I have always made this as a side salad until the other day, when I wanted a light supper after a big meaty lunch, so I made this spinach salad as our meal. It was perfectly satisfying and delicious. The hard boiled eggs, sliced almonds, and crisp bacon pieces add a little protein, and the mandarin oranges bring a bright sweetness to the hearty baby spinach.
The tangy sweet dressing for this salad can be made days ahead if you like--and you can make the whole recipe and have plenty for other salads, or cut the recipe in half (which will still give you some extra). I used a little blender gadget I have to mice up the onion and mix the dressing. But you can do this by hand if you want to.
One more note on the salad dressing--people often ask what extra virgin olive oil I use: this is the one I like best for salad dressings. The price is reasonable, and it is readily available--even at Walmart.
I know this recipe does not give you an amount on the bacon--it just says "bacon bits." I would probably use 1 strip per serving --however, for a salad meal like I made, I used 2 strips per serving.
Now here is the cool part about this salad--at this point, you can refrigerated all the parts of the salad separately, then transport it to a pot luck or to a friends house, or just put all the parts in the fridge for a fast salad later in the day--or even the next day.
When you are ready, dump everything in with the spinach, add as much of your dressing as you like, and serve up a wonderful salad that you are sure to get compliments on.
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