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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Spinach Salad with Sweet Onion Vinaigrette


I got this salad recipe from
www.bake-aholic.com

I absolutely love spinach salads but most require a lot of ingredients I don't normally have lying around my house.  I also LOVE a sweet vinaigrette but unfortunately most of them are loaded with SUGAR.

I love this dressing recipe because the red onion gives a subtle sweetness to it and it makes it an awesome pink color!
I made this salad a few weeks ago for dinner and paired it with a Turkey Bacon Avocado Panini.

Spinach Salad:
Ingredients:
  • 10 oz. spinach
  • 1 granny smith apple, thinly sliced
  • 3/4 cup toasted almonds (350 degrees for 8 minutes)
  • 1/2 lb crisp bacon (I prefer turkey bacon)
  • red onion slices (optional)
Sweet Onion Vinaigrette:
  •  1/8 of a red onion
  • 1/3 cup EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) 
  • 3 T. sugar (I use xylitol)
  • 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp salt
Puree dressing ingredients in a blender.  Toss salad.
Kim's Notes:
Buy organic spinach at Costco or Trader Joes since SPINACH is #5 on the DIRTY DOZEN list of pesticide residue. 
Using XYLITOL instead of regular TABLE SUGAR is a GREAT idea for many reason: It is JUST AS sweet as sugar, it has a glycemic index of 10 instead of 90, it's actually GOOD for your teeth instead of BAD, and it has 40% fewer calories and 75% fewer carbohydrates! It is also one of the FEW sugar substitutes that isn't HARMFUL to your health.  You can buy this at Sprouts or online.

5 comments:

  1. I went to TJ's and used my gift card today, it was so fun, and I thought of you the whole time. One thing I got was a bunch of avocados, because guess who finally ate something?? VIolet! And it was avocado, so I'm calling that her favorite food for now.

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    1. Afton! So glad you used your gift card! And I'm glad Violet loves avocados because I would be sad if she missed out on their amazingness her whole life like I did!

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  2. Hey Kim! Not sure if you remember me but I think this is so cool you are doing a blog like this. It is right up my alley. Just beware of consuming too much xylitol if you use it in other goods. It causes large amounts of water to flush into the intestines and results in.... you guessed it. The Runs! Not to mention some bad stomach cramps along with it. Just FYI. :) Can't wait to read more!

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    1. Hi Kelsey! Of course I remember you! Thanks for more info on xylitol! I have only used it in small amounts so far because I usually don't bake with much sugar anyway. Haven't had any bad reactions yet but I have heard too much can cause those symptoms. I'm glad you found my blog, are you just interested in health stuff or are you going to school for it?! If you ever have any info or a recipe you want to share I will totally put it on here!

      P.S. random fact: your husband was my EFY crush when I was like 14! haha so funny! you two are adorable!

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  3. This was super good - except I think I put a little too much onion in the dressing cuz it was super strong. But other than that, we loved it. I'm not cool enough to make paninis, so I went with the BLT and we had a delicious meal. Thanks for the recipe Kim, keep it up - you are awesome, and it's so nice to have this resource to mix up my weekly meal plan!

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