Harvest Poppy Seed Salad

Traveling doesn't afford a lot of opportunities to eat fresh.  We try to keep some fruits and veggies in the car to snack on, but even with good intentions, we don't get a lot of fruits and veggies in on the road.  Once we stop for any amount of time and we have the opportunity to buy groceries and cook for ourselves, we try to eat a lot of salad.   Even if we're not traveling, we can all use more raw fruits and veggies in our lives, right?

Here is one of our favorite fall salads:

Harvest Poppy Seed Salad

Ingredients:

4 slices cooked bacon, diced
2 large hard boiled eggs
6 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1 apple, diced
1 pear, diced
1/2 cup pecan halves
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
sliced red onions

Poppy Seed Dressing:

3/4 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1/3 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. mustard
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. grated onion

Directions:

Chop and wash the lettuce, add all of the other yummy ingredients and and top each individual serving with poppy seed dressing.  To make the dressing, combine everything and whisk together.  It's as easy as that!

I've been making this poppy seed dressing for years and LOVE it!  Sometimes I've been in a pinch and had to buy store bought poppy seed dressing.  I haven't liked any of the poppy seed dressings I've bought at the store.  They're all just too sweet.  So if you're out of time and brave, you can use store bought dressing (or if you have one you already know you like).  But it's always better to make this recipe at home.

Delish!