Spinach Salad

I love spinach. I love it cooked or raw. I love it Au Gratin with lots of cheese and cream and butter… and more cheese! Fortunately, I also love spinach salad with lots of good for you stuff!

I keep raw baby spinach leaves on hand so that I can add a handful to different recipes. I throw some into my scrambled eggs, soups, marinara sauce, etc. You really can toss spinach into just about anything and kids won’t really notice any change in flavor. Nick, however, will always ask, “What’s that green stuff?!” If your kids aren’t as observant, add a handful of baby spinach leaves to your recipes. It’s yummy and good for you

Because I keep spinach on hand, I always have it around to whip up a yummy salad. One of my favorite combinations is the classic spinach with hard boiled eggs and bacon, dripping with sweet poppy seed dressing. Here’s my version that is a little friendlier on the waistline.

Spinach Salad

Ingredients:

• Spinach
• 1 or 2 mushrooms, sliced
• 1 hard boiled egg, sliced or diced
• 1-2 slices turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled (I didn’t have any on hand so you don’t see it in the photo)
• 6-8 orange segments (no sugar added, juice reserved)
• 1 tablespoon toasted almond slivers
• 1 small chicken breast, skinless, cut into bite-size chunks
• Dressing

Dressing:

• 2 tablespoons Fage 2% Greek Plain All-Natural Strained Yogurt (they do not add sugar or sugar substitutes )
• 2 tablespoons reserved orange juice
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds
• sea salt and black pepper to taste

Combine dressing ingredients and set aside. (I made this up one day out of shear stubborness. I refused to purchase bottled poppy seed dressing – even those that say fat free because they were filled with sugar substitutes and chemicals that I didn’t want in my body. Well… my version sounded like a great idea. Then I tasted it. Not so exciting. However, I drizzled it over my salad anyway and… guess what? It was delicious. I say this in case you do the same thing and taste it first. This dressing doesn’t seem to work on it’s own. But, drizzle it over your salad and I promise you… it tastes just as good as the bottle of goo. But it is so much better for you!)

Arrange as much spinach as you can eat on a plate and top with remaining ingredients. Drizzle with dressing. Eat up!

Before I let you go today, I have to share my little kitchen disasters from last nights spinach salad. First, I though I had poppy seeds on hand. I did not. I didn’t want to ruin the photo so I had to find something! I found celery seed. Yup! The poppy seeds in the photo are actually a stand in. And… it actually tasted OK! Go figure!

My other little kitchen mishap… my water bottle was dangerously close to the bottle of white vinegar. Oh yes I did! I took a quick swig of the vinegar! I love vinegar but… I sure don’t want to drink it!

OK – see… I’m not so graceful in the kitchen So glad ya’ll love me anyway!

Sweetest Blessings,
LeAnn