Roasted carrot and avocado salad

It's so hot and sticky in the summer, there are so many nights where all I crave is a delicious salad for dinner. Lately, Matt and I have been making variations on this recipe from ABC Kitchen. There's something so tasty about roasted carrots, avocado, a lot of fresh lemon juice, and a little salt and pepper. It is so filling, too! The roasting can take about 30 minutes, but otherwise, it's a pretty fast and easy dish for the nights we don't feel like cooking a lot.

Do you have a go-to summer salad that you like to whip up?

(Image 1, 2)

Insta-salads

With the way the temperatures keep climbing, the only thing I've been craving lately is a fresh—and inventive—salad. That's why I am completely obsessed with Sarah Yates' Instagram feed and the mouth-watering salad pics she posts. Seriously, how yummy do the combinations above look? Notice that all three salads include a favorite ingredient of mine: avocado. :)

Just in case you want to create these lunch or dinner options yourself, Sarah has posted the recipes here on her blog, A House in the Hills.

What do you think? Will you try any of these? If you have a yummy go-to salad recipe, I'd love to hear!

More summer salads here and here and a sad desk salad here.
 
(Images via A House in the Hills) 

Summer salad

The Mango and Pine Nut Salad, featured in Women's Health.

I don’t know about you, but when it gets this hot, the food I tend to crave the most is salad. But finding inventive ways to combine lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers can be tough day after day. Leave it to Women's Health to come up with a fantastic list of low-calorie summer salad recipes to carry their incredibly appreciative readers (me!) through into fall. My favorite so far is the Black Bean Salad. There’s something about the scent of cilantro mixed with avocado and lime juice that makes my mouth immediately start to water.

Next on my list to mix up? This Mango and Pine Nut Salad. What about you? Any fun summer salads that you love to make?

(Photo by Jonathan Kantor)