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Summer, as wonderful as it is, can bring high heat, humidity, and higher levels of physical activity, making even moderately heavy meals unappealing. As a result, it’s perhaps the only time of year when the environment deeply promotes the innate desire to eat healthy.

Unfortunately, it’s also often the case that the business of summer can hijack our best intentions and get the best of us. Planning, preparing, and cooking can be, to say the least, a challenge. Who wants a stuffy and hot kitchen and dining room now?

This is why a simple salad can go so far.

Healthy Eating Basics + a Summer Salad

A healthy meal includes proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. The percentage of each can vary, but it is important to get a bit of each. Proteins provide the amino acids necessary for cell repair, neurotransmitter synthesis, and immune function. Carbohydrates are the body’s primary fuel source, and they sustain reproductive functions. Fats help with satiation, storing essential vitamins, and protecting nerve tissues.

This simple salad has three major building blocks. For protein, it has cottage cheese—or macadamia nuts if dairy is problematic. The carbohydrates include strawberries, pineapple, mango, lemon juice, and cucumber. Finally, the fats include avocado and olive oil.

The dressing for this salad is from the wonderful website Simply Scratch, created by Laura McNamara.

Ingredients

1 pineapple

3 mangoes

15 strawberries

2 cucumber

3 avocado

1 cup of cottage cheese (can be substituted with crushed macadamia nuts)

1 lemon

White wine vinegar

1 clove of garlic

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Instructions

Dice 1 pineapple

Dice 3 mangoes

Quarter 15 strawberries

Slide and halve 2 cucumber

Dice 2 avocado

Deskin 1 avocado and place in food processor

Peel 1 clove of garlic and place in a food processor

Pour ¼ cup white wine vinegar in food processor

Pour ¾ cup olive oil in food processor

Juice 1 lemon into food processor

Salt and pepper to taste

Turn on food processor until smooth texture is produced

Presentation

Put cottage cheese base at the bottom of a bowl

Add the fruit/vegetable salad above cheese base

Pour the dressing over top

Allow the summer to inspire your healthy eating habits.

Make sure to be prepared by connecting with simple recipes made with nutritious foods, so you can act without hesitation when you’re in the mood for a healthy meal.

Tasty food should help put you in the mood quite often!