Great served hot – and equally as good served chilled. This side salad has a great taste and is very easy to prepare!

Citrus Salad

4 servings
280 calories per serving

2 c Minute brown rice, uncooked
6 oz. baby spinach leaves
11 oz. can mandarin oranges
½ c light Catalina dressing

Cook rice according to package instructions. Place in a bowl and add spinach and oranges then toss with dressing t coat.

What a symphony of flavors ! Your mouth doesn’t know what to be the happiest about – is it the pine nut accent? Or the spicy pepperjack cheese? Or the creamy avocados? Or the smoky chipotle dressing? This is one of THE BEST salads I’ve ever made.

Southwest Spinach Salad

4 servings
300 calories per serving

8 c fresh baby spinach
1/2 c corn with sweet peppers
1/3 c halved black pitted olives
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
2 oz. diced pepper jack cheese
2 plum tomatoes, cut into 8 wedges each
2 hard boiled eggs, quartered
1 ripe avocado cut into 16 slices
3 T lime juice
2 T oil
1 t chopped chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1/8 t salt
1 garlic clove, minced
2 T toasted pine nuts
A few extra squirts of lime juice if you like your salad nice and ‘wet’

Combine spinach, corn, olives, cilantro and cheese. Place 2 c worth on each plate. Arrange tomato, egg and avocado slices atop the spinach. Combine lime juice, oil, chopped chipotle, salt and garlic. Whisk well and pour over salads. Sprinkle with pine nuts.

This one is high in calories as salads go – but I can’t skimp on the egg or bacon or it just does not feel like a TRUE spinach salad to me. So I pair it with some really low cal seafood like Cajun Seafood Mix and it makes a great meal.

Spinach Salad

1 serving
250 calories per serving

2 cups baby spinach leaves
1 hardboiled egg, sliced
3 sliced bacon, cooked, cooled and crumbled
1 c sliced mushrooms
2 T fat free thousand island dressing

Lay spinach on a plate. Top with egg, bacon and mushrooms. Spoon dressing over the salad.