Summer Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

As I sit here in front of the computer, wearing long pants and with cold feet, I know that summer is drawing to a close.  My husband started back to school yesterday (he teaches two religion classes at a Lutheran high school), and my four-year-old starts her second year of preschool in less than two weeks.  But we do still have a couple of 90-degree days in the forecast, so I say it's still summer!  I will take this opportunity to share with you a summery fruit salad.  I made this about a week and a half ago, for a special lunch with out-of-town family and friends the day my husband baptized my sweet little niece. The weather was lovely that day, so we ate our lunch out on the deck, letting the little ones play in the backyard while the adults talked and passed the sleeping baby around.  It was the perfect afternoon.


Summer Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

Ingredients:
2 pints fresh strawberries
2-3 fresh mangoes
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
4 ripe kiwis
1 large lime
½ cup honey

Directions:
Remove strawberry stems.  Cut strawberries in half if they are small; quarter the larger ones.  Place strawberries in a large bowl.  Dice mango and add it to strawberries.  Dump in the pineapple.  Peel and dice kiwis and add them.  Toss all fruit together.

In a small bowl, zest lime, then add the juice of the lime.  Add honey and mix well. Pour about half of the dressing over fruit and lightly toss.  Add more dressing if desired.  Serve immediately.

Note: To prepare ahead of time, peel and cut fruits, but store them in separate bags in fridge.  Make dressing and store it separately as well.  When ready to serve, dump all prepared fruits into a large bowl and pour on desired amount of dressing.

Makes 12-16 servings.

I had to guess on the number of servings.  We had seven adults and three kids that day, and there was enough leftover that the four of us had some that night with dinner and the next day for lunch.  Also, I only used about half to two-thirds of the dressing for this amount of fruit.  But I left the recipe this way because it's kind of awkward to zest half of a lime, and you might want to use more than I used anyway.  

Everyone commented on the dressing.  They thought it was the perfect combination of sweet and tangy.

I served this fruit salad with Slow Cooker Chicken Caesar Sandwiches and BLT Dip with crackers, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.  And we had Orange Creamsicle Cookies for dessert.  Those recipes will be coming soon.

Happy Baptism Day, Kara!