Tomato and Avocado Salad with Mango, Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Olives

When I was pregnant with Baby Ice, I swore he was a girl until the day I delivered him. Scan after scan confirmed that I was in fact carrying an XY, but the pregnancy was so different than the first time around, so much harder and more tiresome, I was convinced they had it wrong. I was 10x bigger than I was with Manster, I ached all over, had days where walking was painful and my food aversions lasted a full nine months. Or really 10 months, since Ice was 5 days late.

One of my biggest preggo no-gos were greens: no spinach, no lettuce, no collards, no chlorophyll. I just couldn’t stomach the stuff. Knowing I needed to eat something other than Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies and mounds of Brie, I concocted a salad that played to my newly persnickety palate; a salad sans greens, but brimming with plenty of colorful produce.

I’m actually surprised I haven’t shared this sooner since I’m routinely asked for the “recipe” by friends and family to whom I’ve served this. It’s just one of those recipes that has become so ingrained in my day-to-day, even now that Ice is 9 months old, that it didn’t even occur to me to post it. While this sort of salad lends itself to warmer weather, if you can get your hands on half-decent grape tomatoes and mango, it’ll promise to brighten up even the dreariest winter day.

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Tomato and Avocado Salad with Mango, Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Olives
Serves 2-3 as a side salad

Ingredients for the Salad:
1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced into halves – $1.50
½ a ripe mango, cut into chunks – $2.50
½ a ripe avocado, cut into chunks – $1.50
¼ cup of crumbled blue cheese – $2.00
¼ cup of pitted kalamata olives, sliced into halves – $3.00
Handful of walnut pieces/halves – stock
Handful of fresh basil, chopped – $1.09

Ingredients for the Honey-Balsamic Dressing:
¼-cup extra virgin olive oil – stock
¼-cup good quality Balsamic vinegar – stock
1 Tablespoon whole grain or Dijon-style mustard – stock
1 Tablespoon honey – stock
Grand total assuming well-stocked kitchen: $11.59
Cost per serving: $3.86

Directions:
1. In a glass container, whisk together the dressing ingredients and set aside.

2. Gently toss the salad ingredients together in a bowl and drizzle with the dressing. Enjoy!