Spinach & noodle salad

Sunday nights are for relaxing. I love cooking, but not on Sundays. So I picked one of our favorite quick & easy meals for dinner tonight, ramen noodle & spinach salad. The recipe is ridiculously easy & delicious to boot. I found the recipe from The Spark People Recipes app; I tweaked it just a bit by cooking the noodles rather than toasting them.

1 pkg. fresh baby spinach (10 oz)
4 green onions, chopped
1 pkg oriental ramen noodles
2 tblsp olive oil
2 tblsp brown sugar
2 tblsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbslp soy sauce
2 tblsp toasted sesame seeds
2 oz sliced almonds

Crunch up the ramen noodles & cook in microwave. Drain noodles.

Mix spinach with chopped green onions, noodles, sesame seeds, & almonds.

Dressing: Mix the soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and remaining olive oil together and toss with the salad.

And that's it. Easy peasy :)

The delicious green drink

So green drinks look disgusting. But they taste amazing! At least mine does. I love that I can drink my vegetables on the way to work :) And I really love that my 13 month old loves them even more than I do. As you can see from the picture he doesn't mind having a green "mustache." I got my idea from The Kind Life website & tweaked it for us.

Green Smoothie
3-5 large kale leaves, torn from the stem
3-5 cups of spinach (torn or baby spinach)
1 large orange, peeled
1 large banana, peeled
1 cup of strawberries or blueberries
1-1 1/2 cups coconut milk or water

Put all ingredients in blender and mix. Yum!

Sometimes if I have a few bananas that are about to go bad I cover with saran wrap & freeze them. Those are perfect for this. You can also add ice or water as needed. And feel free to add any berries or fruit you have on hand. This is always a nice compliment to breakfast or a refresher after a work out. Also for an extra nutritional boost you can add 2 Tbsp of wheat germ, ground flax seed, or both.