Panzanella Salad

Such a late post time for me!  I don’t know how the morning got away from me.  To be honest, I don’t know how Sunday night got away from me.   Keeping with the trend of last week, the weekend flew by. 

Hopefully things will be a bit slower this week before things really get crazy with summer travel plans.  The next few months are going to be very busy.  Up on the calendar this week: another Kansas visit.  I am crossing my fingers that by the end of the week things will cool down a bit. They were forecasting 115 degree temperatures.  Yuck!

In order to cool off my body, and trick my mind that it is not miserably hot and humid out I am sticking with some no cook dishes.

Last night for dinner we had a Panzanella salad.  Have you ever heard of this?  It is a Tuscan bread salad that is great for using up older bread.  It also adds some spice from the typical leaf salads of the summer.

Earlier in the week I had made some croutons from some aging bread in the cabinet.  They were a reliable topping for my daily salad lunches.  However, after a week I was getting sick of those salads.  We needed a vegetable for dinner though so I started thinking what else could I make with the variety of produce in the fridge.  More importantly, what could I make with without turning on the oven?

Panzanella salad

1 cucumber, peeled, sliced and cut into quarters

1 pint of cherry tomatoes cut in halves

1 cup homemade croutons

A handful of fresh basil, chopped

1 Tbsp Garlic Gold olive oil (any olive oil would work)

Salt and pepper to taste

Toss together and enjoy!