Always, no sometimes, think it's me, but you know I know when it's a dream/I think I know I mean a 'Yes' but it's all wrong, that is I think I disagree - Deconstructed hummus, strawberry salad and strawberry pie

I went to the grocery store today with no clear idea of dinner for a meatless Monday. I saw some great looking strawberries, though, and was put in mind of a big green salad juicy with strawberries and nuts and cheese. But what else? I bought a poblano pepper with thoughts of roasting it over the gas flame, and some Vidalia onions for caramelizing. Beyond that, I didn't have a clue.

I ended up making a salad of lettuce from my friend Allison's garden, arugula and a red frisee, along with lots of strawberries, walnuts, french fried onions and gorgonzola cheese. As I'm currently obsessed with honey mustard dressing, that's what I used. It all worked together quite well.

I started caramelizing onions early in the afternoon (and unfortunately got a little more brown on them than I would have liked), roasted the pepper and got it all peeled and seeded. I thought I would add garbanzo beans and make a sort of deconstructed hummus. I splashed in a bit more olive oil, some garlic, the juice from a lemon and a spoonful of tahini. It turned out surprisingly good. The beans themselves got rather creamy inside and the onions were pleasantly sweet with a bit of crunch.

Since I had those strawberries, I needed to make a dessert, even though I had told myself that desserts should be verboten for a while. I told myself, but apparently I wasn't listening as I found myself preparing pie. I didn't want to cook anything so I bought a graham cracker crust, instant pudding and whipped topping. I made the pudding as directed for pie (which only means less milk than usual) and put 2/3 of it in the bottom of the pie crust. Then I diced up about 2/3 of a pound of strawberries, dashed in a couple packets of sweetener (I know it was a little late to cut sugar, but it's something) and then mixed with about 3/4 of the whipped topping. After spreading that evenly on top of the pudding, I used the rest of the plain whipped topping to cover the pie. It came out of the pan a little messy, but the flavor combinations were good.