Happy New Year! I am officially back to the business of blogging, although I did enjoy my little unplugged vacation. And, I am back with something terribly yummy: the recipe for Warm Spinach and Sweet Potato Salad, a recipe that I was inspired to create with help from the Health Key System at Rainbow Foods.
But first, a little background on this meal and my thoughts and hopes for the new year. As I have shared before, I am expecting my third child this June. That means that I am about 16 weeks along (I think… having a hard time keeping track…not like the first baby!) and I am starting to finally crawl out of the sleepy-sick weeks of the first trimester. This new burst of energy comes right at the start of a new year and it is time to make a few changes. Clearly I will not be setting any weight-loss goals for myself at this point, but I do want to get healthier. Come June I will be the mother of three children, ages 3, 1.5 and infant, and I want to be physically up to the challenge. I am sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, and I fear that a lot of my sluggishness is coming from the foods I eat. I love carbs and I love sugar, but I know that these things make me feel terrible, and sleepy, I want to be better and more active not only for my children, but for myself. I have a lot of things I want to get done and I need a lot of energy to get them done!
The truth, however, is that I need a little help knowing exactly what to eat. As I mentioned, I love carbs and sugar, so the things I institutionally reach for, might not always be the best. Thankfully there are resources out there, one of them being the Health Key System at Rainbow Foods. Living in Minnesota, I regularly shop at my local Rainbow Foods, and was excited to find out about their new Health Key System that offers a helpful color-coded guide for all of the food they sell–which help to clearly communicate all sorts of things, from if a food is heart-healthy, to low in sugar, to a good source of protein.
Along with that, Rainbow Foods offers helpful articles on their website that challenge a person to get in a more health-conscious frame of mind. This month’s article addresses calories saying, “You want as much nutritional bang from your calories as possible. Calories from foods rich in protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals are better than calories from foods laden with fats and sugars.” We all know this already, but these are the types of words I need to read right before I go grocery shopping!
And so, with this phrase fueling my motivation I took the kids shopping (okay, how in the world did I get that great picture of my daughter as we picked out the mustard?) and we bought the ingredients for this delicious Warm Spinach and Sweet Potato Salad, among other things.
The salad is sooooo good, and clearly a complete meal unto itself. I had fun creating it because it is a bit of a play on a salad we often see while out visiting my husband’s family. My husband is from the Pittsburgh area, a place that is know for putting french fries on just about anything: sandwiches and even salads! So, I thought I’d put sweet potato fries on this salad and keep it healthier–and even Paleo!
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did!
Warm Spinach and Sweet Potato Salad
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Prep time
15 mins
Cook time
25 mins
Total time
40 mins
This warm salad is Paleo and yummy!
Author: Nancy
Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: American
Serves: 2
Ingredients
2 Sweet Potatoes
⅓ lb Bacon
½ Large Onion, Sliced
7 Large Fresh Mushrooms, Sliced
Fresh Spinach, Washed
Dried Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
4 TBS Red Wine Vinegar
2 tsp Dijon Mustard
Honey to taste
Instructions
Make Sweet Potato Fries: Preheat Oven to 450. Clean, peal and slice sweet potatoes into long, thin strips. Then, arrange on a cookie sheet, coat with olive oil and sprinkle with dried thyme, salt and pepper. Cook until sweet potatoes are tender and golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Heat 2 TBS of olive oil in a pan and add in the onions and mushrooms. While they saute, add in 2 TBS of red wine vinegar. Allow to cook until the onions and mushrooms are tender.
Prepare bacon as desired until it is crispy. Drain and fat and crumble when cool.
Mix Dressing: Whisk together 2 TBS red wine vinegar and 2 tsp Dijon Mustard. Then, slowly whisk in ½ cup of olive oil. Next, whisk in honey until the dressing has reached a desired sweetness. Finally, add salt and pepper to taste.
Plating: cover the plate with a generous bed of baby spinach. Then, add a generous amount of the mushrooms and onions. This will wilt the spinach. Next, add several sweet potato fries and sprinkle with bacon. Finally, drizzle on the dressing.
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I was so happy with how this salad turned out, and so was my husband, that we will be making it again soon! Thanks to Rainbow Foods for supplying all the great fresh ingredients for this salad. And to all those reading this post, I hope that all you hope and dream for this New Year comes true!
Thanks for being here,
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