Summer Salad

 

  This is a salad that's perfect for the hot days of summer. It's very simple to put together, and uses my favorite dressing ever- lemon/red wine vinegar vinaigrette. Maybe it's because I was raised by two parents from the Mediterranean, but this salad is one of my favorites. It takes me back to being a kid, when I would run down the stairs and across the street to buy a loaf of Italian bread, and then I would later rip off a crusty hunk to sop up all of the juices from this salad.

I happened to have a plate of steamed broccoli, so I added that instead of bell peppers. Any vegetable you have will probably work very well.

     Those were the golden days when I would race home after school to watch my favorite TV show- Power Rangers! I wasn't sure if I wanted to go there, but yes- I loved that show. My parents even took me and my brother to see them live at Radio City Music Hall. I remember being so overwhelmingly excited because I wanted to have a favorite, and I would race through all of the characters and think, " Man I really like the pink ranger but THEY'RE ALL SO AWESOME HOW CAN I EVER PICK ONE BECAUSE EACH ONE OF THEM IS SO SPECIAL AND I WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH ALL OF THEM!!!!!". Yup, I was that kid. I am very grateful to my parents for braving the mobs of thousands of screaming children just to put a smile (or a scream) on my brother's and my face. I have to say, the older I get, the more I appreciate my parents.
     I have since graduated from TV to Netflix- all grown up Mom!

Ingredients: 
4 tomatoes
1 English cucumber
2 bell peppers, your color of choice
Handful of chopped parsley
Kalamata olives (no, not Taklamakan, thanks auto-correct)
Israeli couscous, or other grain of choice
* Add any veggies you have on hand!

Salad Dressing
Combine 2/3 Cup of lemon juice and red wine vinegar, one third cup of olive oil, and a tablespoon of Dijon mustard. Add salt and pepper to taste, and shake it like a polaroid camera. (Just shake it all up very
thoroughly).


Directions:
Slice up the vegetables into small pieces, using a serrated knife for the tomatoes and peppers, as it will be much easier to cut. Add the olives, and any other ingredients, then toss with salad dressing. Et voila! If it's really hot out and you don't want to cook, a fresh loaf of crusty bread would be a wonderful replacement for the couscous.

Which one is your favorite?

Photo credit: greyloch / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND