Strawberry Spinach Salad

I wanted a good ol' strawberry spinach salad this week to accompany the garlic-soy flank steak dinner and get a good dose of greens in a tasty way. Salads seem easy enough to put together but every now and then it's nice to have a check list. I used the little working knowledge I had of salad dressing and wanted to share a nice summer salad with you! Just to warn you, I did not really measure anything out, it was very much "some of this, some of that" so I am going to do the best I can on guestimations, but you may want to follow loosely and do it to your tastes!

Grocery List:

• 2 cups spinach
• 1 cup strawberries, halved
• Goat cheese
• 1/3 cup toasted almond slivers
• 3 shakes allspice
• 3-4 tbsp. Olive oil, divided
• 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 3 shakes of champagne vinegar
• 2 shakes of Worcestershire sauce
• 1-2 tbsp. honey 

The first thing I did was  grab some slivered almonds that I had on hand and decided to toast them. I added a little olive oil to a skillet, threw in the almonds then had the thought to sprinkle some allspice over it for added taste. Cook them on low-medium heat for about 2 minutes, then try to move them around, flipping them over as you can and cook a little longer. You'll want to pay attention to them so they don't burn.

this is a good finished product

I bought some strawberry halves from Whole Foods and just halved about 1/2 cup of them to make for easier bite size bits (that's a lot of halves in that sentence). In a bowl, combine your spinach, strawberries and sprinkle your preferred amount of goat cheese.

In a smaller mixing bowl, combine the salad dressing ingredients: 2-3 tbsp. olive oil (start with 2 and see how that goes for you, no one likes the EVOO to be the main taste in dressing), apple cider vinegar, honey, champagne vinegar and Worcestershire sauce.

Add the dressing, as much or as little as you want, followed by the toasted almond slivers and toss. I personally like the way the goat cheese smears all over the leaves and strawberries, but if you don't, then do the goat cheese crumbles on each individual serving. Ta-da! Simple strawberry and field greens salad with your own toasted slivered almonds and light salad dressing.