Particularly during the hot summer season, my go-to meal is, without a doubt, a main-course salad. It’s so simple to fix that I encourage you to make it your staple meal too.

I’m not talking about a boring bowl of iceberg lettuce with dressing poured on it. Instead, you can quickly combine assorted greens, chopped vegetables, cooked meat or seafood pieces, cheese, beans, nuts, seeds, fruits, and dressing in an almost endless variety of tasty mixtures. Plus, you can have fun doing it—and create a well-balanced meal at a fraction of the price of buying a take-out or restaurant salad! If you plan ahead by having meat or fish leftovers or by buying appropriate ready-to-use ingredients for the type of salad you want to make, you can often prepare the salad in as little as 5 minutes.

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