Spinach Salad

Well, I guess if you know how to make a salad dressing, then you should know the basics to make salad. Something that goes beyond the bag o' salad at the grocery store (which in a pinch are perfectly fine.)

A spinach salad is an easy way to go since you can either get a "bunch" of spinach leaves or a bag of "triple washed" spinach from the grocery. Here's the recipe:

Simple Spinach Salad

Fresh Spinach cut into fork size pieces
Purple Onion Sliced
Walnuts
Craisins
Avocado slices (about 1/4 to 1/6 of an avocado)
Shredded Parmesan cheese

Put the desired amount of spinach in a bowl. Add the desired amount of purple onion, walnuts, Craisins, avocado, and Parmesan cheese. Top with the Balsamic Vinaigrette from the previous post and there you go, "Anymonkeycan" make a Simple Spinach Salad!

Tips:

1. For the onion I will cut the onion in half and remove the dry, outer layer. Then I will use a vegetable peeler to "peel" the onion directly onto the salad.

2. For the walnuts I will take a few in my hand and squeeze to break them down a little bit more and then throw them on the salad.

3. Avocados are easy to peel. Google or search youtube.com for an easy way to slice the avocado.

4. Avoid at all cost the Parmesan cheese that is ground into a powder that does not have to be refrigerated!!

Once you have made this a few times, be sure to experiment with substitutions, omissions, additions, etc.

Instead of spinach use arugula. Add a hard boiled egg. Drop the Craisins and use fresh berries. Ignore the Parmesan and go with Gorgonzola or Bleu Cheese. Pine nuts or Sunflower seeds or Cashews can all be used instead of the Walnuts.

Here's an example made with Arugula, fresh berries, and Gorgonzola cheese:
See, "anymonkeycan" cook! Enjoy!