fun places to link up your posts – check out our Ultimate Handy Linky Party List – check back often as it’s always growing. And if we have missed your Linky Party – please send me a message and we will get it added in!
This might sound weird, but I know I’m not the only one…I read cookbooks like novels. I love to read them cover to cover. You can learn many little things from different kitchens, cooks, chefs, and cultures from around the world. Well written cookbooks flow like a story. They start with a good foundation of learning about the author and chef of the book. They give you some ground rules about techniques that are used throughout the recipes. My bookshelves are loaded with cookbooks from all over the world – from celebrity chefs to self-published home cooks, like myself. I have pulled together some pretty good cookbooks I found on Amazon, and new finds for you to check out.
Cookbooks I Found on Amazon – #6
The Sourdough Whisperer: The Secrets to No-Fail Baking with Epic Results
Get All of Your Sourdough Questions Answered, Plus 40 Endlessly Versatile Recipes
In the sourdough world, where recipes and methods can quickly become complicated, Elaine Boddy keeps it simple with this staple of the sourdough genre. This all-in-one handbook shares her best tips, tricks and troubleshooting tools for showstopping sourdough success. With practical solutions to every obstacle―whether it’s a busy schedule, slow-to-grow starter or overproofed dough―Elaine proves that everyone can bake beautiful, delicious sourdough with confidence.
The Perfect Loaf: The Craft and Science of Sourdough Breads, Sweets, and More: A Baking Book
ONE OF SAVEUR’S BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR
Maurizio Leo’s blog The Perfect Loaf is the go-to destination on the internet for beginner sourdough bakers. He now brings his impeccably detailed techniques, foolproof recipes, and generous teaching style to a groundbreaking debut cookbook that delves into the absolute fundamentals of sourdough—plus the tools and confidence to explore beyond.
Taste of Home Most Requested Recipes: 633 Top-Rated Recipes
Take the guesswork out of mealtime with the Taste of Home Most Requested Recipes, a cherished collection of 633 top-rated recipes loved by home cooks everywhere. Each dish has been vetted by the Taste of Home Test Kitchen, ensuring reliable, delicious results every time. Convenient Hardcover with Concealed Wiro format lays flat for cooking ease.
Of Course It’s Good!: Aggressively Delicious Meals ANYONE Can Make and EVERYONE Will Love
None of the Nonsense, All of the Flavor
Prepare delicious meals with this no-frills, all-flavor recipe collection from Jessica Secrest, the wildly popular home chef known for her hostile humor and affordable recipes. Her long-awaited debut cookbook has an array of mouthwatering meals that focus on low-effort ingredients and techniques―think pre-shredded cheese, tater tots galore, and your handy-dandy slow cooker―so you’ll have an endless source of recipes to feed your family without wasting time or money.
written by yours truly. This is was first cookbook, which I self-published and truly loved writing. It a collection of over 100 recipes that my family has loved over the years. It is a starting point for my foray into the cookbook authorship world and one I hope to follow up soon!
The only Dutch oven cookbook you’ll ever need—with 150 recipes for delicious one pot meals, plus expert-approved product recommendations and Dutch oven cooking hacks!
A Dutch oven is the most versatile pot in your kitchen: a soup pot, a deep fryer, a braiser, a roaster, an enclosed bread oven, and the perfect vessel for one pot meals. So don’t push your Dutch oven to the back of the cabinet—learn how to put it to work every day in 150 delicious recipes!
Do you have any favorite cookbooks to share? Do you have any Cookbook suggestions that you want me to check out?
PLEASE NOTE: This post contains affiliate links to products included.
Now Let’s Get Cookin’!
I love to link up my posts to lots of blogs around the internet – check out this Ultimate Handy Linky Party List to find some of the places I share to!
Estelle Forrest self-published this cookbook after a lot of playing around in the kitchen. You can purchase your own copy here:
A great place to come, share your blog posts and make new friends.
We are so glad you are here with us each week.
I am so excited to be a part of the Home Matters Linky Party Team! I have been participating for quite some time and am eager to make some more contributions to this party. A little about me – I’m a Wife and Mom. My husband, four kids, 5 dogs and 75+ chickens (and counting) all currently live in the rural Montana. We are embarking on the adventure of a lifetime as we live out our dreams of being Homesteaders! Like the name implies – I love to make homemade meals every night of the week for my family. I care about what types of things we are eating and I like to try new things. This blog is all about sharing those journeys and adventures with you.
Now on to this week’s party! I can’t wait to see you there.
Please take some time to poke around and visit some of the other links.
Please take some time to check out your hosts and co-hosts on social media.
We appreciate the variety of blogs on the www; however, the Home Matters Party is for links on matters of the HOME. Please link accordingly.
We ask that you do not add other Linky Parties, Blog Hops, or Giveaways–unless you begin the party with a new project, recipe or post.
On the same note, please do not add links of an extremist, political or strong controversial nature. (The hosts and co-hosts read each and every blog post linked and will contact you directly if you have linked something that does not fit into the realm of the party.)
With your help, we can continue to grow the Home Matters Party! Thank you!
We are looking for Co-Hosts. Help us Rock this party! If you are interested, please contact Donna at radforddesignstudio@gmail.com.
Link Up!
By joining the Home Matters Linky Party you are giving permission for all hosts and co-hosts to use and share any part of your post, including pictures, for party promotion, as featured posts, in party photo collages, on blogs, across social media, etc. All credits will be given to the original source.
Thank you for joining in the fun and excitement at the Home Matters Linky Party. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. We look forward to chatting with you in the comments.
Welcome to the Monthly Book Report and Book Review Link-up #22 – MAY 2026!
On the First Wednesday of each month I will be sharing my latest read – which could be a cookbook, a celebrity chef biography or memoir, a lifestyle book, a gardening book, a homemaking book or maybe even a cozy kitchen mystery book. They may be paper books, eBooks, or audio books. I have challenged myself to read or listen to at least one book per week, and I plan to share that with you all here.
In addition to my Book Report, there will be a Book Report LInky – a chance for all of you to share your own book review blog post (TWO per blog, please). We want to see what had you page flipping, can’t put it down, totally captivated.
Lastly will be a few Featured Reviews from the previous month’s shared posts. This will be a post picked at random by the host. Each host will likely pick their own features – so that’s multiple chances to be featured!
If you have any suggestions for me on book I should check out – please let me know!
Harper Lin is a 3x USA TODAY Bestselling Author of cozy mysteries. When she’s not reading or writing mysteries, she loves going to yoga classes, hiking, and baking with her family and friends.
Brief Description of the book:
Francesca Amaro moves back to her hometown of Cape Bay, Massachusetts, and takes over the family business, Antonia’s Italian Café. She spends her days making delicious artisan cappuccinos, until she stumbles upon her neighbor’s dead body. When the police discover Mr. Cardosi was poisoned, Francesca becomes a suspect.
The victim’s son, Matty, happens to be Francesca’s old high school friend. Together, they uncover the secrets of the locals in order to find the killer in their idyllic beach town.
Includes two special cupcake recipes!
My Review:
This month I spent a lot of time driving in my car, so I listened to a mess of audiobooks. I got into two different Cozy Murder Mystery Series – one of which was the Cape Bay Cafe Mystery Series by Harper Lin. It starts with the typical gal lost in the world and is brought back to her home town by the sudden loss of family only to find a crime to solve and maybe a love that was always there. While it is a bit of a cliche plot – Lin writes it very well. It is engaging and interesting. She has such vivid imagery and really dives into the Cafe owner aspect with details on the baking and coffee artistry. As an audiobook, this is a great series to dive right into as the narrator is very easy to listen to.
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the national bestselling author of four mystery series: the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, the Merry Muffin Mysteries, the Lady Anne Addison Historical Mysteries and the Gentlewoman’s Guide Regency Mysteries. She is also the bestselling author of Regency and historical romance as Donna Lea Simpson.
Brief Description of the book:
A Hoosier to die for?
When vintage cookware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton spies an original 1920s Hoosier brand kitchen cabinet at an estate auction, it’s love at first sight. Despite the protests of her sister that the 19th-century yellow-brick house they share in Michigan is already too cluttered with Jaymie’s “junk,” she successfully outbids the other buyers and triumphantly takes home her Hoosier.
When a doctor is discovered dead in his own office, Mrs Jeffries is on the look-out for a prescription for murder, determined to discover the culprit, despite how her employer feels about interviewing suspects . . . “He hated questioning people. He could never tell whether or not someone was actually lying to him, and he knew, shocking as it was, that there were some people who lied to the police on a regular basis.”
My Review:
This is the second series I got into listening this last month and I also really liked it. It is a light but intersting tale of a local gal thrust into the middle of a crazy murder mystery brought to the titny town by a hapless criminal ring after a valuable antique. The storytelling is well done with each character all their own. You get an excellent layout of the town and it’s people. I have already listened to the second in the series and I am next in line to borrow the 3rd installment from my local library.
This Months’s Featured Posts:
These are posts that stood out from the list of linked up posts last month. I hope you will hope over and check out their review. And don’t forget to link-up your own book-centric posts – YOU MIGHT BE NEXT WEEK’S FEATURE!
1. Please take some time to poke around and visit some of the other links.
2. Please take some time to check out your hosts and co-hosts on social media.
3. We appreciate the variety of blogs on the www; however, the Book Review Linky is for links related to Books. Please link accordingly.
4. All Captions need to be Family-Friendly and PG. If your post has EXPLICIT content, you must label it in the caption. If you DO NOT DO this your link will be removed.
5. You may add as many Book-Centric Posts as you like.
With your help, we can continue to grow the Book Review Linky Party ! Thank you!
We are looking for Co-Hosts. Help us Rock this party!
By joining the Book Review Linky, you signify permission for the listed Hosts to share your posts and images here and receive an email reminder when our next Book Review Linky is LIVE.
Welcome to this week’s Weekly Wrap-up and Blog Link-up.
It’s a new year at the Senior Salon Pit Stop and it’s time to vroom-vroom to all the great posts that everyone is creating all around the the blogosphere! Scroll down to check out my Weekly Wrap-up along with my Featured posts from the previous Pit Stop!
What’s been going on at Homemade on a Weeknight?
It sure has been a long long week…
What have you been up to this past week?
Just #ICYMI – one of the most popular recipes from the blog this last week was this Easy Couscous & Veggie Salad
In case you missed it, here are the recipes that I shared to the blog this week:
Share and support by linking unlimited family-friendly posts and engaging with others through thoughtful comments. We welcome a wide variety of content, including recipes, crafts, tips, and more; all family-friendly niches are encouraged.
Please note that any content not aligned with our family-friendly guidelines will be removed. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in helping us maintain a positive and respectful community.
To help grow your reach, we encourage you to add the Senior Salon Pit Stop image to your posts (HTML code available on EsmeSalon) and share your entry numbers along with your Facebook and Instagram handles for added visibility.
Ready to join in? Sign up at EsmeSalon for reminders, link-ups, and the opportunity to showcase your blog. We’re glad to have you participate!
By joining the Senior Salon Pit Stop, you signify permission (EsmeSalon privacy policy) to share your posts and images here and receive an email reminder when our next Senior Salon Pit Stop is LIVE.
**PS: Feel free to sign up at EsmeSalon Personal Invite
To ensure that you are properly recognized in case when featured, please provide your entry numbers in the blog comments along with your Facebook Page and Instagram handles. This will make it easier for me to tag you.
Show off your feature by adding the “I was featured at the Senior Salon Pit Stop” image to your post. Use this code:
A few simple rules for the Senior Salon Pit Stop Link Party:
For every post that you share – make one comment on someone else’s post. Help make their day a bit brighter.
Unlimited sharing BUT we ask that you visit one other blog post for each link you share.
Posts can be on any subject that is family-friendly.
Posts with direct sales, shops, or affiliates must contain relevant post content.
That’s it! Come and join the fun and let’s make it worthwhile!
If you are looking for more fun places to link up your posts – check out our Ultimate Handy Linky Party List – check back often as it’s always growing. And if we have missed your Linky Party – please send me a message and we will get it added in!
The seasons are changing and it is about to be outdoor eating time – backyard BBQs, garden parties and family get togethers. Which usually means lots of potlucks and feeding large groups, and the need for some great side dishes. It is often hard to decide if you want to bring a pasta salad or potato salad. Here at Homemade on a Weeknight – I say – bring both! In an effort to help you try lots of different recipes, I have put together a collection of recipes for Pasta Salad or Potato Salad – a Dozen Options for you to check out.
Pasta Salad or Potato Salad – a Dozen Options
A few key kitchen tools you may want to have to hand when it comes to making these Pasta Salad and Potato Salad recipes.
Fine Mesh Colanders – I love fine mesh colanders as you don’t have to worry about losing your ingredients through the larger slots or holes. And you definetly nedx a quality strainer to make both pasta salad and potato salad.
A Quality Chef’S Knife – as with any type of salad, there is a fair bit of prep work required. Having a good knife to chop up your veggies, meats and cheeses is important.
Glass Serving Bowls with Lid – whether you are serving at home or at antoher location, you are going to need a vessel to present your salad in. I like these pyrex glass bowls because they hold the cold from the fridge and the lids fit really well so you don’t have to worry about them popping off at the most inopportune times.
Jalapeno Dill Potato Salad – It’s almost summertime – which means the backyard dinner times are in full effect at the Forrest Casa. Potato salad is a serious staple for me and my family. But you know I don’t make the same thing over and over. My latest concoction has a little bit of a kick and it’s so very delish. The combination of jalapeno and dill is just so yum. You get the spicy heat of jalapeno with the bright freshness of dill that just dance your mouth.
Honey Lime Pasta Salad
Honey Lime Pasta Salad– One of the best ways to get people – especially kids! – to eat their veggies is to mix them into a beautiful, bright pasta salad with a tasty dressing. This super simple Honey Lime Pasta Salad is that little something different that will have the family and friends excited you brought it out to the table.
Pickle Potato Salad
Pickle Potato Salad – Another day dreaming of summer means another potato salad! This one might just be the best ever – at least if you ask my kids, who have already asked for it again three times. Which is especially funny because they all say they don’t like pickles! Now I know pickles are one of those foods that people either love or hate…very little in between on that line. I am 100% on the LOVE side of that line and use pickles and pickle juice in my food way more than my kids even know (LOL). This latest recipe is going to be making the rotation at my house. Check out Pickle Potato Salad.
Easy Couscous & Veggie Salad
Easy Couscous & Veggie Salad – When it comes to pasta salads, I like to have them loaded with veggies. I also prefer to use a vinegar and oil based dressing instead of a mayo based one for pasta salads. If you like both of those concepts and some bacon then let me introduce you to your new favorite pasta salad. This Easy Couscous & Veggie Pasta Salad is going to be your go-to recipe for sure.
#NoMayo Potato Salad
#NoMayo Potato Salad -Everyone needs a variety of potato salad recipes in their cookbook. You don’t always want the side dish to be the same thing over and over again – it should be a part of the meal and not just a filler on the plate. That’s why I like this variation on a classic potato salad – some might call it a play on “German Potato Salad”, though it’s not served warm. This #NoMayo Potato Salad is easy to make but loaded with bacon and flavor..
Easy Salami Tortellini Salad
Easy Salami Tortellini Salad– Pretty much everything is better once you add in a little bit of salami. This tortellini salad is loaded with lots of veggies so you don’t have to feel bad about adding in the flavor bomb of salami. If you need a simple meal to bring to a potluck or backyard barbeque or you just want an easy side for a weeknight supper at home – this recipe for Easy Salami Tortellini Salad is sure to be your new go to recipe.
Confetti Potato Salad
Confetti Potato Salad– Summer time means we need more potato salad recipes, right? Well this one is super easy and fun. The added crunch of the fresh bell peppers and celery will make it stand out with your backyard BBQ spread for sure. Confetti Potato Salad has lots of great flavor with a little kick of creamy horseradish and red onion and takes the classic egg style potato salad to the next level
Easy Bacon Pasta Salad
Easy Bacon Pasta Salad – Pretty much everything is better once you add in a little bit of bacon. This pasta salad is loaded with lots of veggies so you don’t have to feel bad about adding in the flavor bomb of bacon. If you need a simple meal to bring to a potluck or backyard barbeque or you just want an easy side for a summer supper at home – this recipe for Easy Bacon Pasta Salad is sure to be your new go to recipe.
Potato & Onion Salad
Potato & Onion Salad– Playing with potato salad recipes has become something of a hobby for me. There are so many varieties out there – mayo, no mayo, egg, no egg, hot, cold, mustard, no mustard, boiled potatoes, or roasted potatoes, it’s really goes on and on. So this latest iteration fits right in – this Potato & Onion salad is a no mayo, boiled, mustard, cold version of the classic side dish.
BBQ Pasta Salad
BBQ Pasta Salad – Every good cookout needs a good pasta salad to go with the grilled meats. Most pasta salads are fairly mild in flavor, sometimes just acting as a plate filler. Not this one, though. By adding in the bbq seasoning mix to the dressing, you get a burst of flavor with every bite. This easy zesty BBQ Pasta Salad is a fun flavor twist on your traditional pasta salad.
Loaded Potato Salad
Loaded Potato Salad – Bacon…cheese….potatoes…. do I have your attention yet? As I have mentioned before on this blog, summertime means lots of cold prep salads. I like to take classic flavors and turn them into something. Who doesn’t love the classic Loaded Baked Potato? A soft potato piled high with bacon, cheese, butter, green onions, and chives. My recipe for Loaded Potato Salad pulls all of those flavors together for a flavor packed into a great potato salad that will be the star of your next grill session.
Hawaiian-Style Mac Salad
Hawaiian-Style Mac Salad – One thing you are sure to find on every Hawaiian food truck and Hawaiian menu is Mac Salad. It is a staple in the island cuisine and so incredibly easy to make. What I love most is that almost every where you go it will be very close to the same, as it is a simple recipe. The big difference between Hawaiian-Style Mac Salad and other macaroni salads is that it typically does not have mustard in the dressing. Nor does it have much in the way of add-ins like veggies – except for one!
A great place to come, share your blog posts and make new friends.
We are so glad you are here with us each week.
I am so excited to be a part of the Home Matters Linky Party Team! I have been participating for quite some time and am eager to make some more contributions to this party. A little about me – I’m a Wife and Mom. My husband, four kids, 5 dogs and 75+ chickens (and counting) all currently live in the rural Montana. We are embarking on the adventure of a lifetime as we live out our dreams of being Homesteaders! Like the name implies – I love to make homemade meals every night of the week for my family. I care about what types of things we are eating and I like to try new things. This blog is all about sharing those journeys and adventures with you.
Now on to this week’s party! I can’t wait to see you there.
Please take some time to poke around and visit some of the other links.
Please take some time to check out your hosts and co-hosts on social media.
We appreciate the variety of blogs on the www; however, the Home Matters Party is for links on matters of the HOME. Please link accordingly.
We ask that you do not add other Linky Parties, Blog Hops, or Giveaways–unless you begin the party with a new project, recipe or post.
On the same note, please do not add links of an extremist, political or strong controversial nature. (The hosts and co-hosts read each and every blog post linked and will contact you directly if you have linked something that does not fit into the realm of the party.)
With your help, we can continue to grow the Home Matters Party! Thank you!
We are looking for Co-Hosts. Help us Rock this party! If you are interested, please contact Donna at radforddesignstudio@gmail.com.
Link Up!
By joining the Home Matters Linky Party you are giving permission for all hosts and co-hosts to use and share any part of your post, including pictures, for party promotion, as featured posts, in party photo collages, on blogs, across social media, etc. All credits will be given to the original source.
Thank you for joining in the fun and excitement at the Home Matters Linky Party. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. We look forward to chatting with you in the comments.
