Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing - Erin ****

Let me start by explaining that we are going to try something our mom suggested. She thought we should put a star rating in our titles. I couldn't figure out how to do actual stars, so asterisks will have to do. Look at the title, and you can see I gave this 4 stars. :)

I'm not going to begin this post by talking about my recipe. Because I just noticed something that I feel the need to share. I opened my cookbook to give you all the info for this recipe, and the page is a mess! There was a piece of spinach crushed into the picture side, and there are spots of something...oil? bacon grease? all over the recipe side. I flipped through to my past recipes, and they are a mess too. How do I not notice this mess while I'm cooking? I guess now you get a little insight into me as a cook. I'm SO focused I can't stop to get the spinach leaf off the book before I close it. :)

Okay, so back to the spinach salad. :) Jason, Madeline, my mom, and I sat down last weekend to choose recipes for this week. My mom and Madeline both put this spinach salad at the top of their choices. I don't think it was even a blip on Jase's radar, but he said he would try it. I was feeling nice, though, and I made it tonight while he was at conferences so he wouldn't HAVE to eat it. :)

This was VERY easy to make. It took virtually no time, and I was able to cook while dealing with a 17 month old pulling on my pants leg shouting "Mama" over and over again. :) I'd say that's a family-friendly recipe. While I was cooking, Madeline declared that she didn't like spinach...even though she insisted this be one of the recipes I choose. Once I convinced Madeline that spinach was just like lettuce, only healthier, she was fine. She's a salad eater, so I knew that would convince her. She got really excited when I was cooking bacon and boiling eggs.

After cooking and eating this, I'm not sure how it's as healthy as the cookbook says it is. I didn't make the mushrooms to go with it, so I know I took away some nutrition there. But, the onions (I used shallots instead) and shrimp are cooked in the bacon grease. Really? I know that makes it taste good, but it still manages to be low cal on top of that? I did eat probably 2 servings. I made the recipe as written (4 servings), and just Madeline and I were eating it. (I knew it would be a waste of time to try to make Riley eat any of it.) I had probably 2 servings of shrimp. There was some left over, but not very much. Still, though, with 2 servings, it was only 440 calories!

So, here are the nitty gritty details...

Madeline - "I'm going to tell your blog readers that this is awesome! Is there enough for me to

have seconds?"

Erin - "Yum! I can't believe this is healthy for us!"

Riley - Yeah right...spinach, shallots, shrimp for a toddler? Not my toddler who doesn't even like mashed potatoes! :)

Spinach - $2.99 (I used about half the bag.)

Pine Nuts - I already had them, and I only used 2 T this time.

Shrimp - $8.99 (I used half the bag.)

Shallot - $.11 (I used this instead of a red onion.)

Bacon (6 strips) - I made some bacon for breakfast this weekend,

and I just reserved the 6 pieces for this recipe.

Dijon Mustard - already had

Red Wine Vinegar - already had

Eggs - already had

The shrimp was more expensive that I thought it would be, but only using half the bag wasn't bad.

I hope you try this recipe. It is yummy. OH, and it's on page 106 of Cook This, Not That!

Come close, followers. Let's all put our hands together in the middle, and on the count of three let's say "Start Cookin'!" Three, Two, One, "Start Cookin'!"