Julie's Spinach and Strawberry Salad

We've been trying to eat healthier, so I thought a salad was probably a good idea. It's officially fall, but it's Florida, so strawberries are always in (and I love them). 

Mommom wrote in her note that this was from one of my Texas cousins. If I'm thinking of the right Julie, then this is my mom's cousin's daughter's recipe to be exact. I'm not sure I've had it before, but if I had it when Julie made it then she had to have brought it to a family reunion. If she did that then I probably ate it. After all, it has spinach and strawberries on it and something is wrong if I say no to that...

The recipe has a good number of options. I went mostly with the main ingredients. Like I said, I love spinach and strawberries, so I wasn't going to switch them out with something else. I decided against the bean sprouts, but obviously went with the bacon (who says no to bacon anyway?). I cooked some turkey bacon and crumbled it up on top. I'm sure the bacon bits you can buy in can would be just as good and I'm positive that what Matt likes to call "man bacon" (pork) would be delicious too. I also quartered (is that the right word?) the recipe since it was just Matt and I eating it.

We both thought it was great! I've been very impressed with Matt for expanding the type of salads that he likes. When I met him, the only salad he'd eat was chicken caesar salad. When he saw we were having salad he had two questions: "Will there meat too?" and "Are you going to put avocado on there?". He was satisfied that was going to be served with blackened shrimp and was ecstatic that the recipe had absolutely no avocados. If/when I make this again, the only thing I would "change" would to add some sort of cheese like crumbled feta. The recipe was very refreshing and everything I hoped it would be. 

Julie's Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Ingredients:
10 cups spinach (or red leaf lettuce or mixture of both)
3 cups strawberries (may use green grapes or mixture of both)
1 cup broken walnuts
fresh bean sprouts (optional)
4 oz bacon bits (optional)
Dressing:
1 1/2 cups oil
1 1/2 t. worcestershire
1 1/2 t. paprika
3/4 t. dry mustard
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup poppy seed
1 1/2 t. red onion