LFitch welcome to the Forum. Your image contains some very nice qualities taken under one of the most common challenging situations. Shooting into the sun is always a challenge. I think your image is underexposed, most likely due to the effect the sun has on a camera's meter. You may have compensated a little, that I can't tell, but I can tell you in the example I have posted that I increased the sky by 2/3 to 1 stop. The sun and surrounding amber area has been lightened approx 2/3 of a stop. The rest of the blue sky has been increased up to 1 stop. So I think you could have increased exposure at least 2/3 of a stop and depending on whether or not you are shooting RAW and the conversion software you are using you might have been able to increase exposure by 1.5 stops or more. That is where using your histogram comes in handy.
By increasing exposure you would have much more useful information recorded in the foreground. In the example I have posted the foreground has been increased from 3 to 5 stops. The darkest area in the grass at the front in the lower left of the image has been pushed approx. 5 stops, with the middle area of the foreground increased approx. 3 stops. There is plenty of room here for artistic freedom, but I wanted to show you a brighter example so you can see the range of possibillities.
To achieve optimum exposure when shooting into the sun multiple exposures or use of Neutral Density filters are generaly required. Still as you can see even with an underexposed image there is still allot that can be done.
Always bracket your exposures, and check your histogram when shooting scenes with an extreme range of light. Your goal is to record as much information as you can in the darkest areas of the image without clipping or blowing out the highlights. When shooting into the sun a general rule is to increase exposure 1 to 1.5 stops. That will generaly give you the best compromise in terms of retaining the highlights and recording as much data as possible in the midtones and shadows.
Here are some links that may be of interest:
Section 17 covers exposure and how to use a histogram
Section 18 discusses aspects of RAW processing
http://www.usa.canon.com/content/Rebel_lessons/index.html http://www.normankoren.com/digital_tonality.html
