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The family is in Wisconsin this week, so it's been just me here at home to fend for myself when it comes to meals. And I'll be honest. Cooking for one is kind of a relief. No rushing to get meals on the table at a certain hour, no complaints about what is being served, and best of all, a lot less dishes to clean. It's not that I don't miss my family, but sometimes it's nice to have a little solitude. I've been making a lot of things that they normally wouldn't eat, like Spinach Salad with Apples, Cranberries and Sliced Almonds. They aren't big into having fruits mixed with their greens, but I sure am! This
is a Golden Blossom Honey recipe that I have had saved for quite some
time, and decided this was the perfect week to test it out.
Now that it is officially fall (yippee!), I don't need to look for an excuse to incorporate the tastes of the season into every meal, and this salad has some of my favorite autumn flavors all rolled into one scrumptious dish. I absolutely love the contrast of the sweet fruits and honey paired with the bitter onion and rounded out with a tangy dressing. The salad doesn't have a lot of ingredients, but what it does have packs a huge flavor punch! The only thing that I changed about this recipe is the addition of cheese. I need cheese in my salads, so I crumbled up some goat cheese and loved it all the more. That's just a personal preference of mine though. Feta or fresh Parmesan would work well here too. If you're looking for a protein, you could add some grilled chicken for a heartier salad. I've seen similar recipes offered on the Wendy's menu, but they are awful expensive. You could make this at home for a fraction of the cost of a chain restaurant salad. It would be much fresher and tastier too, I'm sure. Sticking with the flavors of the season, I poured myself some cranberry wine to accompany this salad, then settled in front of the television and enjoyed my meal while watching a cheesy Sandra Bullock Rom-Com. Solitude doesn't get any better than this :)
Ingredients
Dressing:1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY MUSTARD
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup dried cranberries
Salad
8 cups (about 1/2 pound) baby spinach leaves
1/3 cup red onion, thinly sliced
2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 cup sliced almonds
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Do you like fruit in your salad?
I love fruit (and cheese!) in my salads too. I just made one with a mango dressing (and feta cheese) that was so good! I didn't know Golden Blossom made honey mustard!!! Yay! Also, I just watched Lake House with Sandra Bullock and K. Reeves (K because I can't remember how to spell his name, lol). It wasn't a comedy and I was so bawling. I hate to sit around and cry, lol, but that one got me. I wasn't thrilled with the ending though... too many unanswered questions for me. I'm not imaginative enough to want to guess what was really going on. I want black and white answers, lol. Glad you're enjoying your solitude for the moment. It is nice to have me-time. Hope the fam is having fun in Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching that movie, but can't for the life of me remember how it ended. I do think they make such a lovely movie pairing. They work so much better together than her and Channing Tatum.
DeleteMango dressing and feta sounds like an amazing combination. I'll have to try that soon!
Of course we don't like fruit in our salad LOL
ReplyDeleteSpinach is finally back here as well, I bought some from my greengrocer on Wednesday.
I am also done with preparing food for winter. I bought six jars of pickled cucumbers, six of pickled beets, six of pickled mixed veggie salad and six of peppers stuffed with cabbage, so I should be covered with pickles for the winter, hopefully. I've also bagged some string beans for the freezer and bought about five kilos of rice before the price goes up.
It is still so cold here (it was just 3 degrees Celsius this morning in my yard) that we had to turn on the heating on the last eve of summer!
It's getting cold here too. I put the heated mattress pad on my bed last night. No more iced tea either, for me. It's all about the hot teas until next spring now. We'll be lucky to see another warm-ish day or two. Then that stupid snow is right around the corner. I am so not ready for winter.
DeleteI adore fruit and nuts in my green salads. I use whatever is on hand: any berry, apples, pears, mandarin oranges, walnuts, pecans, pepitos are all faves of mine.
ReplyDeleteYes to all of those salad add-ins!
DeleteYes, yes, yes! I do love fruit in my salad. In fact, I'm not sure if I could eat a salad without some sort of sweetness is there whether it be an apple chip or a craisin. Your salad looks divine. :)
ReplyDeleteI can go without fruit here and there, but I also prefer my salad to have something sweet in there when possible. If I'm having a Caesar salad, that's the exception to no fruit. Otherwise, it's fair game.
DeleteSometimes just being by yourself is the way. Or semi by yourself with cats and dogs about haha Less dishes is a win too. I'd rather have them separate than together.
ReplyDeleteWe never really are alone with our zoos, are we? I'm still waiting on you to add another cat to the brood so I'm not the only crazy cat person between us LOL
DeleteI worked in the produce department for years and it always makes me how many types of salads there were. And we didn't even sell all or even close to that number
ReplyDeleteSo many different salads. I sometimes get overwhelmed at the choices at the supermarket!
DeleteGracias por la receta. Te mando un beso Citu https://enamoradadelasletras.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteI had spinach salad yesterday with dried cranberries and heart of palm.
ReplyDeleteOooh, heart of palm addition is a good one!
DeleteI havent tried pieces of apple (and other fruits) in our salads before but some of my friends use apple in their salads alot and they like. I think salads with fruit sounds good.
ReplyDeleteYou should try it sometime. You might find that you enjoy it!
DeleteYes i will try it. Thanks for the recipe. Greetings.
ReplyDelete