Spinach Salad

Our family really enjoys spinach salad. Yes, these GUYS love spinach salad. Amazing. Most times one thinks of spinach-and-fruit salads as a girl kind of thing. To my surprise I've served this numerous times and there's still a fight to clean out the dish.

Ingredients-
Spinach
Fresh fruit - apple, pear, strawberry or whatever you like
Cheese- feta preferred, but you can use any kind
Lemon
Olive oil
Maple syrup
Nuts
Butter (or coconut oil)
Salt, optional
Pepper, optional
Poppy seeds, optional

Use a whole (8 oz) bag of spinach. I use Aldi's spinach- $1.19 @ bag. Tear it into smaller pieces, wash and spin dry.

It has a strange color because I accidentally grabbed
the grapeseed oil instead of olive oil. It's still good.

Juice a lemon. Make a dressing using equal amounts of lemon juice, maple syrup and olive oil. Add a bit of salt and pepper if you like. Poppy seeds are good but we seldom use them. 

Add fruit (an apple or two, cut into small slices, sliced strawberries or pears) to the dressing.

With the spinach in a serving bowl, spoon the fruit and dressing evenly over the top.

Sprinkle with 2- 4 oz of cheese.

Put 1/2 - 3/4 cup of nuts (sliced almonds, walnuts or pecans), a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of maple syrup in a cast iron skillet. Heat over low heat, stirring to spread butter and syrup evenly over the nuts. Watch it carefully, stirring once or twice. Spread it evenly over the bottom of the pan after every stirring. 

When it is nicely toasted, turn the heat off and immediately remove from the pan. I usually sprinkle it directly onto the prepared salad at this point but you could put it in a small dish and break it up when it's cool.

Thomas says there's only one thing wrong with it. There's never enough!