Welcome to the weekend, my friends! Ohio teased us with some wonderfully warm days earlier this week but then sent a bunch of rain and chilly weather our way. Regardless of the temperatures at the moment, spring is definitely on the way. The trees on our property are flowering, there are sunshiny daffodils in the yard, and the sun continues to shine through the clouds.

Our Easter traditions are pretty laid back. We’ll be at church tomorrow morning, followed by dinner at home, and then, if I’m lucky, there is likely to be either a walk or a long walk in my future. I’ll happily take either option!

ON THE BLOGS this week: Do you like green chile chicken enchiladas? Do you like chicken pot pie? Do flaky buttery cheesy biscuits make you grin? If so, this Spicy Chicken Pot Pie Casserole is going to make you very happy.

Creamy slow cooker ham potato soup with soft chunks of buttery potatoes and salty-sweet ham is perfect with a salad or just some crusty bread.

Korean ground beef is the kind of dish that both beginning and experienced cooks need in their life. The meal comes together in minutes and is full of fantastic flavors. It is easier to make than ordering take-out, saves you money, and tastes better too!

Creamy, rich, chocolatey Nutella Ice Cream with a melt-in-your-mouth swirl of Nutella mixed throughout is a dreamy way to satisfy your sweet tooth this summer – or this fall, or winter, or pretty much any time of year, if you’re me.

Crunchy, tangy, sweet pepper cabbage slaw is a welcome variation on classic creamy coleslaw recipes. Last year, a reader emailed me this recipe for pepper cabbage (thanks, Amy!) and I’ve had it on my must-try list ever since. I finally had a chance to make it last week and it was a hit.

Sweet peas, salty bacon, and sharp cheddar cheese coated in a creamy, tangy dressing add up to an easy, tasty summer side dish. This bacon pea salad is a timeless favorite that is a great addition to any meal.

Ground beef fried rice is both savory and slightly sweet with a subtle touch of heat. Best of all, this is a dinner anyone can make in under 20 minutes!

If you could put sunshine and sugar in a jar, I am convinced it would taste just like this strawberry compote. If you have access to perfectly sweet and ripe Florida strawberries right now, you need to make this asap. And if you’re still waiting for strawberries to come into their season where you are, put this on your list to make this summer.

Speaking of strawberries, yo

Prosciutto Chicken Milanese

Crunchy panko bread crumbs, creamy taleggio cheese, salty prosciutto, fresh arugula and juicy chicken breast…chicken milanese… It’s what’s for dinner!

Soooo we don’t watch TV. Like, ever. It was a decision long ago to have more productive and restful evenings instead of glued to a TV and it’s been life-changing. Until Cade was on a business trip and saw Bobby Flay’s new show. It’s been so much fun to catch an episode here or there and one day we saw a little ad for a reel he’d made about chicken milanese.

Well, I’ve been trying to sell Cade on Chicken Milanese for years but every time we’ve had it there’s been capers (Cade’s nightmare) involved. I could not wait to try this prosciutto and taleggio cheese version. I will confess, I’m making this up entirely on my own, but inspired by what he did so please don’t kill the messenger if you find his recipe and it’s different.

But more importantly!!! This is our new favorite chicken!!! It’s light and crunchy, with a perfectly juicy inside. Then there’s this beautifully mild and almost a hint of tang from the creamy, melt in your mouth cheese. All topped off with perfect balance (remember in my cookbook how I talk about salt, fat, acid, heat?) of peppery arugula and bright, acidic red wine vinaigrette. It is amazing!!!

What is Chicken Milanese?

Chicken Milanese is one of the best recipes to learn when you’re starting to cook as it’s a great base which you can later experiment with sauces, toppings etc. So what is chicken milanese?

Chicken Milanese is an Italian breaded chicken which is made by first butterflying the chicken so it’s nice and thin, then dipping it in a breadcrumb and seasoning mixture to created the best breading for breaded chicken.

What Do I Need to Make Chicken Milanese?

This easy chicken dinner looks super fancy but the ingredients are actually really simple. Here is what you will need:

• Chicken Breasts – see section below for how to butterfly a chicken breast
• Flour – just regular all purpose
• Kosher Salt – adds flavor to the breading
• Black Pepper – freshly ground
• Eggs – helps the Panko stick to the chicken
• Water – blends with the egg to create an egg wash to help the breading stick
• Panko Bread Crumbs – a Japanese bread crumb that is extra crunchy
• Canola Oil – used to fry the chicken
• Prosciutto – an Italian dry-cured ham that is uncooked and unsmoked and oh so delicious
• Baby Arugula – gives a bright peppery pop of flavor
• Taleggio Cheese – semi soft cheese with a creamy texture and mild/earthy flavor, see section below for possible substitutes

Red Wine Vinaigrette

• Dijon Mustard – rounds out the flavor of this dressing so perfectly
• Red Wine Vinegar – gives the dressing that signature acid and tang
• Lemon Juice – freshly squeezed is best of course!
• Olive Oil – the base of the dressing, a good quality olive oil will make all the difference
• Honey – adds a natural sweetness to the dressing

Creamy, rich, chocolatey Nutella Ice Cream with a melt-in-your-mouth swirl of Nutella mixed throughout is a dreamy way to satisfy your sweet tooth this summer – or this fall, or winter, or pretty much any time of year, if you’re me.

Nutella Ice Cream is what happens when I’m craving something sweet, standing in front of the pantry, and my eyes light on the jar of Nutella that my kids haven’t yet discovered.

Lucky for all of us ice cream addicts, there’s always plenty of heavy cream and milk on hand for when the need strikes. With little more than a few minutes of whisking, I had this ice cream base cooling in the fridge while I dreamed up how I would finish it after it churned.

Nutella Ice Cream

Inspired by the peanut butter ice cream topping and the magic shell that we’ve been making on repeat for years now, I swirled a variation of Nutella magic shell into this ice cream. While that is not technically required, I highly recommend it.

And while we’re on the subject of “not required, but oh-so-dang-good,” I warmed up the last of our peanut butter ice cream topping and swirled it into a second batch of this Nutella Ice Cream along with the Nutella swirl. I handed a spoon and the container of ice cream to a friend last week and her reaction was absolutely priceless.

I believe her words were something along the lines of, “What in the name of holy ice cream magic is this?!” Yeah, it’s magic. And I’m willing to bet you’ll think so too.

Nutella Ice Cream Recipe

You’ll need the following ingredients to make this recipe:

• Nutella hazelnut chocolate spread
• heavy cream
• sugar
• milk
• vanilla extract
• kosher salt

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This Korean ground beef recipe is the kind of dish that both beginning and experienced cooks need in their life.

The meal comes together in minutes and is full of fantastic flavors. It is easier to make than ordering take-out, saves you money, and tastes better too!

Easy Korean Beef

I love so many things about this recipe! This has been one of my favorite takeout meals for a long time. Good Korean beef is salty, savory, sweet, tangy, and spicy all at once.

Everything is simple enough to be found in most grocery stores, too. No running around town looking for hard-to-find ingredients. (Who has time for that?)

The recipe I’m sharing today is a “cheater” version because it uses ground beef instead of the more traditional (and expensive) cuts of meat. This dish includes our favorite Asian ingredients, including fresh ginger.

The fact that this super easy Korean beef is made with ground beef instead of a more expensive cut of meat makes it a really great alternative to pricier meats when you are craving Chinese food or an Asian meal.

Best of all, you can make this recipe from start to finish in less than 20 minutes.

Korean Beef and Rice

I’ve served this over rice, wrapped in lettuce, and on top of a salad. Korean ground beef and rice bowls make for a crowd-pleasing dinner or lunch. It packs up wonderfully in to-go containers to take to work or school and reheats beautifully.

We like this so very much that I’ve taken to doubling the recipe every time I make it just to ensure we have leftovers. I get absolutely giddy when I’m wondering what to serve for lunch and remember I have a container of Korean Beef waiting in the fridge.

Your favorite takeout place is going to start missing you once this Korean ground beef is in your meal rotation. It’s so easy, flavorful, and economical that you’ll wonder where this recipe has been all your life.

And if you love Korean food as much as we do, you need to put beef bulgogi on your list to make soon too!

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Creamy slow cooker ham potato soup with soft chunks of buttery potatoes and salty-sweet ham is perfect with a salad or just some crusty bread.

Ham and Potato Chowder

The first time I made this soup, I was staring into the refrigerator over Thanksgiving weekend and I really didn’t feel like warming up another plate of leftovers. (This is what tends to happen when you accidentally wind up with triple the amount of ham and potatoes your family could possibly eat!)

I saw the container -okay, technically, it was pretty much a vat- of potatoes and a big package of ham. So, I decided to see if I could improvise with what we had and come up with a new Baked Potato Soup recipe.

Potato Soup with Ham

The improvised soup turned out fabulously and there was hardly a bite left over.

We loved that soup so much, I wanted to make it again, but I don’t typically have a mountain of mashed potatoes just waiting around to be used on a regular basis.

If you DO happen to have a whole lot of mashed potatoes in the fridge already, just skip the diced potatoes in the recipe below and add the mashed potatoes in after the other vegetables have softened.

Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup

Simple ingredients come together in this belly-warming creamy potato chowder. The classic trio of celery, carrots, and onions work with the potatoes as a perfect base for the salty chunks of ham.

Once you have all the vegetables and ham in the slow cooker, season with salt and pepper and pour in the chicken broth. Set on low and cook for 6 hours. (If you’re in a hurry, this will finish in about 4 hours wh