One of my goals for my first summer being truly settled into our home was to have a garden. Living way out in the country, it is very easy for us to be able to manipulate space to grow and harvest our own food which is one of the things we love most.

Today, I want to share just how easy it is to grow your own lettuce which serves as a delicious foundation to a quick and easy salad.

We planted 2 Green Leaf lettuce plants and 1 Red Leaf lettuce plant in a few recycled plant pots and within A WEEK we were able to harvest enough to have with our meals.

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I cannot stress this enough…

HOMEGROWN LETTUCE IS WAY BETTER THAN STORE BOUGHT LETTUCE.

Garden lettuce incredibly less bitter, as well as crispier than anything I’ve ever bought from a store. We pluck the leaves that are farthest from the center, totaling about 30 seconds in time.

While I am washing leaves and preparing toppings, I have some sort of protein baking in the oven so that when ready, our salads can be complete. Our favorite protein is this! We also add:

• cheese
• Black olives
• bacon bits
• tomatoes (occasionally fire roasted)
• Carrots
• and my favorite…Avocado!

This total prep time is 20 minutes…significantly less if you opt out of baking a protein source. Top all of it off with your favorite dressing and viola!