Mom Meal: Quick protein packed spinach salad with lemon vinaigrette

This is what I call a mom meal. Something quick and delicious we as moms can enjoy with out having to hear complaints from in my case, the boys of my house because I'm serving them salad.  Sometimes its just not worth the battle to me, I just make something different.  this was a night where I made the boys mac n cheese and chicken nuggets and I didn't want that; they would ALL be content if I just made it every night, I swear.  So I did a quick fridge look through and came up with this salad, I had some spinach, cucumbers, onion, tuna and eggs on hand so I decided to throw it all together.  It worked, I suppose it could be a take on a nicoise salad but I was lacking a ton of ingredients for that.  The lemon vinaigrette was fantastic as well and if I was smart I would just keep some on hand :)  The pictures aren't the greatest this time because I wasn't really paying close attention, but you'll get it. 

Protein Packed Spinach Salad

So  I started with a bowl of spinach

Found these awesome local eggs @ Sagayas!!  Until I someday have my own chickens..

I only used one egg in this recipe, but I like to have a couple in the fridge

I also had these baby English cucumbers so I sliced 1 up thinly and put in to my bowl of lettuce (I used the rest to make tajiki which is going to top my gyro meatloaf on Monday:))

Had this little pouch of tuna that I decided to use, not bad but I'd rather squeeze the water out in a can, this is kinda gelatinous. I also thinly sliced onion, and peeled and cut my egg into 5 wedges but forgot to take a picture. 

For the Lemon Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons Olive oil

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon mustard

Juice and zest from 1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon bouquet garni (or what ever fresh or dry herbs you want to throw in)

1 clove minced garlic

 So I used olive oil, 1/2 a lemon (juice and zest), salt, pepper, bouquet garni 

Rice wine vinegar and mustard, generally I'd use Dijon or spicy mustard but I was out of them. Good ol yellow mustard does the trick in a pinch!

So whisk everything in the bowl until well incorporated, I also added a clove of garlic and the lemon zest.

I put everything on top of the bed of spinach, and added Parmesan cheese. Bonus points if you know the flower the egg is arranged after :)

There you have it- a healthy, quick, vitamin and protein packed meal...took 15 minutes, would have been less if I had the eggs already boiled. Its all about using what you have on hand sometimes and thinking outside of the box! The lemon vinaigrette is the bomb too, on any salad!