Spinach Salad w/Honey Mustard Dressing

I love salad. I love that you can eat it all year, and that you can have it a million different ways. I would think that using spinach as a base for salad has to be the most nutritious choice. Since it's January and decent tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, and basil are hard to come by I have to be more resourceful. Yes, all of those ingredients are available, they're just not very tasty compared to buying them in the summer, also they're very expensive right now. So, I'm expected to pay more for something that isn't that great to begin with. I think not! Enter bell peppers.

When I was a child I never ate bell peppers. See, my mother hated them. In fact, her mother hated them, and she had six children. That means every aunt and uncle I ever imposed on never fed me a bell pepper either. Most of them hate bell peppers too. With the exception of my aunt with the green thumb who is the goddess of all things growing. But I digress, I love bell peppers! Green, red, orange, yellow, they're just a rainbow of nutritional crunchy goodness.

Here is my current favorite salad, it's great as it is in this photo and with this dressing, but it's also great with the peppers cut in strips, some shredded rotisserie chicken, and Trader Joe's Tuscan Italian Dressing.

Salad:

1/2-3/4 bag of baby spinach
1/4 of each, red, yellow, and orange bell pepper, sliced and chopped in 1 inch chunks
1/4 cup of sliced almonds, toasted
2 tbls.-1/4 reduced fat feta cheese
(the reduced fat is a little softer and not as dry as the full fat version)
Salt to taste

Dressing:
2 Tbls. olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tbls. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
2 tsp. honey
1 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1. Add spinach to a large bowl. Wash, remove tops and seeds and chop or slice your peppers. Place them on top of your bed of spinach. Sprinkle with feta cheese.

2. Heat a small  saute pan over medium low heat. Add your almonds and stir occasionally while toasting. They will release their oils and then you will start to see them brown. You want them to be a golden brow. They will quickly go from perfect to burnt so keep an eye on them. It should take about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, make your dressing. Simply combine all the ingredients in a small bowl or measuring cup and whisk until thick, well combined and emulsified.

4. Sprinkle salad with toasted almonds and dressing.

This post is linked to:

Mouthwatering Mondays @ A Southern Fairytale

Tasty Tuesdays @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Tasty Tuesdays @ 33 Shades of Green