BLT Salad

It is sooo hot where I live.  Even with the A/C running we are hot.  I suppose it might be because I refuse to turn the A/C on too low because I know what my bill would look like so we are a little warmer than what might be comfortable.  This makes me want to eat light. Meals based on salad are not usually a huge hit in my house.  So I thought about it and decided bacon makes anything better....well almost anything, I still don't think it belongs on a cupcake or covered in chocolate - but a BLT Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing sounded good.  My local grocery store had the regular sized Classic Romaine Salad mix on sale 2 for $1.00 and spinach leaves also 2 for $1.00. 

I bought 2 romaine mix bags and 1 spinach bag. 

I bought 1 pint of Grape Tomatoes and 2 lbs of bacon. 

Mix the salad and the spinach leaves.

  Slice the grape tomatoes in half and add to salad. 

Fry the bacon and crubmle on top.

Now for the dressing.  I have one of those mixers from Tupperware - you can use anything to mix your dressing.  I combined 1 tsp. Onion Powder, 4 T. Brown Sugar, 3 T. Apple Cider Vinegar, 1/2 tsp. Salt, and 1 tsp. Dry Mustard.  I did this while I was frying the bacon.  Then I poured all the bacon grease into a glass measuring cup and the little bits and pieces from the pan sank to the bottom.  Then I poured out all but

1/2 C. bacon grease.  I added the bacon grease with all those little bits on the bottom to the dressing mixture and shook it up really well.

This made about 3/4 C, Dressing - which I poured all over the salad and tossed.  The greens wilted slightly so you would want to wait until you are ready to serve before doing this.  If the dressing cools down before tossing the salad then just heat it up slightly in the mircrowave.  My kids and I really liked it - my husband thought it was too sweet - you could back down on the brown sugar if you want but if you do you will also need to back down on the vinegar.  This made a delicious salad that I practically inhaled - I was lucky to get this photo!