With Memorial Day Weekend quickly approaching (seriously, where has the time gone this year?!), I’ve been thinking more about quick and easy dishes for all the BBQs were planning to have this summer. We’ve spent time getting the yard ready for hosting and really can’t wait to have friends and family over all season long.

This dip is so simple – black beans, red beans, chickpeas, scallions, green chiles, corn, red onion, lime juice, salt, pepper and a dash of champagne vinegar. And some more salt. Always with the salt!

It can be a dip (or salsa?), you can toss it on top of a salad, or mix it in with some pasta for a pasta salad, you could even drop it on top of shrimp, chicken, salmon – and you probably almost always have the ingredients on hand for this recipe! Those are the best kind, right? When you can just make something out of nothing.

Thankfully chips and salsa are a fan fav in our house and I don’t have to try so hard to rally support for those on cinco de mayo or any other day of the year.

This weekend, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo a little early and tested some new recipes for you guys. We were planning to have our first dinner outside since it was supposed to be warm enough, and it was, but the rain scared me off a bit. We ended up decorating our little enclosed porch instead!

For the table, we put down a blue Mexican blanket. We bought ours at a Brad Paisley concert when it was down pouring, but this looks identical! I had ordered a Mexican blanket table runner but it hadn’t showed up in time – love that idea, too! I scooped up some firey ranunculus at Trader Joe’s and 3 cactus in the same color from Ikea – I loved that they matched. I also picked up a few palms from Ikea and then the picado banner I ordered on Amazon in white, because, well I usually don’t do bright colored anything so I went with white!

For the board, I included:

• White and blue corn tortilla chips
• Corn salsa
• Traditional salsa
• Sweet and hot jalapenos (my most recent Trader Joe’s obsession)
• Dry chorizo
• Sliced peppers
• Green pitted olives
• Sliced avocado
• Guacamole (not pictured)
• Lime wedges
• Pomegranates and cilantro, for garnishing

And of course, a cino de mayo fiesta wouldn’t be complete without some cerveza – we had Sol and Modelo. And a lot of Topo Chico.

I love these peppers, and they’re better priced than the peppers at our major chains. A roasted pepper is so versatile, too! Throw it into pasta salad, into an omelet, on a sandwich, in a salad, and even with meats and cheese for impromptu guests. We go through at least a jar a week.

Another TJ’s must have: low fat feta. I’m obsessed. Again, crumbled over eggs, in a salad, sprinkled into rice (with spinach, kalamata olives & lemon? mmhmm, yes please). It lasts forever, but in our house, it lasts about a week.

Artichoke hearts are another perfect pantry item – keep them around to throw on a meat and cheese plate with your roasted red peppers! Trader Joe’s has delicious artichokes (and awesome grilled ones that have so, so much flavor!). I’m partial to throwing these on a cold pasta salad, especially now in the summer months, my regular salad, baked with spinach and cheese over chicken….they do all the things!

Okay. Do y’all know the joy of this Herdez Guacamole Salsa? I am literally obsessed. On salad, on chicken, on steak, on sauteed veggies, on grilled veggies, on raw veggies, on tacos. Give me all the guacamole salsa! This is the one thing I absolutely have to go to the big chain grocer for each week. I will make a special trip just for this salsa when it runs out. You can find it in the Mexican section at the store.

I’m sure everyone buys some sort of greens every week. I actually get this spring mix at Costco. It lasts longer than the regular grocery store, is so super delicious, and is like $3.99 for the ginormous size. I have a salad most days for lunch, so we can easily go through 1-2 of these a week. But they last about 10 days! Especially if you do the paper-towel-on-top-of-the-greens trick. You know, to sop up all the condensation from the lid?

I l-0-v-e mustard. This mustard is the best, we go through a jar every 5 days, easily. I’ve even sauteed zucchini in this mustard! But really it’s the secret to my creamy vinaigrette dressing, and what I use to make a traditional vinaigrette, too (which I put on everything).

What are your go-tos each week that you have to have?