The heat is back!

And I absolutely love it.

While everyone else is suffering through the 90 degree weather, hiding indoors, posted up in front of overworked fans, I’m baking in the sun’s rays… with sunscreen, of course.

Besides turning a nice shade of toasty brown, hot weather also means grilling and lots of cool, refreshing salads.

Salads that require absolutely no cooking.

And minimal effort.

Salads are appealing year round (at least to me, I can’t speak for you casserole folks), but they’re especially appealing during the time of year when the word “oven” makes everyone cringe and shutter in horror.

I’m quite proud of myself because I was planning on buying salad dressing (I know, tsk tsk), but I ended up whipping up a quick vinaigrette from scratch!

The dressing probably took me a total of 1.7 minutes to throw together, so you really have no excuses.

Now, I prefer my salads very lightly coated in dressing.

Anytime the actual salad components are floating in a bowl of liquid, I’m out.

So if you’re all about the dressing, go ahead and make more.

It’s up to you.

And it never hurts to have some leftover dressing on hand.

Just keep it in the fridge and drizzle it over some lucky greens later on in the week.

For this fruity dressing, all you have to do is whisk together some raspberry balsamic vinegar, minced shallots, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and fresh ground black pepper and you’re good to go!

Drizzle your homemade creation over crisp romaine hearts, creamy avocado slices, juicy strawberries, and nutty toasted almonds then dig in.

And yes, this salad tastes best when enjoyed outdoors.

P.S. Throw some crumbled goat cheese on there if you absolutely have to inhale cheese during every meal.

P.P.S. If forks aren’t your thing you can totally use your hands to shove this salad into your mouth. Utensils are overrated anyway.

P.P.P.S. If you want to stick with the raspberry theme, you can certainly toss some fresh raspberries in there too. That would actually be kind of amazing.