Simple Salade Niçoise

Simple Salade Niçoise

by | Sep 20, 2025 | Lunch and Dinner Recipes

Bring a little southern French sunshine to your day with this simple salade Niçoise. Salade Niçoise is a traditional salad that one can find in restaurants all over France, but especially in the south. There are many variations of the salad. The recipe in this post is especially made so that children can easily make the salad. Our recipe is inspired by a wonderful recipe in The Best Ever French Cooking Course book.

The salad could be made on one large platter, but in this recipe, we suggest making individual plates of salad. This way each plate on the table can look pretty. This recipe serves 4 people, but it is easy to adapt the recipe for fewer or additional servings.

Let’s make Salade Niçoise…

Ingredients for the salad:

  • Bag of salad greens (pre-washed to save time)
  • 3-4 small tomatoes
  • 1 cucumber
  • 4 handfuls green beans (pre-washed and cut to save time)
  • several black olives
  • 4 hardboiled eggs 
  • 2 cans tuna

Ingredients for the dressing:

  • 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp. crushed garlic (pre-crushed in a jar to save time)
  • juice of 1 large lemon
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • dash of black pepper

 

 

Supplies:

  • cutting board
  • knife
  • peeler
  • spoon
  • tablespoon
  • 1/2 cup measuring cup
  • juicer
  • jar and cover
  • 4 dinner plates

 

To make the salad, lay 4 plates on the counter. Add ingredients to the plates in the way shown below to arrange a beautiful salad on each plate.

Step 1

Place a handful of pre-washed salad greens on each plate.

Step 2

Wash and slice tomatoes.

Step 3

Place a handful of sliced tomatoes over the salad greens on each plate.

Step 4

Peel and slice the cucumber.

Step 5

Place a handful of sliced cucumbers on each plate.

Step 6

Steam the green beans (ask a adult for help with steaming). Cool the green beans with cold water, then place them in a wreath shape on top of the salad.

Step 7

Add half of a can of tuna to the center of each plate.

Step 8

Slice the eggs.

Step 9

Arrange egg slices and olives around the edge of the salad on each plate.

Step 10

To prepare the dressing, first juice one lemon.

Step 11

Pour the lemon juice (about 4 Tablespoons) into a jar.

Step 12

Add a Tablespoon of crushed garlic and a Tablespoon of Dijon mustard to the jar.

Step 13

Add 1/2 cup olive oil and a dash of black pepper to the jar.

Step 14

Place the lid securely on the jar and shake to combine.

Step 15

Pour the dressing over each plate of salad. Serve and enjoy!

Bon appétit!

Crêpes {gluten-free}

Crêpes {gluten-free}

by | Feb 2, 2023 | Breakfast Recipes, Lunch and Dinner Recipes, Main Dish Recipes, Snack and Dessert Recipes

These gluten-free light buckwheat crêpes are fun to make and can be enjoyed any time of day.  If you do not need to eat gluten-free, regular wheat flour can be substituted for the light buckwheat flour. Crêpes can be filled with a variety of tasty ingredients for a savory main meal or a sweet dessert.

gluten free crepe recipe buckwheat
crepe cooked
gluten free crepe recipe

We find inspiration for what to put in our crêpes at home by visiting crêperies. Here are some that we love…  Just click on their menus for fun inspiration, from kid-friendly pb&j, to traditional ham and cheese, to unique goat cheese and dates, to decadent ice cream and chocolate sauce…

Clifton Cafe

Fontaine Bistro

The Skinny Pancake

It was at The Skinny Pancake that we first learned of light buckwheat flour.  This amazing gluten-free flour is super healthy, and makes the crêpes look like they are made from white wheat flour. Light buckwheat has a mild, sweet flavor (not at all like the strong flavor of regular buckwheat).  We get our light buckwheat flour directly from Bouchard Family Farms (there is a significant discount for ordering in bulk).  If you just want to try one bag, it can also be ordered through Amazon.

 Crêpes can be made at home using a regular non-stick frying pan.  We love Greenlife pans.  You can also opt for a special crêpe pan with lower sides.  Another fun option is an electric crêpe pan that can be dipped into batter (I used to use this in the classroom setting for many years.  It works well and makes a very thin crepe.)

 

Let’s make crêpes!

Gather your ingredients:

6 eggs

3 cups milk of your choice

3/4 cups water

2 cups light buckwheat flour (or wheat flour for non-gluten-free option)

1/2 cup melted butter

(This recipe makes about 18 crêpes.)

 

crepe

Gather your kitchen supplies:

  • large mixing bowl
  • 1 cup dry measuring cup
  • 4 cup liquid measuring cup
  • whisk
  • frying pan or crêpe pan
  • ladle
  • spatuala

 

 

crepe

Measure, mix, pour, flip…

crepe

Step 1

Crack 6 eggs into large mixing bowl.

crepe

Step 2

Whisk eggs well.

crepe

Step 3

Measure 3 cups milk into large liquid measuring cup.

Step 4

Add 3/4 cup water to the milk.

Step 5

Pour milk and water into the whisked eggs.  Whisk again.

buckwheat crepe

Step 6

Measure 2 cups light buckwheat flour.

buckwheat crepe

Step 7

Gently pour flour into the milk and egg mixture.

Step 8

Whisk the flour into the egg and milk mixture.  Whisk well until there are no clumps of flour.

Step 9

Melt a stick of butter (1/2 cup) in a frying pan over medium heat. (Be sure to turn off the burner once the butter is melted.)

crepe batter recipe

Step 10

Pour the melted butter into the batter.

crepe batter

Step 11

Whisk the batter well.

Step 12

Heat frying pan (or crepe pan) over medium heat.  (If needed, add more butter, but the coating from the melted butter should be enough.)

crepe batter pour

Step 13

Lift the pan above the burner. Pour a ladel full of batter into the pan.  Swirl the pan so that the batter fills a complete circle. Place the pan back on the burner.

crepe

Step 14

Let the crêpe cook over medium heat for a few minutes, until it looks mostly cooked.

crepe flip

Step 15

Flip the crêpe, using a spatula.  (Or by flipping in the air!)

crepe cooked

Step 16

Let the crêpe cook for a short time on the second side.  (It will not need to cook very long, as it has mostly been cooked on the first side.)

light buckwheat crepe

Step 17

Slide the crêpes off the pan and onto a plate as they finish cooking.  Then fill them with ingredients of your choice.

Bon Appétit!

Read below for more fun with crêpes…

Did you know that on February 2nd, the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord, people in France love to get together with friends and family to make crêpes?  The French call this special day La Chandeleur.  With its round shape and golden color, the crêpe is said to symbolize the sunshine… and reminds us that Jesus is the light of the world.

A Fun French song for la Chandeleur

On fait des crêpes à la Chandeleur
Moi, je les aime au sucre et au beurre
On fait des crêpes à la Chandeleur
Quand on fait des crêpes, c’est un bonheur

This can be traslated to:

We make crêpes for la Chandeleur

Me, I love them with sugar and butter

We make crêpes for la Chandeleur

When we make crêpes, it’s a joy

A Cute Video in French – Petit Ours Brun (a sweet French cartoon character) makes crêpes with his papa.  They encounter some difficulties at first, but with practice, they make many wonderful crêpes.  Don’t lose heart if it is hard to make a crêpe on your first try!  

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

French Vegetable Soup

French Vegetable Soup

by | Mar 18, 2022 | Lunch and Dinner Recipes, Main Dish Recipes

Years ago I had the blessing of being an au pair in Paris for a family who welcomed me into their family as if I were one of their children too.  One of the many beautiful memories I have with my French family is a visit to a farm near the family’s country home to buy some vegetables.  I remember how the mom of the family did not simply quickly pick out the vegetables, but instead she took the time to hold them up and admire their beauty.  When we brought the vegetables home, she made a delicious soup.  As she made the soup, she smiled joyfully.  She seemed to make the soup effortlessly, without even needing a recipe.

french tomato market
I wish I could make a delicious soup without a recipe, but I tend to need to some guidance.  My go to book for delicious French recipes is The Best Ever French Cooking Course.  This cookbook is definitely worthy of its title!  However, the recipes in this book have many details.  I used to love to spend time following detailed recipes with many steps, but there are many more important things to do these days!  Perhaps your days are busy too?

We decided to take the recipe for Soupe Provençal from The Best Ever French Cooking Course and simplify it.  We left out a few ingredients and chose pre-washed or canned ingredients when possible.  We hope this will make it possible for older children to make it independently and younger children to make it alongside a parent (or even just save you time if you are making it by yourself!).  

In addition to simplifying the recipe, we did a little research on the best knife for children to use to cut vegetables.  From our research, we decided to pick the Victorinox Swiss Classic.  We like that it is sharp (so it does not take a lot of strength to make the cuts) and that it has serrated edges, so that it is less likely to slip.  It also has a nicely rounded tip.  Our 7-year-old was very happy with it.  She used it to cut carrots, celery, and green beans.  Even our 3-year-old used it to cut zucchini (with Mommy’s hands helping to make sure our little one’s hands did not get too close to the blade).

victorinox knife carrot cut

We decided to make a printable for this recipe, rather than list the steps online. Please let us know in the comments below what you think of this format. Is a printable recipe helpful? Do you prefer the online version? Would you like to have both versions?  Also, be sure to scroll down to get our super fun Alphabet Soup spelling activity!

Let’s Make Soup!

vegetable soup

Gather your ingredients

  • 2 stalks celery
  • 2 zucchinis (summer squash)
  • 1 onion
  • 2 handfuls green beans
  • 2 handfuls spinach
  • 2 cups baby carrots
  • 1 small bowl frozen peas
  • 1 can white beans
  • 1 can diced tomato
  • 4 cups water (or a package of vegetable or bone broth)
  • 1 spoonful olive oil
  • 1 spoonful of diced garlic (or 2 garlic cloves, crushed or diced)
  • Salt to taste

Optional:

  • A pinch of Herbes de Provence
  • Pesto (for topping)
  • Shredded parmesan (for topping)
  • Fresh basil leaves (to garnish)
soup supplies

Gather your kitchen supplies

• Cutting board
• Vegetable knife
• Soup pot and cover
• Liquid measuring cup
• Large spoon
• Can opener
• Strainer (optional if you want to strain your beans)

soup recipe

Click here to download the recipe

Have fun making this French Vegetable Soup! Keep in mind that you don’t have to worry about exact quantities of ingredients. You can leave out some ingredients, or substitute other vegetables of your choosing, and it will still be a delicious soup!

 Bon Appétit!

french vegetable soup bowl
Let’s play an Alphabet Soup game!

Looking for something to do while the soup simmers?  Try our Alphabet Soup spelling game. 

Simply pour letter tiles (from Scrabble or Bananagrams) into a bowl.  Use a spoon to scoop out a few letters.  Place them on the matching letter spaces to spell the vegetable names.  (Note:  Depending on the quantity of letter tiles you have, you may not be able to cover all of the words at the same time.) 

This spelling game comes in French and English.  There is also a lowercase version in English if your child is working on upper and lowercase matching.

Get the free printables here:

Uppercase English

Lowercase English

Uppercase French 

P.S.  This game is not recommended for toddlers and babies who might be inclined to put the letter tiles in their mouth.  

letter tile alphabet soup activity
french spelling game
Note: Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links. Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links. We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

Gluten-free Valentine Pizza

Gluten-free Valentine Pizza

by | Feb 2, 2022 | Lunch and Dinner Recipes, Main Dish Recipes

I grew up making whole wheat pizza crusts with my family, and when I had to stop eating gluten, I was determined to find a way to make a yummy, hearty, and healthy gluten-free pizza crust.  When, after many attempts, we finally came up with the one we are sharing with you here, the whole family loved it.  We think you will too!

One of our favorite combinations for making wholesome gluten-free baked goods is almond flour and light buckwheat flour.

Have you heard of LIGHT buckwheat flour?  It’s amazing!  We discovered it when traveling back from a trip to Canada, we stopped at a creperie in Vermont.  We ordered gluten-free buckwheat crepes.  The waiter came out with plates of crepes that looked suspiciously like white flour crepes… nothing like the dark buckwheat crepes we were expecting.  Needing to be sure they were really gluten-free, I asked the waiter about it.  He kindly brought out the light buckwheat flour package information.  I was still a little skeptical, but luckily it was true… they were really buckwheat, the were really gluten-free, and they were really yummy!

Since that time, we have been doing lots of baking with light buckwheat.  It has the look of white flour and has a very mild taste (nothing like the strong taste of dark buckwheat).  You can find Bouchard Family Farms Light Buckwheat on Amazon or you can buy it in larger quantities directly from the farm (it’s about half the per bag price if you buy 8 or more bags).

 

Fun fact:

Buckwheat flour is made from the seeds of buckwheat plants.  Buckwheat plants have beautiful flowers, shown in this photo (photo credit Goran Horvat at Pixabay).

gluten-free valentine heart pizza

Though this crust is “hearty,” you don’t have to make it in a heart shape.  But since Valentine’s Day is around the corner, we thought you might like to.  Celebrate and enjoy!

Oh, and one more thing… if you would like a free pizza-themed writing practice page to keep little ones busy while the pizza bakes, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to print it out.

 

 

Our children like to make coloring pages for each other, so we thought we would share them with you too.  Our 10 year old is busy making cute food coloring pages for you to enjoy.  Her first one for you is a heart-shaped pizza.  Click on the image to get the full size version of this cute heart pizza coloring page.

 

Let’s Make Pizza!

pizza ingredients

Gather your ingredients:

  • Salt
  • Olive oil
  • Baking powder
  • Light buckwheat flour
  • Almond flour
  • Flaxseed meal
  • Pizza sauce
  • Mozzarella cheese
  • Extra toppings of your choice

Gather your kitchen supplies:

  • Large mixing bowl
  • Liquid measuring cup (2 or more cups)
  • Large mixing spoons (1 or 2)
  • Measuring cups (1 cup and 1/2 cup)
  • Measuring spoons (1/2 tsp, 1 tsp, 1 Tbsp)
  • Parchment paper
  • Pizza pans or baking sheets (2)

kitchen supplies bowl measuring cups

Time to measure and mix!

flaxseed meal

Step 1

Measure 1/2 cup flaxmeal.

water one cup

Step 2

Measure 1 cup water into liquid measuring cup.

flax pour

Step 3

Pour the flaxseed meal into the water

flaxseed meal

Step 4

Stir together water and flax and set the mixture aside.

flaxseed meal

Step 5

Measure 2 cups almond flour and pour the almond flour into a large mixing bowl.

flaxseed meal

Step 6

Measure 1 cup light buckwheat flour and add the buckwheat to the almond flour.

flaxseed meal

Step 7

Measure 1 teaspoon baking powder and add to the flour mixture.

flaxseed meal

Step 8

Measure 1/2 tsp salt and add it to the flour mixture.

flaxseed meal

Step 9

Check that you have all of the dry ingredients in the bowl.

flaxseed meal

Step 10

Stir to mix all the dry ingredients together well.

flaxseed meal

Step 11

Make a “well” in the dry indgredients.

flaxseed meal

Step 12

Pour the flaxseed meal and water mixture into the well.

flaxseed meal

Step 13

Measure 4 Tbsp of olive oil and pour it into the mixture.

flaxseed meal

Step 14

Stir well to combine.

flaxseed meal

Step 15

(Optional) If the dough is too dry, add water 1 Tablespon at a time, and stir again.  The dough should be well combined, but not too sticky to the touch.

flaxseed meal

Step 16

Divide dough into 2 equal parts.  (If you are making mini pizzas rather that 2 big pizzas, you can divide the dough into 12 equal parts.)

Time to shape the dough and bake it!

flaxseed meal

Step 17

Prepare your pans by covering them with parchment paper.

Warning!:  Be sure no parchment paper hangs over the edge of the pan, or the parchment paper could burn while in the oven.  You can cut off the extra or fold it under to make it fit.

flaxseed meal

Step 18

Using your hands, spread the dough out into a heart shape (or the shape of your choice).  The dough should be about 1/8” to  1/4” thick.  Each part of the dough should be enough to completely fill a standard pizza pan.

Tip!:  If the dough sticks to your hands, you can pour a little olive oil on the dough or on your hands while you are spreading out the dough.

flaxseed meal

Step 18 - Options

If you are making individual pizzas, you can divide the dough into 12 equal parts and place them on 2 rectangular baking pans.

Or you could make one large pizza and 6 individual pizzas.

flaxseed meal

Step 19

Warning!  Ask an adult to help with the oven steps.

Bake the crust for 15 to 17 minutes at 425 degrees F.  The crust should be golden brown and feel hard when touched.  (If you do not bake the crust long enough, the crust will seem gooey once the toppings are added.)

flaxseed meal

Step 20

Remove the crust from the oven and place on the stove or a trivet.

flaxseed meal

Step 21

Spread on sauce, sprinkle with cheese and any other toppings of your choice.

flaxseed meal

Step 22

Return the pizzas to the oven and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted to your liking.

flaxseed meal

Step 23

Remove the pizzas from the oven.  Set them on stovetop or trivets.  Let cool for a few minutes.

mini heart pizza on placemat

Step 24

Serve and enjoy!

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