Perfect Pairing: Strawberry and Lemon

 There's something magical about pairing strawberries with lemon; the sweetness of the red berry is perfectly complemented by the brightness of the citrus. So when on Monday I asked for veggies dishes to go along with my healthy eating, and Martha from Quick Cheap and Pretty wrote in the comments that she eats a simple salad of spinach, strawberries, and almonds, I thought, "That sounds absolutely wonderful right now. I bet it would taste even more wonderful with a hint of lemon."

So I made that wonderful salad and added lemon zest to it. And it was delicious.

Almonds lightly toasted on medium high heat in a saute pan until I'm about to freak out because I think they're burning. (Usually about four minutes)

The best dressing of all time. I'm not kidding. I hope your grocery store sells this.  If not, my condolences.

I'm sure you could add a lot more to this salad, but for me it was the perfect amount of sweetness from the strawberries, flavor punch from the lemon zest, and savory from the almonds.

And now, I'm thinking of all things lemon and strawberry, such as: Pound cake, pancakes, cake, pie, cookies, and (my favorite) ice cream.

Strawberry Lemonade Ice Cream. 

That sounds pretty darn magical to me.