Did you ever read those ‘choose your adventure’ books as a child? Well, I didn’t. The Babysitters’ Club and Sweet Valley High authors didn’t really roll like that. Anyhow, I thought of 3 different ways to segway into today’s recipe and I can’t choose. SO… you may go ahead and be the master of your own destiny. (HINT: It ends in salad.)

Intro #1

I’d like to thank my love for spandex for my lunch. Say what? Yeah, let’s backpedal here for a moment. Yesterday was an awesomely relaxing girly Sunday. Girly = shopping. I went out for new running shoes (which I legit needed) and ended up giving into curiosity to see if Lululemon is really all it’s cracked up to be. Long story short, I have new kicks and new pants. Lululemon shopping bags have a ton of inspirational quotes scrawled all over. Something I read yesterday (can’t remember if it was twitter or the lulu bag), said that failure is not failure, but a discovery of new ways that don’t work. Trying something you haven’t tried before is the only way to discover new things. This could be good. This could be not so good.

I found myself in my kitchen around 1:30p wondering WTF I could throw together and call sustenance for the remaining 4 hours in my work day. Spinach. Uh… okay. Cucumber? Bacon? Apple?! Hey, they put cheddar cheese on pie and bacon in ice cream nowadays, so I think an apple and some bacon can peacefully coexist with veggies. Thus was born Apple Bacon Cucumber Salad. My train of thought was as simple as this: if it sucks, I won’t finish it. If it’s delicious, then SCORE! This time, I scored.

Intro #2

I believe there are 2 inevitable forces in this world. Gravity, and the lure of free stuff. Everyone loves free stuff. We as humans happily take home free stuff whether we have a use for it or not. Ah, BOGO. This week, spinach was buy one get one free. How much spinach can a girl really eat? Luckily, I’ve been really into the green leafy stuff recently. It goes in my morning smoothie daily. So, I headed to the store to restock and discovered it was buy one get one free. Sweet. If I’m paying for one bag and you’re going to give me another on the house… I will certainly bring it home, despite having not the slightest clue on how one girl is going to eat it all before it goes bad.

So, in addition to green monster-looking drinks in the morning, I guess salad is the next logical use for it all. Thing is, I wasn’t in the mood for cooking up a tenderloin on my lunch break for the sake of throwing it onto a pile of greenery. What was the next protein ready to go in the fridge? BACON to the rescue! Spinach, you aren’t the only super food around town.

Intro #3

I’m going to say that 98% of the ladies that read this post can walk over to their closets right now and pull out something with the tags still on it that they’ve bought more than 60 days ago. You go through your closet and think… WHY did I buy this?

THEN… one day, out of the blue, you have an actual need for some impulsive purchase you made. Suddenly, your existence has been validated. YES, THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA. I KNEW IT ALL ALONG. Today is how I finally came up with a use for the white wine vinegar I bought with absolutely no recipe in mind when I bought it.

Apple Bacon Cucumber Salad

This is ridiculously easy. The kind of easy that makes you fall out of your chair. Not so much a recipe as a list of a few foods I hadn’t thought of putting together before.

• Baby Spinach
• Cucumber
• Apple
• Bacon
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• White Wine Vinegar

Instructions: Chop up a couple slices bacon, half an apple and half a cucumber. Throw it on top of a pile of spinach. Drizzle as conservatively or generously as you want with the EVOO and vinegar. That’s a tasty pile of stuff you’ve got on your plate there.

AHH it looks so good I may just eat it again tomorrow.