Who knew? Who knew my kids would have a fondness for spinach? Certainly not me.
I did not try spinach until about five years ago. I was terrified of the stuff. Here is what I knew about spinach that prevented me from trying it:
When eaten your body would become grossly disfigured causing monstrous veiny muscles to spontaneously burst out upon your arms.
When cooked it would shrivel away into a slimy green paste that resembled nothing of its former self.
It is green.
So I stayed clear of spinach. No thank you. “Olive Oil go rescue yourself and stop being so annoying. And, no, I am not eating spinach. Especially to save you.” There I said it. Oh, you know you were thinking it.
But I tried it as a salad. I loved it. It is so velvety and mild. I thought perhaps my children would love it, too.
And they did.
And they do.
More than me.
More than my husband.
More than Pop…
No, not more than him. Their bodies don’t combust for the stuff.
Thank God.
I won’t make a salad unless it is easy. Dinner is all ready so time consuming. Here is how I always make my salad, 3-4 times a week. We never get tired of it.
Ingredients:
5 – 6 oz. of prewashed baby spinach (best flavor I have found is Safeway or Vons O Organic) or prewashed romaine lettuce
1/3 cup Italian dressing (whichever is cheapest)
1/3 cup feta cheese
Optional for the less lazy:
Chopped red bell pepper
Chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Directions:
Dump salad in a bowl. Sorry. Forgot to take a picture of it in the bowl. But here it is before that step. All innocent. It doesn’t even know what’s going to happen to it.
Measure feta. Dump feta in the bowl.
Measure Italian dressing. Dump the dressing in the bowl. Toss.
And try not use the word dump while you are cooking. Just a thought. A suggestion. Don’t take offense or poke my eye out! “A-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga!”
That’s it. Three ingredients. If this salad could talk it would say, “I am what I am and that’s all that I am. Or all that’s in me.”
You could also dump (Sorry. Couldn’t resist) in the optional ingredients at this point. But be warned that most kids don’t like the extra ingredients.
Now go rescue Olive Oil take a nap. Cause that was exhausting.
“A-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga!”