Breakfast Salad!  Spinach, Bacon, Fruit, Cinnamon Toast Croutons & Maple Vinaigrette

My sister came over with the ingredients for this salad and although I was a little skeptical about eggs on salad, I was up for it! I mean people put eggs on all kinds of things – burgers and pizza are two I have seen – so this was my chance to feel gourmet! I modified the recipe to reduce the sugar amount since I am working on eating less sugar.

The combination of warm egg with cool salad, and the mixture of flavors – sweet and savory – made it so, so good!!

Ingredients:

• 6 cups French Bread Cubes
• 3 Tablespoons Melted Butter
• 3 Stevia packets
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¼ cup Maple Syrup
• ¼ cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
• ½ tsp Salt
• Black pepper
• 12 ounces bacon, Cooked & Crumbled
• 12 whole Eggs
• 6 cups Packed Baby Spinach
• 1 cup (Candied) Nuts
• ¾ cups Dried Cherries, Cranberries, Raisins (go for no added sugar options)

Steps:

For the cinnamon toast croutons: Preheat the oven to 350º F. Spread the bread cubes out on a baking sheet. Mix the melted butter, Stevia, and cinnamon together and drizzle over the bread cubes. Toss and bake the croutons for 5-10 minutes until toasted.

For the maple vinaigrette: Whisk the maple syrup, oil, vinegar, mustard, and salt together until smooth. Add pepper to taste. Set aside.

Cook and drain the bacon.

Prepare the eggs for each serving, depending on their preference—scrambled, fried, poached, sunny-side-up.

Prepare each salad plate with a cup or so of baby spinach, top with cinnamon toast croutons,  nuts, dried fruit, and crumbled bacon. Then top each with 1-2 eggs and drizzle with maple vinaigrette!