Quick and Healthy Spinach, Beet & Feta Salad with a Side of Savory Pasta and Friendship

Every so often I love to stay in on a Friday or Saturday night, hang with a great friend, cook and share stories over a bottle of wine and a great meal - which is exactly what my friend Alex & I did last weekend.  With Alex being the fellow foodie & fun gal that she is, you'll typically find us hitting up brand new spots for dinner or brunch, exchanging emails about food fests & restaurant write-ups or passing recipes back & forth - we can't ever seem to get enough and it's fantastic.

Our Friday night was filled with red wine, laughter, my healthy spinach salad (a great end of summer into fall salad to take anywhere), and one delicious pasta sauce, recipe courtesy of Alex's mama - simply de-lish!  This meal is a good example of balancing health and indulgence - get your greens but also remember, you have to allow yourself to enjoy the finer, more buttery things in life from time to time :)  Check out the recipes below!

Salad pre-dressing

Post-dressing, tossed, chilled & ready to eat

Quick & Healthy Spinach, Beet & Feta Salad

Note: This salad can be made with beets from the produce aisle, but it's super quick with the help of the steamed & peeled, ready to serve beets I found at Trader Joe's - they taste great & totally make beets more accessible for us all.

Ingredients

- 1 pkg Trader Joe's Baby Beets (about 5 small-medium sized beets)

- 1 pkg baby spinach

- 2 tblsp fat free, crumbled feta

- 1/2 cup pistachios (shelled & halved)

Dressing:

- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

- 1/2 cup olive oil

- 1 tsp honey

- 1 tblsp lemon juice (fresh or bottled will do)

- fresh ground pepper to taste

- 1/4 tsp onion powder (I didn't have any fresh onion or shallots on hand so I used this as a substitute. If you have the onion or shallot, finely mince so you have 1 tblsp and add to dressing instead of onion powder)

Directions: 

Slice beets into small slices or cubes.  Combine spinach, beets, feta & pistachios in a large serving bowl.
For dressing, whisk all ingredients together - feel free to add a bit more lemon juice, vinegar or oil to taste.  Pour mixture over salad in serving bowl & toss to combine.  Chill in fridge for about 30 mins before serving.

I ❤ Trader Joe's

Salad dressing ingredients

Mama Yeagerelli's Pasta Sauce 

Ingredients: 

- 8 oz pasta (we used elicoidali, a medium, tubular pasta)
- 2 tblsp onions or shallots
- 4 slices bacon (or 1 tbsp. bacon fat)
- 3/4 cup chopped/diced salami or maple ham
- 1 oz cognac or marsala or port
- 1 jar ready made pasta sauce
- Tabasco to taste
- 1/2 stick butter
- 1/2 cup cream or milk (sauce will be a bit more watery)
- 3 tblsp parmesan cheese
*Optional Yeager additions:  capers (put in with salami/ham), hot pepper flakes

Directions:

Sauté onions/shallots with the bacon in a skillet until shallots/onions are golden brown.  Add salami or ham.  Cook for 3 minutes.  Remove bacon.  Pour cognac into skillet.  Cook for a couple minutes to cook off alcohol.  Stir in tomato sauce, Tabasco, butter and cream.  Cook pasta and combine with the sauce in a bowl.  Add parmesan cheese and serve.

Goodness simmering away

Final product - we cleaned our plates for sure