Sara's Prizewinning Salad

Spinach
2 vegetables
2 fruits
2 nuts
2 cheeses
2 proteins (any meat, beans or eggs)

Combine in a bowl all or any combination of the above ingredient. (The idea is to have enough yummy things in the salad so that you have something tasty to eat with every bite of spinach. This makes the spinach very easy to eat.)

Note: Below are some versions of the above salad to give you an idea. The first version won a prize hence the title.
1. Combine spinach, grapes, cranberries, green peppers, cucumbers, red onion, maple syrup walnuts (see candied nuts), chicken, bacon and blue cheese. I don't remember if I added Parmesan cheese but I'll do that sometimes.
2. Presentation of this salad can give it some extra spark. I enjoy making a Cobb salad version of it by laying the spinach on a platter and then putting stripes of bacon, hard boiled eggs, blue cheese, chicken, grape tomatoes (or diced regular tomatoes), green peppers, red onion or green onion and diced cucumbers next to each other on top of the spinach (the most important things are the bacon, chicken, blue cheese and tomatoes and onion. The other vegetables are optional). I try to have two or more rows of each item and they can layer on top of each other. Tip: use a large platter if you use all the items above.
This version of the salad is always a big hit because it looks much harder to make than it really is.

Sara
Versions by Liz