Delicious Weeknight Dinner With Homemade BBQ Sauce Vinaigrette

This post featuring a recipe for homemade BBQ vinaigrette was part of a compensated campaign through Acorn Influence. All opinions remain my own. Check out the fun recipe and how to keep your weeknights stress free with a quick, healthy, and delicious dinner.

Weeknights keep getting crazier in our house, and I know I’m not alone. I give my kids the credit for this, but my commitments impact this, too. And that isn’t a bad thing. My kids are happy. They’re involved in activities they love, and I see them make progress regularly. Busy also means I don’t make it to the gym as often as I should (not once yet in 2017), so making sure I eat responsibly becomes even more critical.

The downside to our crazy lifestyle? I’m not a great crock pot cooker – mostly because I tend to remember to put dinner in the crock pot around mid afternoon. Oops. I enjoy cooking for my family, which shouldn’t be a surprise given that I share recipes so often. On those busy nights, I need a better solution, and I found it with Progresso Light soups.

I love that they provide a quick and healthy meal (double win!), with their antibiotic free, all white meat chicken in the Progresso Light Chicken Noodle soup. Their quality ingredients include no artificial colors or flavors, which I appreciate. Couple that with the fact that it’s heat and serve ready, and dinner is on the table as quickly as I can wash and chop veggies for a salad.

My kids help made soup and salad, and I appreciate that they learn how to quickly put dinner on the table and learn some life skills along the way. Cleaning and chopping veggies with parental supervision is a great first step in learning to cook. They can make more in part because of the confidence these skills gave them.

When I ask them to help make dinner, I give them some say over the dinner they make. They do a great job selecting healthy options that taste great, like Progresso Light Chicken Noodle soup with a salad to accompany it. We all agree that winter in Chicago calls for comfort food, especially with the grey, dreary days we keep getting. My kids adore soup, which makes me happy. My daughter has always enjoyed salad, and I recently got my son to eat – and like – salad, too. The secret? A homemade BBQ vinaigrette.

The vinaigrette is simple to make with no tools required beyond a bowl and fork to whisk oil to emulsify it in the dressing. I make up a batch and store it in the fridge, helping keep the stress out of busy weeknights. This is the only dressing my son will eat on salad, and I love the tang it provides, too. I brought this to a New Years Eve party this year, and everyone raved over it. Gotta love a salad dressing that pleases such a variety of palates, right?

When I made a side salad, I try to find something to complement the main dish. This BBQ vinaigrette goes great with so many ingredients, and I appreciate its flexibility. To accompany Progresso Light Chicken Noodle soup, I take some of my favorite ingredients and incorporate them into the salad. This week, I chose carrots, corn, and cheddar cheese to go with my fun artisan lettuce varieties. For more protein, add some chopped chicken or black beans. Tomatoes and celery would be perfect, too, but one child won’t eat celery while the other doesn’t enjoy tomatoes, so I left them out this time.

This comes together so quickly that I know I can quickly run to Walmart while my kids are at tae kwon do to pick up any missing ingredients for my homemade bbq vinaigrette, plus the Progresso Light Chicken Noodle soup and any salad ingredients. That makes my life easier. I split a single 18.5 ounce can between the wee ones, and my husband and I share our own, so I now pick up two cans for my family. This week? The soup was on Rollback at my Walmart for just $1.68 – win! Everyone loves the flavor, and at just 70 calories per one cup serving, we all feel good about it.

How to Make Homemade BBQ Vinaigrette

The vinaigrette is so easy peasy, and you can mix it up to suit your preferences. I first learned how to make vinaigrette when I was younger than my daughter from a French camp I went to. Every day at lunch and dinner, each “family” at the table made traditional vinaigrette to go with the salad. I loved it and used my adoration of a traditional vinaigrette to come up with one my son would love just as much.

Start by adding the BBQ sauce, lemon juice, vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper to a bowl. Feel free to use homemade BBQ sauce or your favorite flavor from the store. Stir together with a fork until all ingredients are incorporated.

Continue to stir quickly with your fork while you slowly add the oil. This emulsifies the oil into the homemade BBQ vinaigrette to ensure it creates a great consistency. Check for flavor and adjust as needed. If you have no lemon juice, simply replace the lemon juice with more vinegar, and it works well, too.

Store in a sealed container in your fridge for up to two weeks, and enjoy over salad anytime. If you emulsify it well, the oil remains incorporated. If it separates a little after sitting in the fridge, simply shake well while still sealed to mix again.

What’s your go to weeknight dinner? Have you ever tried a homemade BBQ vinaigrette dressing?

If you need a quick dinner solution, check out the Progresso Light Chicken Noodle soup at Walmart – and try your next salad with my homemade BBQ sauce salad dressing!

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