My Favorite Salad

It's hot.

So hot, that I don't want to cook, as I'm sure most of you don't either. How can I give my family a healthy, satisfying meal that won't have me looking like a drenched mess in the kitchen? Easy...salad!

A salad doesn't have to be boring. I look at it like a blank canvas. You can mix and match to your liking. This recipe is my absolute favorite. Especially on a hot summer day. We have had this salad at least twice a week and we never tire of it. Bonus, you don't really need to follow an ingredient list because it's whatever you want to throw in! That's why I call this the "Kitchen salad".

This has been the summer of lettuce (right now I'm hearing "summer of George" from Seinfeld in my head). Our garden has been churning out the most delicious types of lettuce for weeks now and I can't get enough of them.

I wash the lettuce thoroughly and use my salad spinner to get rid of excess water.

Chop and and peel any veg you want to add in. I like bell peppers and cucumbers. 

Then my favorite part of the salad is a crisp green apple. I like to leave the skin on (I use organic and still wash it well). Just cut it into bite size pieces.

For a little a bit of dairy/fat, I add in a few slices (cut into cubes) of a sharp cheddar cheese.

Now I add in a handful of raisins and cashews. This is when I really change it up. Sometimes I throw in dried cranberries or other dried fruit. Sometimes almonds or pistachios. Sometimes I'll also add sunflower seeds. It's really all about having different textures and taste profiles in your salad. That's what keeps it from getting monotonous. 

With a "fancy" salad like this one, I like to use a good olive oil and vinegar. Some bottled dressing work well too, I would choose a raspberry walnut or a poppy seed. These were found at this cool little local store http://www.newburyportoliveoil.com/.

The sequence goes: Oil-Salt&Pepper-Vinegar

And then your dinner is ready to enjoy. One big salad (Interestingly enough makes me think of another Seinfeld reference!) will feed our family well and leave leftovers for lunch if we reserve some without the dressing. 

Feel free to copy this exactly or experiment and make your own kitchen salad!