15 Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes

These healthy salad dressing recipes are fresh, flavorful, and easy to make. Try just one, and you'll never reach for the store-bought stuff again!

My simplest tip for anyone who wants to eat more vegetables – and enjoy them! – is to start making a healthy salad dressing at home. Made with a base of extra-virgin olive oil, avocado oil, or Greek yogurt, it’ll be more nutritious than any bottled dressing you can find at the store. But that’s not all – it’ll taste better, too. Unlike most store-bought dressings, a homemade healthy salad dressing isn’t designed to keep for months on end. That means that it can be made with fresh ingredients like herbs, garlic, and avocado. They may not last for weeks…

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25 Crowd-Pleasing Party Food Ideas

These crowd-pleasing party food ideas will be a hit at any celebration! They include tempting cheese boards, finger foods, delicious dips, and more.

The best party food ideas are fun. Not too fussy, not too formal. Not bland or boring. They catch your eye and draw you in, making you think, “I want to try THAT!” And when you do try it, good party food doesn’t disappoint. Even if it’s a tiny, one-bite finger food, it packs a punch of flavor. You’ll find my best party food ideas in the post below. They include impressive platters, tasty finger foods, delicious dips, and more. They’re the recipes I make time and time again for holiday parties, cookouts, and birthday celebrations, and each one is…

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Healthy Caesar Dressing

This healthy Caesar dressing recipe has a Greek yogurt base. Creamy, tangy, and easy to make, it's SO much better than any store-bought salad dressing!

This healthy Caesar dressing recipe is just as creamy and tangy as a traditional Caesar dressing, but it’s higher in protein and not quite as rich. The trick is that I make it with Greek yogurt in place of the classic raw egg yolks and oil (or mayonnaise). This healthy Caesar dressing is also anchovy-free. I add finely chopped capers instead. The capers make this dressing entirely vegetarian but still add the salty, briny flavor I crave in anything Caesar. This dressing is easy to make with 7 simple ingredients. You don’t need to haul out the food processor or blender…

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Garlic Butter

Learn how to make garlic butter with just 4 ingredients! Creamy, savory, and rich, it's a delicious topping for potatoes, dinner rolls, noodles, and more.

What’s better than regular butter? Garlic butter! This spread is rich and, well, buttery, brimming with savory garlic flavor. It’s quick to stir together, and it lasts for days in the fridge. Keep it on hand for slathering onto bagels and toast, tossing with noodles, dotting onto baked potatoes, and more. It’s such an easy way to amp up the flavor in simple, everyday meals. How to Make Garlic Butter This homemade garlic butter recipe has to be one of the simplest on the blog. It only calls for 4 basic ingredients: Unsalted butter, garlic, finely chopped fresh parsley or…

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Stuffed Shells

These stuffed shells are saucy, cheesy comfort food at its best! They're filled with a creamy, flavorful mix of fresh spinach, lemon zest, and ricotta cheese.

These stuffed shells are saucy, cheesy comfort food at its best. I love the contrast of the chewy pasta with the creamy ricotta filling, and marinara – store-bought or homemade – is the perfect tangy accent for both. After I eat one helping, I always find myself back in the kitchen, unable to resist the allure of seconds. These stuffed shells are just that good! This stuffed shells recipe is easy to make (and make ahead!), and it’s great for serving a group. If you’re hosting a dinner party or get-together this season, it would be a fantastic dish to…

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15 Best Vegan Cookie Recipes

These delicious vegan cookie recipes include peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, chocolate chip, and more. You won't miss the butter or eggs one bit!

You don’t need eggs or butter to make delicious cookies, and these vegan cookie recipes are here to prove it. They include all the classics – peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, gingerbread, and chocolate chip – as well as fun, out-of-the-box vegan cookie recipes for anyone looking to try something new. Whether you’re gearing up for holiday baking or just in the mood for an easy sweet treat, I hope you find some vegan cookie recipes you love! Vegan Spice Cookies These vegan cookie recipes are especially perfect for the holidays, but if you’re tempted to make them at another…

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Minestrone Soup

This minestrone soup recipe is a delicious version of the classic Italian vegetable soup. Serve it with crusty bread for an easy vegetarian meal!

Today, I have two goals: to bake a batch of Christmas cookies and to make a pot of minestrone soup. To me, the two go hand-in-hand. After I spend an afternoon baking (and eating!) something sweet, I want nothing more than a warming, nourishing pot of soup for dinner at night. I love this minestrone soup recipe in particular because it’s so satisfying, but still light and fresh. Onions, carrots, and celery add depth of flavor to its herb-flecked tomato broth, and starchy beans and pasta make it nice and thick. I toss in green beans for texture, and, as…

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25 Best Dutch Oven Recipes

These easy Dutch oven recipes show off the versatility of everyone's favorite cast-iron pot. Use yours to make bread, stew, pasta, risotto, and more!

‘Tis the season of cozy soups, comforting stews…and holiday shopping. If you’re thinking about treating yourself or a loved one to a new piece of kitchen equipment, let me recommend a Dutch oven! This type of heavy-duty pot might seem like a specialty item, but if you cook often, I promise, you’ll use it daily. In fact, I always have one perched on my stovetop, ready and waiting for the next time I cook a soup, pasta, sauce, or whatever other Dutch oven recipes I might have up my sleeve on a given day. Speaking of Dutch oven recipes, I’ve…

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Crispy Smashed Potatoes

These smashed potatoes are SUCH a tasty side dish or snack! They're crispy on the outside, creamy in the middle, and packed with savory garlic flavor.

Crispy smashed potatoes? Two, no, three. …Ok, more like four for me, please! I’m a huge fan of potato wedges, roasted potatoes, and even French fries, but these crispy smashed potatoes might just be my favorite potatoes yet. They have glorious crispy skins, comforting creamy middles, and a savory garlic-Parmesan flavor that I’m pretty sure no one could ever get enough of. Conveniently, they’re perfect for a wide variety of occasions. Top them with a drizzle of chipotle sauce, and they’d make a mouthwatering game day snack. Sprinkle them with fresh herbs, and they’d be a crowd-pleasing Thanksgiving side dish.…

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Balsamic Vinaigrette

Skip the store-bought salad dressing! Instead, make this balsamic vinaigrette at home. It's rich, tangy, and SO easy to make. Just 7 ingredients!

If you keep a bottle of balsamic vinegar in your pantry, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be making your own balsamic vinaigrette at home. Really, skip the store-bought stuff: this balsamic vinaigrette recipe calls for 7 ingredients and comes together in under 5 minutes. It doesn’t get simpler than that! And this recipe isn’t just simple – it’s flavorful, too. Thanks to the balsamic, mustard, and a touch of honey, it’s bold, sweet, and tangy. It’s a perfect way to jazz up salads, roasted veggies, and more. Try it once, and you’ll be hooked. Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe Ingredients Here’s what…

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Arugula Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

If I could, I'd make this arugula salad recipe every night of the week. Tossed in a bright lemon dressing, it's a simple, fresh, and flavorful side dish.

There are few things I love more than a simple arugula salad. To his credit, Jack knows it. Not far from our house, there’s a little food market/sandwich shop that sells the BEST arugula. It’s crisp, tender, and perfectly peppery. Every time Jack goes out to get a sandwich for himself, he comes home with a box of arugula for me. I’ve used it to make all sorts of arugula salad recipes over the years (this one, this one, and this one, for starters), but lately, I’ve been especially smitten with this combination. I toss the arugula with a bright…

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A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.