FOOD: fresh strawberry summer salad

I am excited to share with y'all my FIRST EVER recipe post!  Quick disclaimer: I am not good with food.  I'm great at eating it, but preparation?  Not so much.  That said, this salad recipe is simple, painless, impossible to mess up -- I promise!

What you'll need (serves 2):

1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced

2 cups fresh baby spinach

1/4 cup raw pecans halves

1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese

1/4 cup alfalfa sprouts

1/8 cup pine nuts

sprinkle of flax seeds

raspberry vinaigrette dressing

Prep your strawberries by washing and then slicing off the stem (unless that's how you roll: stem on!).  Cut into quarters, or use an egg slicer.  Toss strawberries with baby spinach leaves (wash these too, if you didn't buy them in one of those pre-washed packages!), pecans, and goat cheese.  Sprinkle in your optional ingredients: pine nuts, flax seeds, and alfalfa sprouts (wash your sprouts thoroughly!).  You can easily do without the pine nuts, flax, and sprouts, but I enjoy the added nutritional benefits and flavors!

I strongly recommend Bolthouse Farms' Olive Oil Vinaigrette Raspberry Merlot Yogurt Dressing.  It is SO GOOD, creamy, and not too terrible on the calorie count.  Otherwise, any berry vinaigrette will do.  I've also had this salad with honey mustard dressing and that's delicious, too!  You could also go the route of oil and balsamic and I'm sure that would taste lovely, as well.

If you're not keen on goat cheese, you can use feta instead (this is also easier to find crumbled).  I like feta but I LOVE goat cheese, so I'll use it any chance I get!

More variations to try:

• raspberries or blueberries substituted for strawberries
• walnuts substituted for pecans
• sunflower seeds substituted for pine nuts
• add chicken for some extra protein

And that is IT, my friends!  Fool proof and my summer dinner staple.  Enjoy!