This salad is insanely good. Saturday I ate a mountain of it and it is perfection! I would say this is a good “beginners” kale salad. Meaning, it’s a good one to start with if you are terrified of eating raw kale and cabbage. For the record, I don’t really love cabbage, but when everything is diced up tiny it’s a game changer! Chopping all the veggies up into tiny pieces is crucial!

The raisins add just the right sweetness and the lemon dressing cuts the bitterness of the kale. This salad would definitely impress dinner guests and kale gets better after soaking in dressing for a while, unlike lettuce salads that get wilty. Ick.
I am not listing exact amounts of any of these ingredients because it totally depends on how much you want to eat and how many people you are serving and how much you like kale versus cabbage versus cucumber. You get what I’m saying.

Chopped Kale Salad
Kale, chopped into tiny pieces
Red cabbage, chopped into tiny pieces
Cucumber, chopped into tiny pieces
Broccoli sprouts
Raisins (red or yellow but yellow are prettier in this dish)
Sunflower seeds
Pine nuts

Lemon Dijon Dressing
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons maple syrup, agave or honey
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon diced garlic (optional)

Rocco is doing great. He is so potty trained I would say he’s almost too potty trained. He won’t go to the bathroom anywhere BUT our back yard. Not the front yard, not on walks, just in the back yard. This really became an issue last weekend when we took a road trip with him! He probably went 8-10 hours without going. Normally he goes every 2 hours. Finally we got him to go but seriously! Poor guy.
On a side note, I got a fun manicure for the Fourth of July. It was cute while it lasted (3 days).

Rocco rides around in a dog car seat. It’s the best for little dogs. He basically gets to ride around in a dog bed that’s tethered to the car and he’s safely strapped in.

We saw a bear on our trip too! It was so close. And so cute!

Rocco can now sit, lay down, “give 5” and roll over. Roll over is hysterical and I just posted a video of it on Instagram (rocco_the_minpin).
Have a great week and try to stay cool in this heat!
Laura