Jeremy and I enjoyed this salad for dinner last night and it was so good that I just had to share the recipe. We both were impressed at how light and fresh it was. We added chopped up grilled turkey burgers to make it a dinner, but you could do sliced grilled chicken breasts for a more formal dinner salad or crumbled bacon. I think feta, gorgonzola or blue cheese would be a nice addition also. You could also substitute pine nuts, pecans or walnuts for the almonds, and use regular balsamic, white wine or another type of vinegar in place of the white balsamic. Basically this is a great base recipe and can easily be altered by what you have in your pantry or what your taste prefers. (I cut the sugar and oil from the original recipe in half to lighten up the dressing and omitted the butter that was involved in toasting the nuts). Enjoy!
Cranberry Spinach Salad
-1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted (in oven for 10 minutes at 350)
-1 pound baby spinach
-1 cup dried cranberries
-2 Tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted (in oven for 10 minutes at 350)
-1/4 cup white sugar
-2 teaspoons minced onion
-1/4 teaspoon paprika
-1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
-1/4 cup olive oil
Combine the almonds, spinach and cranberries in a bowl. In another bowl whisk together the remaining ingredients to make dressing. Toss dressing with salad just before serving.
Click here to view other recipes from the Recipe Box Swap at I have to Say.
Shannon
3 comments:
This sounds yummy! I'll have to check out some of your links for homemade gifts, below, too. Thanks for doing all that research!
No problem, please share any ideas you have or come across! Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Shannon
I just printed out the recipe for butterscotch cookies in a jar mix that you linked to. I'll have to let you know how they turn out.
One quick and easy gift I've had good luck with is to buy a large bag of dried apricots (at Trader Joe's or Costco or somewhere you can get them pretty cheap). Melt semi-sweet chocolate squares over low heat, then dip the apricots in the chocolate halfway. Dry on wax paper. Ta da! Done. Takes only about 10 minutes. Put them on small holiday paper plates, around in a circular design.
Have fun with your holiday gift making! Keep us posted on what you're making (or maybe you have to wait until AFTER the holidays so no snoops will find out what they're getting)
Post a Comment