Spinach Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette and Rosemary Garlic Pizza

 

Sunday night is salad and pizza night!

First, I made a raspberry balsamic vinaigrette.  You will need fresh raspberries, sugar, Dijon mustard, garlic, balsamic vinegar, black pepper, avocado oil, and a little bit of raspberry or blackberry jam.

Place all of the ingredients except the oil into a blender.  I used an entire small package of raspberries, one clove of garlic, a tablespoon of blackberry preserves, a teaspoon of mustard, 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar, 1/3 cup of sugar, and a few grinds of fresh pepper.

Blend all of the ingredients on high.  Then slowly drizzle in 1/2 cup of a light flavored oil. Then transfer the mixture to a jar or other container.

For the rest of the salad, you will need: spinach, chicken, dried cranberries, feta cheese, almonds, strawberries, and bacon.

Cook the bacon.  Slice up the strawberries.  Toast the almonds.  To toast almonds, simply place sliced almond slivers in a heavy pan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently.  The almonds will begin to brown and eventually blacken a little if you forget about them like I did. Oops.

Also, slice the chicken into bite size pieces.  Cook in some vegetable oil on the stove over medium-high heat.  Season with salt and pepper.  I make enough chicken to use some on the salad and some on the pizza.

When everything is ready, assemble the salad.  Spinach with chicken and bacon pieces, drizzled with the raspberry vinaigrette, and topped with raspberries, strawberries, dried cranberries, feta cheese, and toasted almonds.  Delicious!

Of course, if you are making the whole meal, don't put the salad all together until you've prepared the pizza.

For the pizza I used a gluten-free Bisquick recipe to make the pizza dough.  I didn't take pictures of this part.  Use your favorite pizza dough recipe. 

Start by toasting some garlic.  Slice up the garlic cloves into thin pieces.  Cook the garlic in olive oil over low-medium heat until the garlic begins to turn golden brown.  Remove from heat.  Remove the garlic pieces and set aside.  Then pour the olive oil into a container and set aside.  This pizza will have a garlic olive oil base instead of a pizza sauce.

Next, prepare other toppings such as carmelized onions.  Slice onions into medium sized pieces and cook in olive oil over low heat until browned.

Remove from heat.  You can use the same oil to throw the baby bella mushrooms in!!

Also, saute the spinach in the pan with a touch of olive oil.  Do not overcook the spinach.  I cooked it for about 20 seconds until the spinach starts to wilt and turns beautiful bright green.

Chop up some fresh rosemary.  Also use fresh shredded mozzarella.  Don't use the prepackaged stuff, it just isn't the same.

Brush your pizza crust with the garlic-y olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Then add your pizza toppings.  For myself, I used spinach, mushrooms, and caramelized onions.  For my wife, I used the chicken and bacon.

Then top the pizzas with the mozzarella.  Crumble up the toasted garlic pieces and sprinkle on top.  Finish it off with the fresh rosemary.

Cook until the cheese is melted and everything is warm and toasty. The temperature of the oven and length of cooking depends on your pizza crust.  Serve with the spinach salad.

Enjoy!!