Easy Spring Salad [+Video]

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Easy Spring Salad [+Video]

a photo of a wooden dinner plate full of fresh spring salad including greens, asparagus, hard boiled eggs, roasted chickpeas and topped with a lemon vinaigrette.

This is an easy spring salad full of seasonal ingredients like asparagus, radishes, peas, fresh herbs and enhanced with roasted chickpeas, feta cheese, toasted pine nuts, and hard boiled eggs all topped with a bright and tangy lemon salad dressing.

Well, we did it again! We survived winter! And boy was it a doozy here in Utah this year. I have never seen so much snow here and we have lived here a really long time. So the fact that a “spring” salad is even a possibility brings a smile to my face! It is time for bright refreshing flavors and warmer temperatures!

What Goes in a Spring Salad?

One of the beauties of a salad is that they are so versatile, so I’m going to share the ingredients for how we like to make this salad, but keep in mind that you can omit or add ingredients to your liking. Here is what we like…

Dressing

  • Olive Oil: the base of the dressing
  • Dijon Mustard: adds intense mustard flavor
  • Lemon Juice and Zest: adds a bright pop of freshness and acidity
  • Shallot: adds mild onion flavor
  • Champagne Vinegar: if you can’t find champagne vinegar, you can use prosecco or white wine vinegar
  • Salt and Pepper: adds flavor

Salad

  • Pine Nuts: adds texture and we toast them for maximum flavor
  • Asparagus: remove the tough stem end and then cut it into 1-2″ pieces
  • Frozen Peas: let them defrost in a bowl of water
  • Baby Salad Greens: this can be any mix of greens you enjoy…romaine, spinach, arugula, chard, etc.
  • Radishes: adds a little heat and gorgeous color
  • Cucumber: we prefer an English cucumber
  • Fresh Herbs: mint, basil, parsley, chives – this blend is so bright and bold
  • Feta: totally optional, but we love them saltiness flavor it adds
  • Roasted Chickpeas: you can buy roasted chickpeas or roast your own and they add great texture
  • Olive Oil: used to roast the chickpeas
  • Salt and Pepper: adds flavor
  • Hard Boiled Eggs: adds protein and heartiness to the salad

This is meant to just be an overview of the ingredients for this salad. For all the details and measurements, scroll down to the recipe card at the end of this post.

How to Make a Fresh Spring Salad

I like to start salad recipes by making the dressing. It can be made up to a day or two ahead of time, so it’s nice to get that made and out of the way. For this salad dressing, just whisk all the ingredients together and set it aside.

Other parts of this recipe can also be prepped ahead of time. You can hard boil the eggs, toast the pine nuts and roast the chickpeas up

The Little Things Newsletter #406 – Life, laughter, and lots of great food!

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Welcome to the weekend, my friends! Are you as excited as I am about the sunshine in the forecast this week? I’ve been trying to spend an hour outside every day and the weather has finally warmed up enough to make that a far more comfortable time.

And speaking of time outdoors, if you happen to be a local friend and want to go for a walk one of these days, I’m game. I love having company on my walks.

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Crispy potatoes, gooey cheese, and spicy green chile nestle together in warm tortillas to make these easy Potato Green Chile Tacos.

Light and fluffy, absolutely perfect pancakes are a recipe that everyone needs to have in their pocket. I’ve been making this pancake recipe for as long as I can remember and every single person who has tried these pancakes has loved them.

And speaking of pancakes, when I first heard that you could use a package of muffin mix to make pancakes, I simply had to try it. It turns out that muffin mix pancakes are the easiest pancakes ever and they’re a fun breakfast twist.

Rich sausage, hearty potatoes, and tender, earthy green beans come together in this incredibly flavorful one-pot meal. It turns out that cooking sausage and potatoes in the crockpot is one heck of an awesome dinner plan!

Sheet pan dinners are a staple on our meal plans and this chicken thigh sheet pan dinner can be made with any vegetable and/or potato combination that you have on hand.

Cinnamon Crinkle Cookies are perfectly crisp on top and irresistibly soft inside, these cookies are a fabulous blend of warm cinnamon and sweet sugar.

Loaded with Biscoff cookies and positively bursting with rich, nostalgic flavor, each scoop of this Cookie Butter Ice Cream is an ice cream lover’s delight.

What I’m CRAVING: Zuppa Toscana with plenty of garlic bread on the side. I’d completely forgotten about that recipe until a couple of days ago and it’s on our meal plan now. It’s so good!

What I’m LISTENING to: Noah Kahan. My cousin introduced me to this artist earlier this week and I’ve been listening ever since. His folk-rock style of music is influenced by early Mumford & Sons and I am loving it all so far.

I like his music so much tha

Cookie Butter Ice Cream

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Loaded with Biscoff cookies and positively bursting with rich, nostalgic flavor, each scoop of this Cookie Butter Ice Cream is a glorious delight.

homemade ice cream with biscoff cookies

I adore cookies and ice cream. From the classic, old-fashioned recipes like 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter and Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, to the gloriously simple combination of Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches.

So, I jump at pretty much every chance I get to play with a cookie flavor of ice cream. And, let me tell you, I’m thrilled with how this Biscoff ice cream recipe turned out.

The texture of this ice cream is simply perfect. The cookies are just the right kind of crunchy, and the ice cream is deliciously smooth. Dig in with a big spoon, because this treat is something else.

Just be aware that this is some seriously rich ice cream. I usually figure a batch of homemade ice cream to be 5-6 servings. However, we tend to enjoy this dessert in smaller portions.

Biscoff cookies and melted cookie butter poured over ice cream

Biscoff Ice Cream

I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer up some personal recommendations for how to top a bowl of biscoff cookie but

Cinnamon Crinkle Cookies

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Perfectly crisp on top and irresistibly soft inside, these Cinnamon Cookies are a fabulous blend of warm cinnamon and sweet sugar.

Cookies stacked on blue plate

Cinnamon Cookies

These cinnamon cookies are the perfect afternoon snack with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea. I came up with these while playing with our family cookie recipes to create gluten-free variations for a friend.

I wanted a version of classic Snickerdoodle cookies that could be made with butter alone, eliminating the traditional shortening in that recipe. If you prefer a cookie with a more cake-like texture, simply substitute shortening for ½ of the butter in this recipe.

This cinnamon sugar cookies recipe results in slightly thinner cookies than traditional snickerdoodles. They have wonderfully crisp edges and chewy centers, and have a distinct, buttery cinnamon sugar flavor. Call me very happy.

If you’d like more gluten-free cookie recipes, be sure to check out all of the gluten free dessert recipes on this website. I’ve worked hard to create cookie recipes (and other desserts!) that will safely satisfy the cravings of my GF friends.

Overhead close-up shot of cookies on blue plate

What are Crinkle Cookies?

You may be wondering, “What are crinkle cookies?” I can’t recall the first time I heard this type of cook

Cheesy Ground Beef and Rice Casserole [+Video]

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Cheesy Ground Beef and Rice Casserole [+Video]

a photo of a round ceramic baking dish filled with a ground beef and rice casserole topped with melted cheese and a large serving spoon removing a scoop.

Picky eaters are going to love this Cheesy Ground Beef and Rice Casserole. Mom called it busy day casserole because it’s a quick and easy dinner.

Cheesy Ground Beef and Rice Casserole

Alright, this Cheesy Ground Beef and Rice Casserole recipe is definitely not my norm, but it is who I am and it happens to be a recipe that I get a crazy amount of emails about. I get loads of emails about our fabulous buttermilk pancakes too…have you tried those?! Total comfort food just like this casserole.

A long time ago (and seriously, check out the picture and you’ll laugh your heart out at how little I knew about food photography), I posted a recipe called Busy Day Casserole and it has been one of my top recipes for years now. It never disappears from the most viewed recipes. In fact, a lot of our hamburger recipe ideas are our top recipes. You can find them all here.

People love this cheesy ground beef and rice casserole, and while it’s totally simple I know why. This quick and easy dinner idea with ground beef and melted cheese is in fact the cure for all picky eaters. It’s very dependent on you for the seasoning so for picky eaters it’s perfect, but if you want more flavor season it well or add in more vegetables. If you wanted to try something similar, but with chicken, try this cheesy ranch chicken casserole!

read more: Looking for easy casserole recipes? Try our Pork Chop Casserole with Rice next!

What’s in This Ground Beef Casserole Recipe?

The ingredients you’ll need for this ground beef and rice recipe will vary depending on whether you want to make this casserole completely from scratch, semi-homemade, or if you’d rather throw together something really quickly (i.e. use a few shortcuts). 

If you have the time and energy, I highly recommend making this casserole recipe with ground beef from scratch. Don’t let the longer ingredients list fool you, I bet you already have most of them on hand already!

To make this cheesy beef and rice casserole completely from scratch, you’ll need some butter, onion, garlic, flour, cream, chicken broth, veggies, cheese, white rice, ground beef, and water. Oh, and salt and pepper, of course! 

If you’re look

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