by Laura Falin posted in Life & Home

As the weather gets warmer around here, I find myself looking for cool dishes. Things we can eat without heating up the whole house while they cook, or ourselves while we eat. Chilled fruits and veggies, smoothies, cold chicken and other dinners. These are the cornerstones of summer, I think.

That's why I love a good, hearty salad. Sure, the light, leafy salads have their place...but when you can get some protein and nice big chunks of food in there and serve it up as lunch or dinner -- perfect.
This salad is adapted from "Make It Easy", where Stacie has 120 recipes that combine cooking from scratch with suggestions for store-bought stuff when you need it. I love her emphasis on healthy, natural ingredients -- too many times when people offer up shortcuts, they resort to overly processed or packaged foods. This book is a nice blend of homemade, when it doesn't take too much time or planning, and storebought, when it can be done healthily (healthily" Healthfuly" In a healthy fashion" Yes, that.)
Country-style Greek Salad (serves 4-6)
Ingredients:

1/4 c olive oil
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper (note: we left this out, as one of my kids is a pepper-finding ninja. It still tasted great)
2 c halved cherry tomatoes
2 c chopped cucumber
1 (15-oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2-3/4 c crumbled feta
1/4 c thinly sliced red onion (about 1/4 small onion)
1/4...