This week feels weird to me on the blog. Does it feel weird to you? If so, sorry--I've got lots of work to do so I'm having a hard time meditating on what's going on in the world. Like for instance, I need someone to explain to me the theory that the pilot (or somebody) on the Malaysian Airlines flight depressurized the cabin, suffocating everyone aboard. Is this a thing you can really do, as a pilot, and why? I'd like to see airplanes that no longer have that feature. Anyway, anticipate more randomness and perhaps fewer posting in the next few weeks. Thanks for understanding.

What I have been thinking about is this salad that I've welcomed back in my life for the first time in a long time. I'm going on a beach vacation in 47 days (not that I'm counting) and I'm trying to watch what I eat. After way too many veggie scrambles I wondered if it was time to bring The Salad back. I originally came up with it a few years ago in an attempt to recreate my beloved Bandera Macho Salad, which features dates and almonds. Also, sick of making salad dressing (yes, even olive oil and vinegar), I was curious to see what would happen if I just used hummus as a salad dressing. Basically, it opened my world. The hummus-as-dressing is creamy without being rich, and also gives the nice addition of providing protein so that you don't fall over from exhaustion because all you ate for lunch was a goddamned salad.

I used to eat this salad several times a week before I got pregnant. I didn't have any major cravings when I was pregnant but during the first trimester, I had a serious aversion to produce (which put a big damper in my "I'm going to eat super healthy and only gain, like, 15 pounds!" plan). I made the salad one day, looked at it, and realized I didn't want to eat it any more than I wanted to eat a cardboard box. It's only just now that I felt compelled to try it again, and it was better than I remembered.

There's not much to it. Mix together in a big bowl:

• Four tablespoons hummus (I'm using Cedar's original right now)
• About a cup of baby spinach and a cup, maybe two, of broccoli slaw. This adds a nice crunch, color and texture and helps make these nice little sticky clusters of goodness. 

Blend blend blend. Add more spinach/slaw if you like (the bigger the salad, the fuller you feel), but not so much that you don't have veggies that are evenly coated with hummus.

Now add on top (because you don't want them all to fall to the bottom during the mixing process):

• A quarter cup raw or marcona almonds (more protein!)
• Three medjool dates, pitted and chopped up.

There you go. Maybe add a pinch of salt, too. If you're like me, eat it straight from the salad bowl after apologizing to a spouse who couldn't care less. The whole thing is 550 or so calories and it fills you up as it makes you feel oh so virtuous for eating so many healthy things. But make no mistake: the creaminess of the hummus, the crunch of the almonds and the sticky sweetness of the dates are delicious but also will not make your brain think "I'm eating a sad salad and all I can think about are the dozens of other things I'd rather be eating."

Trust me, it's great. I don't have any photos because I suck at food photography and also I don't want to wait to photograph the food before I eat it. I just eat it.