Quick spinach salad is tasty and nutritious

I am really not much of a salad person, so it's sort of odd that I have featured a few salads in this column this summer. If you notice, however, the salads came from sources other than myself (Whitney Danhof made a chicken caesar recently and another friend of mine had me over for jicama salad).

Despite my lack of love for the green, I am featuring the one dinner salad I actually make, and enjoy, from time to time. I was out of town last week, and I ate way too much, so when I returned home I knew I needed lighten dinner up a bit.

Last night, as I was leaving the office, I began to think about what I wanted to make for Simply Delish. I went to the grocery store to pick up a few items for home and brainstormed as I walked the aisles. Nothing really jumped out at me, but then again, I didn't have my recipe books in front of me either.

I decided I'd stop thinking about Simply Delish and get something to make for dinner on this night. I grabbed a bag of spinach from the produce department, and decided I'd make my favorite simple spinach salad.

This salad is not fancy, keeping, as always, with the theme of this column, but it is a quick, tasty and nutritious dinner for a family on the go.

Spinach, I might add, is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, vitamin C, vitamin B2, calcium, potassium, and vitamin B6. It is a very good source of dietary fiber, copper, protein, phosphorous, zinc and vitamin E. In addition, it is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, niacin and selenium.

My aunt Marjie tipped me off on this salad a few years ago, and I have altered it since then to suit my liking.

She makes a seasoned shrimp and spinach salad and serves it as an appetizer-type salad.

I do not care too much for shrimp, unless it's super fresh, and so I substituted chicken for the shrimp and a dinner plate for the salad plate.

So, here's how this simple pleasure comes together:

First, I made a batch of homemade ranch dressing (featured in Life & Leisure a few weeks ago). While that was chilling (it needs to chill for an hour before serving) I did some chores around the house for about a half hour or so.

About 20 minutes before the dressing was chilled, I cut up some mushrooms and chicken breast cutlets. (By the way, if you've not tried chicken breast cutlets they are perfect for salads or anytime you want to cook chicken super fast, without going through the fuss of pounding it out.)

I heated up some olive oil and threw the chicken and mushrooms in a pan and seasoned them generously with Adobe seasoning and pepper.

While that was cooking, I filled our plates with fresh spinach. About five to 10 minutes later, when the chicken and mushrooms were done, I poured half on my plate and half on Jack's. Now, use plenty olive oil and plenty of Adobe when sauteeing the chicken and mushrooms because it comes in handy when it hits the spinach. It heats up the spinach just enough to make it warm and a tad wilted.

While the chicken and mushroom mixture warmed up the spinach, I placed about a handful of Italian cheese over each plate. While the cheese melted over the chicken, I added some sweet and spicy roasted pecans.

Finally, I drizzled the homemade dressing over the salad. The salad is really healthy, except for the ranch dressing, but because of all the other flavors going on in this salad you truly do not need much at all.

Usually, I only eat salads when I am forcing myself to be healthy. I rarely enjoy them, and typically that shows on the leftover greens on my plate.

This salad, however, makes me feel like Popeye the sailor man, because it always leaves me wanting more.

A recipe for homemade ranch dressing (which also works great as a dip), by the blog, "Home Ec 101," follows as well.

Simple ranch dressing mix

17 Saltines, finely crushed. (adding shortening and gluten... ugh!)

2 cups (470 ml) parsley flakes

1/2 cup (120 ml) Onion Flakes

2 Tbs (30 ml) Dried Basil

6 Tbs (3/8 cup)(90 ml) Sea Salt

5 Tbs (75 ml) Garlic Powder

5 Tbs (75 ml) Onion Powder

This almost fills a one quart (.95 ltr) canning jar.

To make Ranch Dressing:

1 Tablespoon Ranch Dressing Mix

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup buttermilk

At least one hour before serving, mix the three ingredients. Cover and refrigerate.

-- Sadie Fowler is lifestyles editor at the Times-Gazette. Her columns Simply Delish and Sadie Says, run on Sundays. If you would like to submit a recipe, contact Fowler at sfowler@t-g.com or 684-1200 ext. 214.