Spinach Grapefruit Salad with Citrus Dressing

I love salads. I even eat them in the winter, when tradition dictates warm stuff. So, we have sort of warm salads; I roast vegetables and put them on lettuce of some sort! Ha! After 35 years of this, my husband, Steve, doesn't even blink anymore! His was a meat-and-potato household, as was mine, but I think my mom was more adventurous than his was. Of course, my mom fed the four of us: 2 kids and 2 parents, while his mom fed 12: 10 kids and 2 parents! Under those circumstances, I'm not sure how adventurous I'd feel in the evenings, either! Ha! She amazes me still!

This is one of my favorites, and it's the dressing that pops it. The ingredients for the basic salad are spinach, grapefruit, and onion rings, and, like fashion, if you coordinate the colors, it's pretty enough for a party salad. Pink grapefruit sections with white onion, or white grapefruit with red onion. Either way, it goes great, color-wise, with the deep green of the spinach!

Per serving:

2 cups spinach leaves, washed and chilled

1 thin slice of onion, off a medium-sized one

1/2 grapefruit, peeled (To cut the grapefruit sections away from the membrane, run your knife from the outer edge to the inner core along the membrane walls. Remember, there are 2 sides to each section, so you're running your knife twice between each section! It's quicker the more you do it; "practice makes perfect," to be sickening about it! Ha!)

OPTIONAL: 1/2 an avocado adds creamy texture (and a yellow color, if you're using pink grapefruit and white onion). You can also add walnuts to this. (The brown color provides an "earthy" note!) These two ingredients are just filler, though; the real taste is the combination of spinach, onion, and grapefruit. Obviously, you can add other stuff, too! I wouldn't add really strong-tasting stuff, like olives, for instance!

For the dressing, also per serving:

1 Tbl. lemon juice (1 small, ripe lemon gives about 2 Tbl. juice)

2 Tbl. canola oil

1/2-1 tsp. (or a bit more) honey, agave nectar, xylitol, or sugar--sweetener amount depends on how tart your grapefruit is, so tasting--of both grapefruit and dressing--is involved here!

a few grains of salt to punch the sweetener--not enough to actually taste! 2-4 at the most! So, a tiny pinch of salt!

Stir, or whisk, to dissolve the sweetener and salt and to mix the dressing.

To serve:

Put the spinach on a plate. Separate the onion into rings and arrange on the spinach bed. Arrange the grapefruit over the onions. Pour the dressing over, and eat! MMMMM!