Healthy Spinach Salad

My husband and I recently went to Goldberg's with some friends for Dinner. We hadn't originally planned to go to Goldberg's, but with the holiday season all the other restaurants around were 1-2 hour waits. Who has the time to wait that long for the seats, let alone the extra 30 minutes to get your food? Therefore, after looking around we settled on Goldberg's for dinner. They have a pretty amazing Mexican Spiced Hot Chocolate as well as a delicious Spinach Salad. The hubby and I love Spinach Salads. We try one at every restaurant we go that offers it. After all these taste tests of Spinach Salads out at restaurants we finally decided to make our own. 

The ingredient list wasn't huge and I definitely liked that. I want to try out different ingredients on my salads to see what's my favorite. I added purple onions on this salad, but I may go without next time to minimize the acidity in this salad. If you're like me and have issues with heartburn then raw onions are not always your friend. After cutting everything up I also ended up adding in Strawberries. The sweetness of the Strawberries and the Dried Cranberries make the perfect combination with the crunch of walnuts and cucumbers. I think I'll also try out Blue Cheese vs. Feta Cheese to see how the flavors differ in this salad.

In each Salad I had Spinach, sliced Red Onions, halved Cherry Tomatoes, sliced Strawberries, crumbled Feta Cheese, Walnut Pieces, dried Cranberries, and sliced Cucumbers. I started out topping it with Kroger Lite Balsamic Dressing. I wasn't a huge fan of the flavor of it compared to dressings I've had at Restaurants. I wanted to make my own so I tested out some ingredients. I found a simple mixture that tasted amazing. 

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Homemade Sweet Balsamic Vinaigrette

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Honey
• 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 1 tsp of Balsamic Vinegar 
• 1 pinch Fresh Basil 

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until combined. 

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What's your favorite homemade dressing? I will definitely be making more homemade dressings since they taste so much better and can usually be made with ingredients I have around the house. 

Healthy Sunday

After a few days of splurging during the holidays I've decided to be extra healthy on Sunday. I started my morning with a jog through my neighborhood then did a Yoga video on Xbox Fitness. Getting outdoors and enjoying the weather is by far my favorite way to get in an exercise. If not that, then I have to say Yoga is my second favorite. I wish I had a nice Yoga studio near me that I could go to regularly, but thankfully I at least have Xbox fitness and assorted workout videos to get me by.

After my workout I went by Whole Foods to get my groceries for the week. I picked up a lot of fruit and veggies to use for my juices. I also picked up a few salads for my fiancé and I for lunch.

I went with the FILL IT UP salad bar. You can fill the bowl full with anything from their salad bar or hot bar for only $12. It was a huge salad. I threw in mixed greens, broccoli, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, tofu, hard boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, cranberries, with a vinigairette dressing. I picked out a Salmon Caesar Salad for my fiancé. He loves salmon and caesar salad so this was the perfect mix. 

After lunch we got to work cleaning our veggies and fruits and chopping them up to prep for juicing. I used my amazing Breville Juicer to get the job done. 

I used a mix of peaches, oranges, strawberries, cucumbers, ginger, carrots, and spinach power mix. It was a very colorful mix that smelled amazing, and it tasted even better. I feel like juicing is the best way for me to get all the vitamins and minerals I need without having to remember to take a billion vitamins.

Now I can use this boost of energy from my yummy juice to help me finish a few projects around the house.

<3 Kelly Jean