Winter Spinach Salad Two Ways.

Buck and I both love a good salad, but with the weather chilly I like them to be a little heartier this time of year.  This week we've enjoyed both of these favorites.

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
This is a classic.  A bed of spinach topped with yummy goodies.  For two:

spinach
4 slices of bacon
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
very thinly vertically sliced red onion
(and if you have mushroom eaters, you can definitely add sliced mushrooms)
2 T red wine vinegar
1/2 t sugar
1/2 t Dijon mustard

Begin assembling salads while bacon cooks by topping spinach with hard-boiled eggs and onion.  For the bacon, I cut my bacon up into bite sized pieces with kitchen scissors before I cook it in the frying pan.  It cooks much quicker and more evenly.  Save the grease for the dressing.  Once the bacon is done cooking, remove it with a slotted spoon and place directly on your beds of spinach.  For the dressing add the red wine vinegar, sugar, and Dijon mustard.  Whisk together and spoon onto salads.

(And for perfect hard-boiled eggs...cover eggs with water.  Put lid on pot.  Place on burner and bring water to a boil.  As soon as the water starts boiling, remove from heat and leave lid on for 15 minutes.  Place eggs in cold water.  They will turn out great!)

Greens with Chicken and Roasted Veggies
This is a great meal for the whole family.  My little boys absolutely devour the roasted veggies.  For them, I just serve the veggies alongside the chicken.  Buck and I enjoy in salad-format.  It's a winning combination of cold greens with warm toppings and a fresh, light dressing.

Salad greens (either spring mix or spinach)
Chicken (this week I used store-bought rotisserie, but you can use grilled or roasted too)
For the veggies, any combination of: sweet potato, red potato, butternut squash, acorn squash, onion, baby carrots, parsnip
For the dressing: lemon juice, olive oil, minced garlic, and black pepper.

To roast the veggies, chop into uniform-sized pieces.  Coat with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast in 375 degree oven for about an hour (depending on the size of your pieces), stirring every fifteen minutes or so.

For the dressing, mix equal parts lemon juice and olive oil with garlic and salt and pepper to taste.

And, for yummy bread on the side of either salad, try this amazing homemade french bread recipe.  We made some Sunday night and have loved having it this week!  It was super-quick and easy and turned out delicious.