Three Leaf Salad

So this recipe comes from my sister, who likes to start conversations and emails like it was the middle. She gave me a cute little recipe book for Christmas made by a group of her friends. I love those kinds of recipe books, although they inevitably have recipes with my forbidden ingredients. Ok, they are not forbidden, I just really dislike them and I choose not to cook with them. Like cream of chicken soup. It is not even good for you. If you like those kinds of dishes, try giving it up for awhile, and then go back and taste it. You'll see. But once you skip over recipes that call for cream of fill in the blank soups, ranch dressing used as a base instead of a condiment, boxed cake/stuffing/biscuit mix, and other unpleasant things like shortening and Karo syrup, you are left with tried and true simple recipes made by real human beings, not professional chefs with years of culinary training, every kitchen accessory ever invented, and a back kitchen staff at their disposal.

Salad recipes of course have highly-interchangable ingredients, so really this is mostly for the dressing. The onion gives it a very hearty flavor, so you don't feel like you are just nibbling on greens for dinner. And it gives it a pretty pink color. Everyone except me ate it with other dressing though. Their loss. I read in a magazine somewhere that you should always mix your greens for best flavor and nutrition, so I like that this recipe has three different kinds of lettuce.

My sister suggests using chicken instead of bacon, which is what I did (in the crockpot), since bacon is almost forbidden. I'm sure edamame would be a good substitution too, especially since it cooks in 3 minutes. She also says you can candy the almonds by frying or baking with 1/4 c. sugar, but the dressing is so sweet, I wouldn't. In fact, the original recipe called for 1 cup sugar, but I experimented and found it just as tasty with 1/2 cup. I toasted the almonds, but not necessary.

1 head red leaf lettuce, shredded
1 head green leaf lettuce, shredded
1 head romaine lettuce, shredded
8 oz. shredded mozzarella
8 oz. shredded parmesan
1 lb. bacon, crumbled
8 oz. craisins
1 pkg (vague measurement...) almonds, sliced or slivered

Dressing:
1/2 c red wine vinegar
1/2 c sugar
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 1/2 t salt
2 t mustard
1 c vegetable oil (I used canola)

Mix first 5 ingredients (all but oil) in blender. Add oil and mix again.

Toss all ingredients together, at least as much will be eaten since it doesn't store well mixed, although separate ingredients do. (It also helps keep everyone happy to assemble their own.)Extra dressing will keep for weeks in the refrigerator.

I made some cornbread to go with it, and even though some people only ate chicken and cheese, I thought it was delicious. 6YO and 2YO both ate a few mouthfuls of greens though, how often does that happen?

Now I'm going to go eat some leftover salad for lunch.

New developments: I now have made this salad three times, and it is MAGIC. When my sister gave me the recipe, her husband piped right up to tell me how good it is, and I thought, weird, boys don't usually rave about salads. They eat them sure, but salads are kind of girl stuff. Then my brother came over to babysit, and he ate some--and raved. Then my cousin came to visit, and he said he couldn't finish his enchiladas because he ate so much salad, and he doesn't even like salad. Ok, three boys who love it, this is not your typical salad.