I miss the ’70’s! Life was a WHOLE lot simpler, the music was real music with actual lyrics and performed by people that could actually sing without “auto tune” and played their own instruments, muscle cars were classics before they were even “classics”, and we talked to one another. Real conversations. No internet. No texting. Full attention.

Recipe starts with a homemade Catalina Salad Dressing!

Gone are the days when kids got up before the sun on a summer weekday morning, threw on a favorite pair of worn-out beloved cut-offs loaded with patches and fringed, an old comfy T-shirt with popsicle stains, and no shoes or socks.

We pulled our hair back into a quick ponytail, and headed out on our bikes, quietly, (as to not wake Mom and Dad), to invent new adventures and seek out the world’s tiniest wonders on a hot, mid-summer day that seemed to last forever!

Most of the salad ingredients ready to go! (The taco meat is patiently waiting on the stove!)

Kids today are really missing out on all the real fun! Like Drive-In movies, roller skating, double-dutch jump rope, finding the perfect rock to skim on the pond or play hopscotch with, making our own Halloween costumes, watching a butterfly emerge from a cocoon, and even just climbing up into a tree and finding the perfect spot to listen to the wind blow through the leaves.

Next, toss in your ingredients and add your taco meat!

Remember all the crafts we used to spend hours on during a rainy day? All the fun stuff like string art pictures, decoupage, needlepoint, Paint-by-Number “works of art”, jars of colored “sand art”, tie-dyed and batiked t-shirts, and macramé! Even Shrinky Dinks, Spirograph, and making woven pot holders on mini looms for Mom kept us happily busy for hours on end!

Pour the dressing over the meat and toss! Then add your cheese and toss! (Toss like a boss! Nice and high!)

Throughout the 1970’s, we also made silly, but fun, food concoctions, that were “less than healthy” and enjoyed every single bite and didn’t worry about Every. Single. Thing that wasn’t over-the-top healthy for us.

And we weren’t overweight, either. Because we actually DID things instead of laying on the couch, the floor, our beds, and everywhere else kids find today to plant themselves to spend 8 – 10 hours a day watching mind-numbing reality TV shows, their computers, and on their little phones typing furiously, moving their thumbs faster than the legs of tiny little spiders.

I’m so thankful that I’m not a kid or teen in today’s world.

Lastly, crush the Doritos and toss one last time!And there you have it! Groovy!

Would you like a bowl?

“Pinterest” prefers photos skinny and tall.Oooookay, I can dig it!

I hope I don’t sound “preachy” and that you find this 70’s salad delicious, a blast to make, and for some, like seeing an old friend again. Do something fun today, make time for yourself, and just yourself, and don’t rush.

Enjoy every single minute.

And now I’m off, friends. Heading out to the kitchen to play and make my hubby and I something else fun from scratch, and then out to the deck to take care of all my plants.

Maybe I’ll even climb a tree and sit for awhile.

NOTE: *Don’t let the long list of ingredients scare you away. It’s all SIMPLE pantry and fridge ingredients, VERY EASY, and everything is made QUICKLY in NO TIME at all. 😉