This salad is topped with my favorite snack food from Trader Joe’s: Antioxidant fruit and nut mix. It is a mixture of almonds, walnuts, cashews, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, and dried raspberries. Here is a recipe for this salad and a few other salads that are my favorites. Costco sells a huge bag of baby spinach – 2.5 lbs of spinach for $5. So, I had a lot to experiment with! 🙂 These recipes are also great with seasoned warm grilled chicken on top!
Next week is “Oklahoma!” and I will be busy rehearsing every night that week.
Antioxidant Spinach Salad
serves 8
1 lb. baby spinach
1 and 1/2 cups antioxidant fruit and nut mix (dried cranberries, walnuts, almonds, cashews, dried raspberries, raisins, dried blueberries)
1 cup red grapes, halved
Dressing.
2 Tb. toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. minced onion
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1. Tear the baby spinach if it is too big. Split between 8 bowls. Top with mix and grapes.
2. Dressing: combine dressing ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously. Add to salad just before serving. Taste test first! Some people might like it sweeter and increase the sugar.
*or use your favorite poppyseed or balsamic vinaigrette.
Strawberry Spinach Salad
serves 4
8-10 ounces baby spinach
1 quart strawberries, sliced
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup almonds or pecans or walnuts
1 and 1/2 Tb. sugar
Dressing:
2 Tb. toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup sugar (up to 1/2 cup per taste)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 tsp paprika
1 Tb. minced onion
1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1. If using homemade dressing: shake in a jar and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Take almonds and 1 and 1/2 T. sugar and throw them into a nonstick skillet over medium heat to medium-high heat. Toss and coat for about 3 minutes. Spread out and cool.
3. In a great big bowl: Toss spinach, strawberries, oranges and cranberries. Add almonds on top.
4. Add dressing just before serving.
Dressing recipe adapted from allrecipes.com
