By the time winter is over, I am never sad to see it go. Living in South Carolina, you hope that winters are mild (let's be real, this is why I live in the south - I hate the cold!) but that's not always guaranteed. Let's take this winter, for example. Almost a full month of temperatures in the 20's, five inches of snow, and a $700 HEATING BILL. Not joking.
Forget that. Fingers crossed it was a fluke and never happens again. Now let's move on to springtime, where things are blooming, the weeds are sprouting by the minute, and everything is a nice dusty shade of yellow thanks to the pollen blanket.
With the exception of the pollen, this is actually the best time of year here. It hasn't gotten oppressively hot yet, the tourists haven't descended on the city in droves, and everyone is still excited to be outdoors.
Winter eating, especially when it's cold out, tends to be heavy for me. Things like Turkey Pumpkin Chili & Curried Sweet Potato Soup.
When springtime comes, I'm ready to eat fresh veggies. There's nothing better than a fresh, crisp paleo springtime salad on a warm day, eaten outside in the sunshine.
Here are five great paleo springtime salad ideas to help you lighten up your meals for spring!
1. Asian Chicken Chopped Salad from Tasty Thin
This one looks so tasty. And that dressing! Yum-o. The best part is that the prep is so easy. As long as your chicken is already cooked, you can throw everything together in minutes. Coleslaw mix is the best. Who has time to shred cabbage?!
2. Cauliflower & Broccoli Detox Salad from Chef de Home
Cruciferous veggies can be hard to eat in their dense form, just chopped and cooked. I use a lot of cauliflower rice in recipes to get around this, and this recipe does the same - using grated cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots. Careful with the cranberries, as most dried cranberries do have added sugar. You can use these fruit juice sweetened cranberries to make sure you avoid the refined sugar.
3. BLT Salad with Avocado and Sprouts from Downshiftology
You had me at bacon. And avocado. We do a similar version of this on the fly with Brandan's homemade bacon, and we use my homemade mayo as the dressing. It's like a for real BLT without the bread.
4. Lemon Herb Mediterranean Chicken Salad from Cafe Delites
I love lemon and herbs. Such a simple combo, but it brings so much flavor to a dish. That chicken is cooked to perfection, and that avocado is perfectly ripe! This looks like it would be a great one to serve for dinner one of those nights that it's just too hot to cook.
5. Chicken Cobb Salad with Buffalo Ranch from Paleo Running Momma
Ah, cobb salad. Obviously if it's paleo we've got to omit the blue cheese, but everything else about a cobb salad is on point. Chicken, bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato, avocado. You could do this buffalo ranch that's here in the recipe, or you could make my homemade ranch, and turn it into spicy ranch by adding cayenne pepper a bit at a time until it's at your preferred level of spiciness. It's so tasty!
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