Goat Cheese, Tomato, & Walnut Salad

Last Sunday, feeling a tad bit hungover tired after our St. Patrick's Day "outing" all day Saturday,  2 of my girlfriends and I needed food in a bad way.  We were craving something filling but healthy to get some nutrients back in our bodies.  Every restaurant in the West Village area had an hour-long wait, so we ended up at Village Burger Bar (and boy were we glad we did).  I have always loved VBB for their fabulously cheap Happy Hours, but wasn't expecting much on the food front.  


I am now beyond impressed with this little joint.  I got the MOST insanely delicious and flavorful salad.  I order salads allofthetime and I might even be willing to say that this was the best restaurant salad I've ever eaten.  ::gasp::  The Turkey & Goat Cheese Salad: Sliced turkey, dried cranberries, chives, goat cheese, and sweet pecans with balsamic vinaigrette. (Wish I had taken a picture!  *Tear*)


I knew I had to re-create this at home, but in a lightened-up way for a weeknight treat.
My Ingredients:

• Spring Mix
• Hearts of Romaine
• Chopped Walnuts
• Roma Tomato, diced
• Goat Cheese
• My Homemade Dijon Vinaigrette (recipe here)

You could easily use all spring mix for this salad, and baby spinach would also work well.  I lightened this up by omitting the meat and sugary dried cranberries, adding tomato, and I opted for plain chopped walnuts over sweet (read: coated in sugar) pecans.

The one ingredient that mustn't be skimped on:

I used Silver Goat brand Tomato & Basil Chevre Goat Cheese.  SO delicious!

Lettuce + Walnuts:

Lettuce + Walnuts + Goat Cheese:

Lettuce + Walnuts + Goat Cheese + Dijon Vinaigrette = PERFECTION!

An amazing weeknight salad that only costs me about 160 calories!  

Hungry Hubby had his only-way-I'll-eat-a-salad man salad.  (More details about that here.)

I absolutely LOVE goat cheese.  It is by-far my favorite cheese.  Do you love it as much as I do?  What's your favorite cheese?