Quick Weeknight Salad with Avocado Dressing

Tim is always super busy at work, and there are days when I am super busy as well, so this salad is great for when I don’t have a lot of time to make dinner and a plain, boring salad does not really appeal to either one of us.

Since Tim is so busy at work, it falls on me to deal with all things home related:  repair people, deliveries, having appliances serviced, etc.  I have a lot of people.

It also falls on me to know where the pickles are in the fridge: literally on the shelf you are currently looking at, right in front of your nose, where the can opener is kept: bottom drawer under the dishtowels…they are in the drawer under the silverware…the silverware is in the top drawer next to the sink.  Okay, just let me get it.

Some of the other knowledge I have that comes in handy revolves around how things work in the house: how to pull up Netflix on the TV (I suspect he knows exactly how and just wants me to do it, but I haven’t been able to prove it…yet), how to work the app that controls the thermostats and lights (again, I strongly suspect that I am being conned here.  It’s an app.  Open it and if you want to change the temperature, look for the word and picture that say T-H-E-R-M-O-S-T-A-T.  It’s not like playing “Where’s Waldo.”  They actually WANT you to find the word and be able to change the temperature.  Some random guy is not sitting in his parent’s basement somewhere chuckling and rubbing his hands together everytime someone can’t raise or lower the temperature in their house, murmuring, “my evil plan is working!”

So it came as no surprise a few weeks ago that I had to give him the code to the locks on the doors to our backyard to let someone in to repair something.

“Wrong code,” he informed me a few minutes later. “It works on the one door, but not on the other.”

“It’s the same code for both doors, but the one door does stick, so you might have to give it a bit of a shove to open it.” I explained.

A few minutes later, he was back again. “I shoved the door like you said, but it still wouldn’t open.  Are you sure it’s the same code because I think you’re wrong.”

So I went out to the backyard with him, entered the code, put my shoulder to the door, shoved and…let’s just say that the guy waiting to get in almost choked trying not to laugh when the door popped open, and had a new story to tell that day when he got back to the office.

Ingredients:

• 1 head of romaine lettuce, washed and chopped
• 1/2 cup diced carrots
• 3/4 cup chopped tomatoes
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts or slivered almonds (highly recommend toasting them)
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 avocado
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1  1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 3 Tablespoons parmesan cheese
• 1  1/2 -2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine lettuce through the red onion.  If you are toasting the walnuts, put chopped walnuts in a dry pan over medium high heat and toast them until they are fragrant and start to turn slightly golden, stirring or shaking the pan frequently so they do not burn.  Remove from the pan immediately and allow to cool. (I would do this before chopping the veggies so that they have time to cool completely before putting into the salad.)
2. In a blender, combine avocado through the lemon juice and blend till creamy.  The dressing will be very thick and creamy.
3. Add the dressing to the salad and toss to coat completely.  Serve immediately.

Enjoy!