A salad that will impress people and not leave you hungry

Everyone knows that Peter doesn't like Salad. but sometimes vegetables are required. Here's one that will make you feel full-ish and will impress your friends.

 Ingredients:

• a small bag of baby spinach
• 1 avocado.  when shopping for avocados, firmness matters.  If you're procrastinating - which you probably are - make sure it feels a little squishy.  If it feels super hard, it will need a day or two to ripen enough to cut and taste good.  Put avocados in paper bags to encourage more speedy ripening.  
• 1 red bell pepper.  Or orange.  Or green.  Whatever you think looks pretty.  
• 2 small "roma" tomatoes (also called "plum" tomatoes .... they're small-ish!)
• a few handfulls of dried cherries (There's a brand called "marino" that makes really tasty dried cherries.  Sometimes they're in the deli area, sometimes they're near the salad dressing.
• Some kind of cheese - i always recommend shredded Parmesian on salads because it's so salty and delicious.  Sometimes it's called "parmaggiano" or "reggiano."  You can buy it hard, and grate it yourself, or buy it shredded / grated.  Either one is fine.  
• Some kind of nuts - provided your guests aren't allergic.  It would suck to kill them.  I like cashews or pecans.  I buy them whole and break them up into smaller pieces with my hands.
• Some kind of dressing:  balsamic vinegarette is a staple that should be in your fridge.  You can make dressing yourself too .... but that's another post for another day.  

Directions:

• Honestly, if you buy "ready to serve" spinach, you don't even have to wash it.  Read the label.  If you have to wash it, I recommend a salad spinner.  They're awesome.  If not, a strainer and some paper towel will do.  But whatever, no one ever died from eating spinach.  Oh wait ... yes they did ...
• throw a bunch of "clean" spinach in a big bowl
• Dice the red pepper:  Cut them in half and pull out all the white stuff and seeds.  Sometimes you need to slice off the white stuff.  Cut each half into strips, then cut the strips into thirds.  
• to cut the avocado:  Cut it in half around the big ugly pit.  Once you've split it in half, remove the pit.  You can do this by nailing it with a serious knife.  Of if not, just cut around it and remove it with your fingers.  It's messy.  Don't worry.  Then, with the scaly skin still on, use a knife to cut strips into the fleshy side of the avocado.  Then cut across the strips to make little cubes.  Cut down into the skin, but not through it.  Or your hand will bleed.  Then take a big spoon and scoop out the little squares.  Do the same with the other half.  NOTE:  Avocados have this nasty habit of turning brown after a few hours.  Don't prep the avocado until an hour before you serve it.  
• Dice the tomatoes:  Cut them in quarters. Then take a knife and scrape out the fleshy / juicy / seedy parts.  Then cut each quarter into strips, and then cut across the strips into little squares.  
• Throw it all in a bowl.  
• Throw on the cherries, cheese, and nuts.  
• Don't put the dressing on until right before you serve it.  Or leave on the table and let your guests serve themselves.  

Note - there's no wrong way to make a salad.  Put in whatever you like, or whatever's fresh, or whatever looks pretty at the supermarket.  You can even use iceberg lettuce if spinach is too scary.  Just know that iceberg lettuce has NO nutritional value ...