Last Friday morning, after staying up til after 1am waiting for Irving to get home from ANOTHER business trip—yes, they seem to be every week now—we were abruptly awakened at 7am.
7AM. Which I know is not so late to lots of people, but we have an unusual toddler who sleeps til 8:30 (don’t hate me—he’s up til 10 every night!) and we are night owls, so 7am is a little early for us.
And what woke us up? It sounded like the earth was coming to an end, but it was actually the beginning of the demolition of the house next door to us. Once I came to terms with the fact that there would be no going back to sleep I got up and ready for the day (Friday is my Core Power Ball workout at church!), and then got David up (yes, he actually slept through the loudest noise ever) and we went outside to watch. I checked with the work crew and confirmed that they’d be at it all day, and probably Monday too, so I quickly texted a few of David’s friends (ok, their moms) and invited them to bring a picnic lunch over to our house and watch the excitement with us. Diggers are little boy heaven!
^^^ The day before—we knew this was coming, just didn’t know it would be at 7am! 
^^^ for reference, that railing in the foreground is our deck—the excavator is about 30 feet from our house!
^^^ “Mom, why are we up so early?”
Our friends April and Jack were able to join us for all of the construction excitement. They brought leftover pizza, and I heated up my leftover lasagna. I decided to make a quick salad, and made enough to share with April. I didn’t think much of it—I mean, I loved it, but I knew that it was just made from leftovers in my kitchen and wasn’t anything fancy. April mentioned that she really enjoyed the “buttery-ness” of the avocados, macadamia nuts and peas all together, but I brushed it off as her being polite.
^^^ How cute are these guys—they stood in the pouring rain and cold all morning watching the digger!
^^^ Leftovers and a salad—seemed so ordinary!
The next day I got an email from April saying that she enjoyed the salad so much she had gone out to get all of the ingredients and was making it that day, and that she looked forward to seeing it on the blog—hmm, I hadn’t even considered blogging it—too simple! And then I got another text today saying that she was making it again, with my maple glazed tofu, because her husband had been eyeing her salad with envy on Saturday, so she needed to make it for him too. So if you love this salad, and I think you will, you have my friend April to thank for it!
Lime Dijon Salad Dressing—makes enough for 4 side salads or 2 monster entrée salads
Juice of 1 lime
1 t Dijon mustard
2 t maple syrup
¼ t garlic powder
½ t onion powder
salt and pepper
Salad ingredients
I’m not listing any quantities here because you can adjust this any way you like. Figure out how many people will be eating and then determine how much of each ingredient you like. You can’t go wrong here! I personally love the strawberries or mangoes (probably wouldn’t do both though), but you might like it to be all savory and that is delicious too!
greens—mixed greens or spinach are both good choices
peas (frozen and thawed are perfect)
macadamia nuts
avocado, diced (about a ¼ per person)
Optional mix ins
strawberries, sliced
mangoes, diced
shredded zucchini
green onions, sliced
Whisk all salad dressing ingredients together. Add avocado to dressing and beat it up a bit, but not so much that the chunks of avocado disappear.
Build salad on top of dressing and avocado, using desired fruits and veggies. Toss well and serve immediately.
Tip: I buy the big, dangerous Costco bag of macadamia nuts. To keep them fresh, and to keep myself from snacking on them, I keep them in the freezer. When time to serve, I put them in a dish and microwave for a minute. They are thawed and “toasted!”
Enjoy this salad as an accompaniment to soup, with some maple glazed tofu, or on it’s own for a light lunch!
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