Salified

I mean, do I have to persuade you to eat salad for dinner after seeing this picture??  I would eat that picture for dinner.

When it's hot outside, the last thing I want to do is stuff myself full of food.  So in the summer (I know, it's technically not summer until June 21st, but once it's too hot to breathe when you go outside, I call it summer) I like to come up with salads and other light menu items.  This was the most recent salad I made, and it was AMAZING!!  And so easy.  And being a little reluctant about eating salad for dinner, this salad satisfied...or shall I say, salified. 

HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:
Take some chicken, or fish or steak and cook it to your liking.  I roasted chicken breasts at 400 for 20-25 minutes with just salt and pepper.  Set aside until cool and cut into bite sized pieces.  Take a skillet, put it on medium heat and brown some nuts in it.  I used walnuts.  You can use pine nuts, pecans, almonds.  Just make sure you don't burn them because they will brown fast.  Takes about 5 minutes.  But don't skip this step, because brown nuts are better nuts.  They're nuttier.  Wash some lettuce.  Any kind will do.  I used microgreens because I like the variety.  Wash some berries.  You can use blueberries, blackberries, strawberries.  I used raspberries because they looked so red and radiant.  Get some avocado and slice it up.  For the dressing...take an old jar (I find my Grey Poupon jar works best for salad dressing) and pour 1/4 cup of raspberry vinaigrette into it.  Then pour 1/2 cup of olive oil into it.  Add salt and pepper and a lid (don't forget the lid, genius - I can't tell you how many times I have) and shake it until it's vinaigretty. 

Now for the hard part.  Get a bowl and put everything above in the bowl.  Drizzle LIGHTLY with dressing and toss.  Don't overdress your salad.  I can't stress this enough.  You want to taste the ingredients over the dressing.  Top with your favorite cheese.  Parmesan, pecorino, goat, mozzarella.  I used blue.  I love blue.

Speaking of blue.  This salad blew me away.  The bitterness of the greens complemented the sweetness of the raspberries.  The nuttiness of the nuts complemented the sourness of the blue cheese.  The saltiness of the chicken complemented the creaminess of the avocado.  It's just a salad that impressed the hell out of me.  I would even say you could entertain with this one.  It's a real looker!