My beautiful Sunday lunch was the ultimate fast food – leftovers from Saturday night entertaining.

Friends were coming for dinner and, energized by the change of seasons, I planned a spring dinner with bold, sunny flavors: marinated, grilled salmon and steak; couscous with basil, mint and lemon; roasted carrots and haricot verts; baguette; and  fresh raspberries and blueberries with tiny homemade butter cookies. Our friends brought the most gorgeous, enormous salad, a spring mix of lettuce tossed with sliced purple and orange carrots, cucumber,cherry tomatoes, snow peas and sliced almonds.

The menu represented a shift from old ways of doing company meals. When I was planning the meal, I realized I wanted to make something that would not result in unhealthy leftovers like lasagna hanging around the fridge. With the exception of the cookies and baguette, I planned for  leftovers that would be useful.  Grilled leftover steak and salmon can be tossed into a main dish salad, rolled into a whole wheat wrap or stirred into sautéed vegetables.  The couscous, even better with some added pine nuts, would be frozen and later served with kabobs or be a good way to jazz up grilled chicken, or another fish meal.

The cookies, however, had to go. When my friend saw the large bag of cookies I was packing up for her, she asked if I wanted the  leftover salad. She had thoughtfully served the dressing and croutons on the side, so that produce had potential.

For lunch this afternoon,  I cut up leftover cold, grilled salmon and added it to a hefty amount of the leftover salad. I tossed the salad with two tablespoons of Newman’s Own Red Wine and Vinegar dressing.

Two minutes, if that.

So pretty, so healthy, so spring.