fresh summer fruit salad

Simple can be amazing.

I love to cook. In fact, I love it so much I rarely make the same dish twice.

The other day out of the blue Ashley said, “Can I ask you a favor?”

I braced myself, contemplating what the next sentence would be. I steadied my stance, puckered my lips, tilted my head and furrowed my brows ready to give a long pause as though I was deeply contemplating the question that would come next.

Yes, I’ve had years of practice of this. So don’t try it at home without the proper stretches first. You don’t want to injure a facial muscle and end up drooling on yourself for a week. I digress.

She kinda gave me this Why are you contorting your face to look like Donald Trump look, but proceeded on with her question: “When we move and get settled, can we cook all the things that we love, but have only cooked once?”

“Why yes, yes we can.” And I was off the hook for now.

But since we’re moving and boxes are everywhere, we don’t really have time to cook elaborate things. So in honor of the great pilgrimage to Franklin we thought we’d share a simple recipe that’s perfect for warmer weather.

Because you know simple can be amazing, too.

For this quick, light summer salad you only need a few things.

• Mayo • granny smith apples • red seedless grapes • mandarin oranges • fresh lime juice • granola

Are you ready for simple and amazing?

All you need to do is cut up the apples and grapes, toss them in a bowl with your oranges. (For 2 servings, we typically use 1 small apple, about 20 grapes and 1 orange, but the beauty of this is you can use whatever you want.) Then use 3 TBSP of mayo + 1 tsp of fresh lemon juice, to mix it all together.

Continue adding the mayo and the lime juice until you get the consistency you want. Finally toss in about 1/4 cup of granola or more if you are a little crazy.

You can also add some grilled chicken for a little heartier salad.