Thursday Recipe - Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing

It's New Years, everybody resolved to lose weight, right? So eat more salad. This recipe, while healthy with fresh spinach and cranberries, isn't going to help you lose weight. It uses bacon and bacon grease. But it's so good. If you're feeling really guilty about eating it, make it the main course for your meal.

I posted a Spinach Salad before. This one is a bit different. It has a hot bacon dressing you pour on right before serving.

Good luck with your weight loss. I made that goal, too, since I've put on weight recently due to changing medications, stress, and just eating too many cookies again. It's time to revisit my eating plan and find time to walk the dog more often. Anyone have some spare energy lying around? I'm going to need it.

Spinach Salad

1 lb baby spinach
1 can mandarin oranges, drained (reserve juice)
1/2 c. craisins (sweetened dried cranberries)
1/3 c. pecans from a salted nut mix

Toss together. Pour hot dressing over the top. Serve immediately. 6 - 10 servings

Bacon Dressing

4 strips of bacon, cut up small
1/2 c. vinegar
1/3 c. mandarin orange juice (reserved from salad)
1 T. corn starch
1/2 t. salt
pepper to taste

Fry bacon until crispy. Remove from pan, reserving drippings, add bacon to salad. Stir vinegar, juice, and cornstach together. Add to bacon fat. Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over salad and toss.

Thursday Recipe - Spinach Salad

Guess what? It's National Eat Bacon Week! So in honor of that new holiday—

What do you mean it isn't a real holiday? It should be. Okay, I admit I just made it up. Bacon is one of the four basic food groups at my house. The others are chocolate, cold cereal, and granola bars.

Bacon can be healthy, if you add in enough other vegetables. Here's one of my kids' favorites with bacon.

Spinach Salad

1/2 c. red onion, sliced very thin
2 T. white vinegar

6 slices bacon
6 c. fresh spinach
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1 small can mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 c. roasted salted pecans, chopped
Poppy Seed Dressing (see below)

Put onion and vinegar in small bowl, set aside (if the onion is really mild you can skip this step). Cook bacon until crisp. Cool and crumble into small pieces. Arrange spinach on a large platter. Drain vinegar from onion. Top with cranberries, oranges, and onion. Serve with dressing.

Poppy Seed Dressing

3 limes
1 T. vinegar
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. dry mustard
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 T. poppy seeds

Grate the zest from the limes, you need about 2 t., then juice the limes. Measure 2 T. lime juice into a small mixing bowl. Add the zest, sugar, pepper, salt, and mustard. Beat with a mixer until the sugar is dissolved. Slowly add the oil, beating well after each addition. Dressing should thicken when you're adding the oil. Stir in poppy seeds. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. If it separates, just stir before serving.