Summer Spinach Salad

Since I'm probably the only 25yr old that regularly reads Southern Living cover-to-cover, I feel it's my particular duty to pass along their recipes. This is a great side they put in their recent issue, or you could easily add grilled chicken if you wanted to make a whole dinner out of it. It also originally just called for Arugula, but I much prefer using Spinach (better for your eyesight), so that's my recommendation. But I promise this is great twist on a simple salad and Bobby was all but licking his salad bowl about 10 minutes after he questioned my use of feta cheese ("Eww why does it look like bleu cheese??" Just because it's crumbled doesn't make it moldy).

Simple Summer Spinach Salad

3 handfuls of washed and spun (or dried) baby spinach (this is an ideal amount for 2 people as a side, but use more if you're making a whole dinner out of it)
1 large zucchini
1/4 crumbled feta cheese
1/2 to 1 diced medium tomato
2 Tbs. chopped fresh mint
2-3 Tbs. lemon juice
2 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place all washed and spun/dried baby spinach leaves in a large salad bowl. Use a vegetable peeler to cut the zucchini lengthwise into very thin strips until you hit the seeds. Put skinless zucchini strips into the salad bowl. Add desired quantity of diced tomatoes. Add feta cheese crumbles and chopped mint (I recommend just using good kitchen scissors to finely cut the mint). In a separate small bowl combine the lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper--mix well. Top the salad with the dressing. Toss and serve immediately.

We had this with Buffalo Chicken Paninis (which Taylor would not approve of me posting because he feels paninis are not recipes), and it was a great compliment to the spice of the Buffalo sauce. The short of a buffalo chicken panini is spread a thin layer of buffalo sauce on one slice of panini bread and a thin layer of fat free ranch or bleu cheese dressing on the other. Add 1/4lb sliced chicken (I'm a deli snob so I got buffalo marined sliced chicken from the deli that day) a slice of mozzarella cheese to each side of bread and 2-3 tomato slices.