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Best Ever Mexican-Style Bruschetta

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Try this Mexican-style bruschetta for a quick and tasty appetizer or meal accompaniment that provides you with protein, fiber, and healthy fats rather than filling up on the unhealthy stuff.

best ever mexican-style bruschetta


 

August is almost here and that means time for all of the back to school shenanigans that come with it. The whole back to school thing hasn’t been too big of a deal for me the last few years, but this year our oldest is heading off to Kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN!! Whaa?! I swear it was yesterday he was just learning to walk. He is so excited which makes it all the more fun. I am so looking forward to those little talks at the end of the school day about how everything went, especially while he still wants to talk to me. Because right now I am still mommy to him and there is no better joy, except being the wife to the most amazing husband.

Time out on the sappy talk for this bread shot..OMG!

best every mexican style bruschetta



 

So yes, mornings are about to get busy again. Compared to about 8 months ago, mornings have been pretty calm and cool. It has been wonderful. I have already almost forgotten how hectic it was getting a 2, 3, and 4 year-old ready and out the door by 7:00 or 7:30 depending on the day. Life was busy. But that’s all behind me because now they are 3, 4, and 5 and everything will be different, right??

 

best ever mexican style bruschetta

 

For this reason, I think I am becoming more and more drawn to creating the simple yet amazingly delicious recipes. Bruschetta is an easy recipe that can be made with a meal or as an appetizer for a large group. I put a little twist on the usual and created Mexican-Style Bruschetta to make it more interesting. It’s a combination of tomatoes, black beans, and avocado mixed with cream cheese, garlic, and ground red pepper all over slices of pretzel bread. They come together in about 15 minutes.

best ever mexican-style bruschetta

Smiles all around for this deliciously simple Mexican-Style Bruschetta.

Fast Facts: Black beans are high in protein and fiber while being low in fat. One cup of black beans contains 15 grams of fiber! For vegetarians/vegans serving rice with black beans will provide you with all of the essential amino acids making this a complete protein. Go Beans!

best ever mexican style bruschetta

best ever mexican-style bruschetta

Best Ever Mexican-Style Bruschetta

Megan
Try this Mexican-style bruschetta for a quick and tasty appetizer or meal accompaniment that provides you with protein and healthy fats rather than filling up on the unhealthy stuff.
5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 12 minutes
Cook Time 3 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Appetizer
Cuisine Mexican

Ingredients
  

  • 1 loaf french bread or 2 pretzel demi loaves
  • extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
  • 1/2 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup black beans
  • 2 teaspoons softened cream cheese
  • 1/2 avocado peeled, seeded, and sliced
  • coarse salt and black pepper
  • ground red pepper

Instructions
 

  • Preheat broiler.
  • Cut bread into 3/4 inch slices.
  • On a shallow plate, pour 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Dip bread slices in olive oil.
  • In a small bowl combine cream cheese, garlic, chopped tomatoes, black beans, and pinch of black pepper.
  • Lay bread slices on baking sheet, oil side up.
  • Add slice of avocado to each slice and top with spoonful of cream cheese and veggie mixture.
  • Top with sprinkle of salt and black pepper and ground red pepper.
  • Broil 3-5 minutes or until edges are browned. Keep a close eye on bruschetta so it does not burn.
  • Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

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Simple Kale and Couscous Salad with Apricot Vinaigrette and Sea Scallops

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Simple kale salad with lots of texture and flavor. This salad is a mixture of kale, couscous, almonds, onions, and cherry tomatoes topped with an easy homemade apricot vinaigrette. 

simple kale and couscous salad with apricot vinaigrette

 

This is not just another kale salad with some complicated homemade dressing. Nah, that’s not this at all. I will admit that this is my favorite salad that I have ever put together. I’m not even kidding. Plus, the homemade vinaigrette is far from complicated. So far from it that it requires no blender and no food processor. All it takes is 3 ingredients plus some salt and pepper.

How is that for simple guys?!! Super simple aside, this apricot vinaigrette is one of my favorite salad dressings I have ever made.

simple kale and couscous salad with apricot vinaigrette and sea scallops

 

I make a fair amount of salads on a regular basis. The thing I love most about this salad is that I was literally just throwing some stuff together in a bowl to go with our roasted chicken a few weeks ago. My husband and I both got wide-eyed and could not stop talking about how great the salad tasted. It was fantastic! The MVP of the salad is definitely the apricot vinaigrette if you haven’t noticed as of yet! The hubs was even dipping his toasted pretzel bread in it (I may have tried that too). Let me tell you it was taaassty!

simple kale and couscous salad with apricot vinaigrette and sea scallops

 

There are two main things that make a green salad unforgettable in my mind. The first is a great dressing. If you have that, you can make any mediocre salad taste great. The second is to add lots of color and texture. It is best to keep some dried fruit and nuts in your pantry for easy add-ins to salads. They make a world of difference in a salad. I am usually relying on cheese for a salad topper and it didn’t even cross my mind with this salad because there was already so much flavor and texture. One more minor but also big detail in a salad is trimming the stems. I really like spinach and kale, but the stems just kind of ruin it ya know.

simple kale and couscous salad with apricot vinaigrette and sea scallops

 

Okay, okay you may have also noticed the scallops. It seems they are frequenting our dinner table a little more often these days. I haven’t even mentioned them yet, but pretty sure they need no introduction when cooked just right. The main event here is definitely the salad! Yet, I knew this salad would be super tasty with some buttery scallops.

Guess what? Yup, I was totally right! The combo just kills it.

This Simple Kale and Couscous Salad with Apricot Vinaigrette is a straight up top of the list dinner date meal at home!

Simple Kale and Couscous Salad

It’s Fancy
It’s Simple
It’s Quick

simple kale and couscous salad with apricot vinaigrette and sea scallops

 

Check out this article over at healthyline.com about the benefits of eating kale to find out why you should be including more kale in your diet! Great article!

 

simple kale and couscous salad with apricot vinaigrette

Simple Kale and Couscous Salad with Apricot Vinaigrette and Sea Scallops

Megan
Simple kale salad with lots of texture and flavor. This salad is a mixture of kale, couscous, almonds, onions, and cherry tomatoes topped with an easy homemade apricot vinaigrette.
5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 7 minutes
Total Time 27 minutes
Course Salad
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

Salad

  • 4 cups of fresh kale stems removed
  • 1/2 cup yellow onion chopped
  • 2 tablespoons sliced almonds
  • 1/3 cup cooked couscous I used Near East Whole Grain Blends Garlic & Olive Oil
  • 5 cherry tomatoes quartered

Apricot Vinaigrette

  • 2 teaspoons apricot preserves
  • 3 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • pinch of black pepper
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Sea Scallops

  • 1/2 pound sea scallops
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon herbs from provence

Instructions
 

Apricot Vinaigrette

  • Combine apricot preserves and vinegar in a medium bowl and whisk together well.
  • Add salt and pepper.
  • Slowly pour in olive oil and whisk together well until combined.
  • Refrigerate until ready to use.

Kale Salad

  • Cook couscous according to package instructions. Cut up tomatoes and chop onion.
  • In a large bowl, add kale followed by onion, couscous, cherry tomatoes, and almonds.
  • Set aside.
  • When ready to serve, pour apricot dressing over salad. May need to whisk dressing again before adding to salad.

Sea Scallops

  • In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Season scallops with salt and pepper.
  • Cook scallops for 3-4 minutes or until bottom is golden brown and then carefully flip scallops over.
  • Add butter and herbs from provence. Cook for another 3 minutes or until golden brown. Occasionally lift pan and tilt to move butter around and with a spoon pour butter over scallops.
  • Remove from heat and serve with salad and crusty bread.

Notes

The box of couscous will make more than is needed for this recipe. However, it is a great side to go with other meals.
The apricot vinaigrette is not included in the nutrition facts label. For every 2 tablespoons of dressing there is 130 Calories. The vinaigrette makes about 1/2 cup.
The apricot vinaigrette was adapted from Bobby Flay's Apricot Vinaigrette.

 

 

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Red Potato Salad with Sun-dried Tomatoes

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This is not the usual potato salad. This Red Potato Salad with Sun-dried Tomatoes is most certainly not ordinary. Potatoes with the skins left on for added fiber and nutrition, and it does not contain any mayonnaise. Extra-virgin olive oil, kalamata olives and turkey bacon are in this most delicious potato salad. Be surprised and make it for yourself!

red potato salad with sun-dried tomatoes


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Red potatoes with skins combined with sun-dried tomatoes and kalamata olives…yes please! This salad is anything but ordinary. It is so far from the usual potato salad that you may be curious about what your tastebuds may think. My advice to you is be curious, eat more whole foods, and try not to love the heck out of this red potato salad. It’s summery and so refreshing. If you are into summery and refreshing you may also love this Brussels Sprout and Broccoli Salad! I’m gonna go out on a limb and say this is the new and cool way to make potato salad. I came across this recipe in one of my favorite books, Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson. In it Jo talks about how to buy, store, and prepare fruits and vegetables with a few amazing recipes on the side.

red potato salad with sun-dried tomatoes




I have certainly been playing life a bit out of the ordinary lately so this red potato salad is a perfect post for my blog right now.

This past weekend we made a trip to Omaha for an annual family get together. One of the highlights was a surprise ticket to the Nickelback concert! Oh, and sitting in a suite at the CenturyLink Center was a new and amazing experience for me.

red potato salad with sun-dried tomatoes

To be honest, I probably haven’t listened to Nickelback much since college. Pretty sure I listened to them like it was my job. But I could see my Pandora station lineup changing a bit as I was pleasantly surprised about some of their new songs. The concert was a total blast! Like pretty sure I don’t need to do yoga for a week with all of the jumping around I did. 🙂 Also is this just me cause there is something special about seeing music artists in person that makes me an even bigger fan. It’s as I feel I get to know them more on a personal level and connect to their music a bit more.

red potato salad with sun-dried tomatoes

In a weird way this potato salad is like the new Nickelback. I have always liked potato salad, but I know I shouldn’t eat too much with the usual ingredients it contains. Likewise, maybe I shouldn’t listen to too much Nickelback as some most of the lyrics are pretty vulgar. But, a new song recently released called Song on Fire makes me like Nickelback again…keep reading I will get there. And well, with a little tweaking of my own here is a new and improved red potato salad with sun-dried tomatoes.

red potato salad with sun-dried tomatoes

Red Potato Salad with Sun-dried Tomatoes

Simple
Gluten-Free
Without Mayo

red potato salad with sun-dried tomatoes

red potato salad with sun-dried tomatoes

Red Potato Salad with Sun-dried Tomatoes

Megan
This is not the usual potato salad. This Red Potato Salad with Sun-dried Tomatoes is most certainly not ordinary. Potatoes with the skins left on for added fiber and nutrition, and it does not contain any mayonnaise.
5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Course Potato Salad

Ingredients
  

  • 2 pounds red potatoes or cooking potatoes with skin on
  • 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes drained and chopped
  • 1/2 cup scallions chopped
  • 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
  • 1/2 cup kalamata olives pitted and sliced
  • Optional: 1/3 cup turkey or regular bacon cooked and chopped

Instructions
 

  • In a large pot, boil potatoes for about 20 minutes or until they are easily pierced with a fork. Cool and store potatoes in the fridge for 24 hours. Do this if time allows, otherwise refrigerate until ready to make.
  • Quarter the potatoes, and cut into 1/4 inch slices.
  • Place slices in a large mixing bowl, leaving skins on the potatoes.
  • In a medium bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix together well.
  • Pour over the potatoes and gently toss until potatoes are evenly coated.
  • Serve potato salad cold or at room temperature.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Jo Robinson in Eating on the Wild Side