Did you know that Bridezilla not only bakes, but she also makes salad?

Shocking, I know. I bet there are more things you don’t know about me, but we will fix that, soon.

Yesterday morning I had one of those beautiful blogging moments where a recipe from one of my favorite blogs turned up, immediately peaked my interest, and (cue the chorus of angels singing) we had most of the ingredients in the fridge! I had already asked my mom to let me cook dinner since I needed a little cheering up, and this salad fit the bill perfectly.

I think that my name for this salad — and this post — could actually use a little tweaking, since “Black Bean & Spinach Salad” sounds like something your Aunt Tilly threw together with a box of frozen spinach and some leftover bean dip. This is not that salad! This is a fresh, flavorful, filling main course that gets some sweet-and-sourness from the dressing, some bite and creaminess from the feta, some crunch from the greens and the almonds, and a lot of honey-lime-jalapeño zestiness all around.

I am not going to post the recipe, since you should obviously just pop over to 101 Cookbooks and get it for yourself, but here are some pictures! We had a huge bag of fresh spinach in the fridge, so I used that instead of the arugula that Heidi suggests. Oh, and my almonds are slivered and not sliced, but that’s what was on hand, so that’s what I used! Served with some nice hot bread and butter, this made a flavorful, easy meal for my parents and I.