SUMMER ISN’T OVER! That’s right, I said it. Here in the south, summer lives on throughout September, and sometimes even October. Heck, we’ve had years where it’s 80 degrees on Christmas Eve. That happened two years ago, and it was wild! 

I haven’t had a typical summer. If you don’t follow me on Instagram (go follow me!), you might not know that my husband and I adopted a precious baby boy. I will definitely share more of his story and our adoption story eventually but I’m still processing it for now. The majority of our summer has been spent indoors with our precious newborn baby boy. And we wouldn’t have it any other way! Now that our sweet baby is 3 months old, we’re starting to come out of the newborn fog and we don’t want summer to be over! I know a lot of people consider Labor Day the end of summer, but I say if the veggies are fresh and the temperature is still high, it’s still summer! You can’t force boots on me when it’s 100 degrees outside. 

This salad is everything summer is and should be: fresh heirloom tomatoes, spicy-smokey jalapenos, RANCH, and hot flavors with cool textures. Bonus: it’s Whole30 compliant! It is such a quick and easy meal that you will love! It is so easily adaptable to make work for you or your family. If you don’t like spice, leave out the jalapenos. Add cheese if that’s your thing. If you don’t like cooking bacon in the skillet (I recently learned from a friend some people hate cooking bacon- I didn’t know this was a thing), cook it in the microwave. Lay paper towels on a plate, then lay bacon, then more paper towels. I cook for 2 minutes at a time and check them. I like my bacon very crispy! Be careful though, the plate will be hot, hot, HOT!