With Springtime comes warmer weather and sunny days…and more veggies to color your plates with! Let’s leave the cold dreary days behind us and dine al fresco tonight! You’ll want to with these fresh veggie side dishes.

Today, we prepared Turkle112’s Zucchini with Chickpea and Mushroom Stuffing. It works as a side, but the chick peas make it hearty enough to qualify as a light vegetarian meal. And the other ingredients? We especially liked the lemon juice and use of fresh herbs (parsley). We also added freshly chopped cliantro.

You’ll also want to check out Mkennard’s Sweet Potato Salad with Grilled Vegetables, great to serve at a picnic or barbecue. The savory homemade marinade sets it apart from other veggie sides.

And for your up and coming spring and summer camping trip? We suggest Cara’s Cowboy Spud and Veggie Medley because you’ll want something a little tastier than beef jerky and granola bars after awhile :).

A Feast for the Eyes, also known as FoodieWife’s blog, is the place for sweet and savory eye candy. This at-home cook knows how to prepare delicious food and serve it up with style.

Though her blog is packed full of comfort food recipes, you won’t find just any old chicken noodle soup recipe on there. For instance, her Austrian Goulash doesn’t resemble the all-too-familiar weeknight meal we grew up eating. No mixes or flavor packets here, familiar spices infuse this goulash while it simmers away for hours in a dutch oven.

If your weekend menu looks a little boring, consider adding FoodieWife’s Baked Salmon in Puff Pastry with Cremini Mushroom Duxelle to it. Don’t let the long name intimidate you, salmon wellington is what she’s sharing the recipe for here. Even amateur cooks will enjoy making (and devouring) this dish, thanks to her in-depth instructions.

FoodieWife isn’t a vanilla cook. In fact, she doesn’t even go for the carton of vanilla ice cream because she makes Extra Creamy Strawberry Ice Cream from scratch. This is actually a recipe for a custard, which is creamier in texture than traditional ice cream, and if you haven’t had it you’re missing out. She says it’s the best, and we believe her.

Don’t know whether to serve tonight’s corned beef and cabbage dinner with mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, or even potato pancakes? Solution: make boxty cakes.

These Irish potato pancakes are unlike any pancake I’ve ever tried. Boiled potatoes are mashed and combined with raw finely grated potatoes, a bit of flour, a good amount of salt and even buttermilk to create a savory fried treat that’s tasty on its own. They remind me of my favorite breakfast and comfort foods: hashbrowns, pancakes, and mashed potatoes!

We were impressed by the delicious simplicity of Igarn’s Boxty Cakes recipe. It’s a classic recipe with easy-to-follow instructions. Feel free to halve it, as we did; you’ll still find your mouth watering after the first bite.

Check out these recipes that use my personal favorite protein, corned beef, in creative and tasty ways:
Gbabe’s Reuben Sandwich Casserole
SweetsbySharon’s Corned Beef Hash and Eggs
Jeanniek521’s Honey Mustard Glazed Corned Beef and Cabbage

Need a reason to pinch someone tomorrow, even if they’re wearing green? Anyone who claims that corned beef is a traditional Irish treat better beware ;)! Corned beef is actually an Irish-American treat, first served up on the East Coast, or the Big Apple to be more specific.

Though most of us will likely purchase a pre-brined corned beef for tomorrow’s dinner, we’re hear to talk about what it is, exactly, that makes corned beef…corny. The bright pink color, the saltiness, the spicy notes in the background… We’re officially salivating and we want to know where these flavors and qualities come from!

One word: Brine!

Corned beef is usually soaked over a few days in a salty/spiced pickling solution, or a brine. Brisket, a usually tough cut of beef, is tenderized while it soaks in a solution containing an assortment of spices, like mustard seeds, peppercorns, coriander seeds, allspice, cloves, ginger and even cinnamon. Slow-cooking also makes this particular cut of beef extra mouthwatering and melt-in-your-mouth delicious!

Make your own corned beef at home, completely from scratch, using 1martiniup’s Corned Beef and Cabbage in Guinness or Psusarahb’s Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner.

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Pixen’s Magadip-Madurese Aromatic Chicken Stew defines savory and flavorful. Ingredients we normally bake with, like nutmeg and cinnamon, are what allow her stew to live up to its name. It’s an accessible exotic recipe; no need to visit a specialty grocery store just to purchase spices that you will only use once.

Want to make something new and mouthwatering for dinner? This dish is the answer, you likely have everything you need in your spice rack… or some version of it.

For instance, I’ve got cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and even coriander (but not the seeds). This is still an affordable recipe. Using the same ingredients in powder form, I cloned the recipe and created a chicken entree instead of a chicken stew. All the flavor is still there, but now we don’t have any excuses for ordering out tonight.

Serve with your favorite sides, just remember, this is not your everyday chicken dinner…but it is a winner!

Cute photogenic cupcakes dressed up in delicious frosting outfits aren’t all you’ll find on Sarahlyn’s i Bake Cupcakes blog. It’s the place for all cupcake fans and aficionados; it’s where Sarah showcases a variety of tasty and creative recipes.

Whether you like to keep it simple and classic with vanilla, or gobble up a one-of-a-kind Spicy Chocolate Apple Cupcake, Sarahlyn has a cupcake recipe for everyone. We’re lucky to have her as one of our Key Ingredients!

And she’s no cupcake-baking amateur! Sarah even knows how to whip up a batch of gluten-free cupcakes that taste like a warm sunny day at the beach. Who needs spring break? Try her Tropical Island Cupcakes.

End your busy week on a decadent note. Sarah’s Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Strawberry might be sugar-free and dairy-free, but they aren’t missing anything in the flavor department :)!

How many times have you stumbled upon a crave-worthy recipe, only to find that you don’t have the flour blend required to bake your treat?

That happens all the time, right? Especially when you’re trying to adapt a traditional recipe into a gluten-free one.

Today we cloned a gluten-free recipe, PinkMusicTeacher’s Blueberry Cobbler. The ingredient list called for a particular flour blend that we didn’t have on hand, but we experimented and came up with our own gluten-free flour blend! Check out the recipe card for our blend.

If you’d like to make this recipe dairy-free: Substitute the butter with canola oil and use vanilla rice milk instead of cow’s milk. One thing to note: You’ll want to use only 2 tablespoons of canola oil, since it is not solid when cold, like butter. Also, because rice milk is lean, you’ll use a bit less than 3/4 of a cup of it (start with 1/2 cup and slowly add 1/8 of a cup more, as needed).

Not on a special diet and still want to bake your cobbler from scratch? You can still follow this recipe! Use all-purpose flour and omit the xanthan gum. You’ll also want to add the milk 1/4 cup at a time (since gluten-free baked goods require more liquid).

Here are a few tricks I’ve learned while baking gluten-free:
1. Xanthan gum helps the baked good stay together, without xanthan gum (or guar gum), you’ll likely end up with a crumbly cake or cookie!
2. More liquid is usually required in gluten-free baked goods because the xanthan or guar gum thicken the batter.

For a majority of the country, spring is the time for flip-flops, tank-tops, and taking a break from the stove top! Meals can be enjoyed outside in the sunshine. Plan a picnic with these light warm-weather recipes.

Make your own deli style sandwich at home using your favorite fresh ingredients and lmarchan74’s Roast Turkey, Avocado and Bacon Sandwich. Or throw a little something different into the basket; SandyCon’s Curried Chicken Salad Sandwich with Cranberries and Walnuts offers a healthy and flavorful way to serve up a chicken sandwich with a spicy twist.

Don’t forget the veggies! RocknRollJane’s Asian Coleslaw will appeal to… peanut butter fans? Yep, you won’t find mayo in this salad. Ingredients like peanut butter, vinegar and brown sugar create a unique and savory dressing for her coleslaw.

Instead of bringing a fruit salad to your picnic this year, make a fruity dessert. We tested out this Peach and Blackberry Pie and declare that it’s a winner. Not much sugar is required to bring out the flavor in this naturally sweet dessert. Light and colorful, it’ll quickly become your go-to pie recipe :). Try it!

I’ll be the first to admit that making caramel sauce is not easy! For some, it might not require much effort, but I have gone through a couple of bags of sugar before actually succeeding in making caramel sauce (instead of just sugar crystals :).

Why was it so tough for me if I followed the directions? I overlooked a very important detail…

The secret to making a homemade caramel sauce is this: don’t over-stir!

Also, just what is golden brown? You’ll want to know the answer to that before making caramel sauce! “Golden brown” is a description that gets thrown around quite a bit in caramel recipes.

Here are a few photos from our last caramel sauce experiment; the last few will give you an idea of how golden your caramel sauce should be (before and after adding the cream).

…right before it browns.

This is the tricky part. You should remove the sauce pan from the burner at this point, because the caramel will quickly brown just from the heat of the pan (and it will burn if exposed to more heat from the stove).

…time to add the cream (add less for a darker sauce). Now you can stir-away and let the sauce thicken! :)

Here’s a recipe we tested awhile ago. Great way to enjoy your homemade caramel sauce! Sticky toffee pudding is a treat you’ll love! Yummy…

With a name like “Olive Garden Minestrone”, you’d expect a fairly tasty soup from tmullen93… and that’s exactly what you get. Once again, homemade beats store-bought, or in this case restaurant food.

You’ll be impressed that tmullen93’s soup comes together in less than 45 minutes and can feed a hungry family, for less than roughly $15! It’s also a completely vegetarian, actually vegan, recipe that will convert even non-minestrone lovers into fans of a very veggie laden Italian soup.

We stuck to the recipe, only adding a few more veggies and omitting some of the beans. The end results were more than satisfying. Served with a grilled cheese on the side (perfect for dipping, by the way), tmullen93’s minestrone soup is colorful, flavorful, healthy and affordable. Everything an Easy Weeknight Meal should be.