brianna's salad dressings have been my favorites for a while now, and we use them pretty exclusively. they recently went on sale 2/$5 at central market in poulsbo, so i stocked up, which means we've been adding lots of side salads alongside our regular meals as of late. this salad is pretty simple, not quite substantial enough to be a "house" salad, but due to it's simplicity and italian slant, i find it to be a perfect accompaniment to pizza!

we also like to apply a little trick i picked up in an article about why restaurant salads taste so much better than their homemade counterparts. yes, they taste better thanks to the usual suspects - higher sugar content in the dressings, being loaded up on unhealthy extras, etc. but there was one item that surprised me: restaurants salt their salads! while i wouldn't dream of cooking meat without seasoning, it definitely hadn't occurred to me to salt raw lettuce. we've been adding a pinch of seasoning to our salads ever since and it definitely elevates the final product.

| ingredients |

mixed greens
grape tomatoes, sliced lengthwise
red onion, finely diced
parmesan-ranch crutons
shaved parmesan cheese
salt, pepper to taste - (as a rule of thumb, about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper per half pound of greens)
dressing of choice - for this salad we like brianna’s italian vinaigrette

| method |

in a large bowl add a little bit of the dressing first - then the greens. toss greens in the dressing using a pair of tongs, until evenly coated. add the tomatoes, red onion, about 1/2 the parm and season to taste, tossing once more. add additional dressing as needed. top with the crutons and additional parmesan cheese.

(i usually add a minimal amount of dressing in the larger bowl and then add any extra on my plate.)