Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese, Cherries and Walnuts

Yes, it's as easy as it sounds, but it's definitely one of those salads that they would serve at cute little bistros or as an appetizer salad at a steak house or another (by grad student standards) fancy restaurant.  It's a little piece of elegance you can make at home for a fraction of the cost and you'll wonder why you ever order an appetizer salad when you go out.  I recently bought some nice (and huge) plates on clearance at Target and I think they are perfect for this, partly because I have trouble eating salad without accidently pushing the greens off the plate and the larger plate prevents that, and partly because a nice plate goes well with a nice salad.  Note that I bought a nice pomegranate infused red wine vinegar for salad dressings (I think that brings me up to six types of vinegar and counting) that I think goes very nicely on this.  Balsamic or regular red wine vinegar would also work well.

1 cup spinach rinsed with stems removed
2 Tbsp toasted walnuts (and toasting nuts smells amazing)
2 Tbsp dried tart cherries (cranberries work, but not as well)
2 Tbsp goat cheese crumbles (I found them at Trader Joe's)
Extra virgin olive oil, to taste
Red wine or balsamic vinegar, to taste

I really hope you don't need directions beyond the ingredients :).

Today I ate this salad with a nice toasted vegetarian sandwich I made.  I acquired a multigrain baguette from Panera, so I sprinkled it with a little red wine vinegar and ground Italian herbs, put some Muenster cheese (Provolone would be better but Muenster was on sale), tomatoes, and red onion slices on one half of the baguette and stuck it in the toaster oven. I toasted until the cheese was almost melted then topped it with a few avocado* slices, and the other half of the bread, which I spread with roasted garlic**, and toasted it a little more.  It was a delicious, deli quality lunch, healthy but low in protein so I made sure to drink a glass of milk with it.

A few notes from this lunch:
*Avocados should be stored at room temperature until ripe.  Once ripe you can put them in the fridge for a couple days.  Cut avocados should be stored in the fridge and you can brush them with a little lemon juice and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap (with the plastic touching the cut surface) to reduce browning (otherwise you can cut off the brown part).

**To roast garlic: preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Remove the outermost skin from the garlic and rub the whole bulb liberally with olive oil.  Wrap in aluminum foil and place in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the garlic bulb is soft to the touch.  Note that what I did (since I don't plan on eating an entire bulb of roasted garlic, mostly I shouldn't eat that much bread seeing as that is pretty much all I ate yesterday) is removed most of the outside cloves, leaving only 4 or five in the middle and followed the directions above, but it only took about 20 minutes until the garlic was soft.  So basically it is possible to do smaller batches of roasted garlic if you are only cooking for one :).  Also this is a nice use for a toaster oven.

Summer Staples

Quite possibly my favorite food in summer is my mom's Summer Spinach Salad. I'll try to come up with the dressing from memory (since that is what makes it awesome!)

Poppyseed dressing:
1/2 c canola oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp+2 tsp red wine or cider vinegar
2 Tbsp +2tsp sugar
1/2? tsp salt (I'm not positive that it is a half, but I think it is)
1 1/2 tsp ground mustard (I use a little less since it is often too strong with that)
~1 tsp poppyseeds

Combine first six ingredients in blender. Blend until sugar is dissolved (or until there are no more onion chunks). Then add poppyseeds and mix thoroughly.

Technically you are supposed to make the salad all at once, but I just make up the dressing and make single serve salads (since not all of the ingredients keep fresh at the same rate) and I am not serving 4-6 at once.

Summer Spinach Salad
10 oz spinach washed and dried with stems removed
4 green onions, chopped
1 pt strawberries, quartered
1-2 bananas, sliced
Toasted almonds slivered or sliced
Poppyseed dressing (probably not the whole container)

Mix everything and toss. Or if you are serving yourself and yourself only, just throw what you want on it at any given time and toss.

Also, my mom makes this great, tasty, healthy black bean salad, which to me tastes like summer. And is a good use of leftover veggies, as I discovered on Thursday when trying to plan a dinner that would get rid of my green onions, peppers, and tomatoes. Again, I am approximating, but I think it's close.

Colorful Black Bean Salad
2 cans black beans
1 green or yellow bell pepper (my mom prefers yellow because it makes it more colorful), chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 pt. grape tomatoes, cut in half
3 Tbsp+ cilantro, chopped

Combine beans and veggies and stir to mix well.

Dressing:
3 Tbsp fresh lemon (I use lime) juice
3/4 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Stir dressing and add to bean and veggie mixture. Stir and enjoy!

They are both fresh and tasty and I make both frequently in summer. Actually, I always keep poppyseed dressing on hand in summer and just throw it on spinach anytime I have spinach. It keeps me eating my greens when I would much rather eat corn.