Lettuce rejoice this winter

During the summer, salads can be super exciting. Those fresh greens you lovingly choose at the local farmer's market. The light dressing you sparingly spray to enhance the crisp crunch of each type of lettuce. The peppers you chop to add a little bite. The coolness in our mouth and the droplets of water that still cling to the leaves, cooling you from a steamy, humid summer's day. I love it.

But then comes winter - and what is a delectable pleasure in dogs days of summer becomes a bland, punishment during the dark, cold days of winter. I crave warm foods when it's cold and cold foods when it's warm. So salads become a necessary evil for me in winter. Sure, I still love the crunch and the variety of flavors, but I want food that warms me and salad just doesn't do that.

Until today.

I don't know why I never thought of it before: Warm salad. It's so simple it's stupid (or at least I am). I'm not talking about the usual warm (carb-filled) salads like potato or pasta salad. I'm talking about taking a base of greens and topping them with warm salad fixins! It's total brilliance that came to me via an AMAZING recipe in Women's Health. 

Seriously, this has blown my mind and may have just started a new obsession for me! 

The salad (recipe also posted below) involved cooking shrimp, onions and mushrooms in the bacon dressing. All I could think was, "Why have I never thought to heat up vinaigrette before?" When I put the plate in front of Kevin - covered in fresh spinach and wafting with the smell of cooked bacon I said something about wanting to take a picture. "I totally support that idea" said the man whose big joy in life comes from laughing at me each time I photograph a plate. He ooohed and ahhhed through the whole meal and nodded vigorously as I talked about the apparently brilliance of warm salads.

Oh - and the brilliance of bacon dressing shouldn't go un-noted either.

Check out this life-changing, protein-filled salad recipe (and yes, it takes BACON!!!):

Shrimp And Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing

8 oz shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
6 oz baby spinach
1 cup sliced mushrooms
6 strips bacon, cut into small pieces
1 red onion, sliced
2 Tbsp pine nuts
3 Tbsp red-wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Olive oil (optional)

How to make it:
1/ Set a large skillet over medium heat. Cook bacon pieces until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a paper towel.

2/ Add onion and mushrooms to the hot skillet and cook until onion begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Season shrimp with salt and pepper to taste and add them to the skillet, along with pine nuts. When shrimp are pink and firm (2 to 4 minutes), stir in vinegar and mustard, and season again with salt and pepper to taste. If the skillet looks dry, add a splash of olive oil.

3/ Divide spinach and eggs among 4 plates and top with the hot shrimp mixture, some of the dressing from the skillet, and bacon.

Makes 4 servings
Per serving: 316 calories, 20 g fat, 12 g carbs, 572 mg sodium, 5 g fiber, 21 g protein