Salad Bar

Last night I came up with a super-quick and easy dinner. I call it "Salad Bar." It was a big hit with my husband, so we'll be incorporating this one into the standbys, especially during the summer.

When you want a light meal and prefer not to turn on the oven, try this. The best part is that it's ready in less than 10 minutes. I wish I would have thought to take a photo of it all laid out because it also makes a nice presentation. But I didn't even think about it for a blog post until AFTER it was such a success.

I had a really fresh head of red-leaf butter lettuce from our CSA, which I washed and "spinned" and tore up and placed in pretty salad bowls. Then I put several "toppings" in various little serving bowls: cherry tomatoes from our plants, sliced red onion, chopped walnuts, slivered almonds, dried cranberries, slivered basil, crumbled feta, gorgonzola, capers, and chopped olives. The freshly roasted beets were just for me. You can get creative here and use whatever you have in the house.

I placed all the little bowls with a couple of salad dressing choices on our table, and voila! A delicious summer meal. I think I'm lucky to have a husband who considers that a meal like I do. It's a great option when you've had a big lunch or date shakes in the middle of the day, like we did.

What are your favorite light summer meals? We'd all love to hear about easy choices, especially ones that don't require turning on the oven. Please leave your ideas and suggestions in the Comments section.