Yummy Healthy Spinach Salad

This recipe was shared on Facebook with no title, so I gave it one.  Oh goodness.  Here is a quote from the original post: "This SPINACH-based salad will boost the thyroid gland's output of metabolism-reviving hormones!"

Ingredients:

5 oz. fresh spinach (half a 10-oz. bag)

3/4 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1 15-oz. can mandarin oranges (or fresh Cuties/Halos, or 1 cup pomegranate seeds.  I used the mandarins.)

1 large Granny Smith apple, cut in bite-size pieces

1 t. lemon juice

1/3 cup pecans--I toasted mine in butter and a little sea salt

Optional: Feta cheese & orecchiette pasta (did you know that means little ears?)

Dressing: (I made this separately, in case I needed to adjust the amount I poured on the salad):

4 T. olive oil or vegetable oil

2 T. apple cider vinegar

2 T. white wine vinegar

2-4 t. white sugar (or honey or Stevia to taste)--I used 3 t. sugar

1/8 t. each of paprika, onion powder

1 T. poppy seeds

Just throw it all together and enjoy!

I also added grilled chicken to this.  Makes a great main dish salad that way.

Source:  Tammy Elmore, Facebook, 1/5/16.