Today was so beautiful I decided to go shopping at our local farmers market.

 I spoke in length to the gentleman selling grain, we starting talking about Chia Seeds.  Yes, it is from the same family as the silly Chia Heads people buy at the holidays for gag gifts. He told me the Chia Seed goes back thousands of years.  Chia seeds are high in Omega 3 fatty acids, and if you eat them raw, you can increase your intake of fiber…by a lot.  But, like anything you take, please check with your doctor, especially if you are taking any medications.  Also, there is a lot of information on the Internet, if you are interest in learning more.

O.k. so now that I totally went off subject, I just found these little seeds very interesting.  When I ate them on this strawberry and spinach salad, I didn’t even notice they were there.

Now back to my original thought…

The produce was beautiful and I was inspired to make a salad.  The weather reports predict rain by the end of the week so I wanted to take advantage of the spring like conditions.

Ingredients:

Adjust your ingredients according to the amount of salad you need, the following amount made enough for 4 side salads.

2 cups Baby Spinach washed and drained

1 cup baby tomatoes cut in half

¼ cup of feta cheese crumbles

¼ cup of dried cranberry’s

4 large strawberry’s quartered

2 tablespoons chia seeds (optional)

Separate all ingredients between the four plates

Vinaigrette

½ cup red wine vinegar

½ cup olive oil

1 clove of garlic minced

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

2 teaspoons of sugar

½ teaspoon of Kosher salt

Place all ingredients in to a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake well.  Pour over salad.

Enjoy this strawberry and spinach salad!