Fiesta Avocado Salads!

~ Cut avocado in half, take the pit out and cut zig zags through avocado so it slides out easily when you eat it.

~ Top with sliced tomatoes, onions, peppers and whatever else you want! Cilantro? Black beans?

~ Finish with some pepper, and a little EVOO and vinegar. I love my peach vinegar!

Homemade Vinaigrette Dressing with Garlic and Lemon

Fresh Pressed Garlic EVOO and Fresh Peach White Vinegar! 

Over the weekend, Ken and I found this awesome place in La Jolla called 'We Olive'. How cute is that?! They have tons of steel barrels with fresh pressed extra virgin olive oils and vinegars in all different flavors (truffle, blackberry, etc.)! They also have a happy hour but we won't start with that. I wanted all of them but I left with Garlic EVOO and Peach White Vinegar. You can check out the website here and find a location near you (only in CA): http://www.weolive.com/. Or, you can buy flavored or herb infused extra virgin olive oils at just about any grocery store! 

EVOO contains the good type of fatty acids (monounsaturated). It protects our bodies from heart disease by raising your good cholesterol level (HDL) and lowering the bad cholesterol level (LDL). I've completely replaced butter for EVOO when I cook.


These fresh EVOOs and vinegars add so much flavor to whatever you are cooking- especially salad dressings! If made with the right ingredients, these salad dressings are so healthy and it sure beats all of the pre-made dressings loaded with calories, fat, sugars and preservatives! I will never go back.....

Serves: 4

Ready In: About 20 min

What You Will Need:

• 1/4 c EVOO (I used my garlic flavored EVOO)
• 1/4 c balsamic vinegar (I used my peach white vinegar, be creative)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• squeeze from a slice of lemon
• salt and pepper to taste
• sweet option: 1 t honey

Method:

• Whisk all ingredients together. Chill before serving. Easy as that!

Serve over a salad of your choice with fresh veggies!

Roasted Beet and Spinach Salad with Candied Walnuts Topped With Honey Balsamic Dressing

These are red beets; I used yellow beets in the salad below. Both are so tasty!

 It's so hard to be healthy, eat salads all the time and keep getting excited about them! You can only eat so many salads so I try to get creative and change it up often.  I have just discovered three things about BEETS: they are SO EASY to bake; they taste like CANDY and they are super HEALTHY for you! This vibrant vegetable has something called 'betalains' which provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and detoxification support for our bodies. They also slow down tumors from growing and prevent certain cancers. Cool. 

Make A Salad for One or Many!

Ready In: 1 Hour

Wine Pairing: Pinot Noir

Ingredients:

• Beets
• EVOO
• Spinach Salad, washed and dried (or you can buy it ready to go!)
• Feta Cheese (Goat cheese works too)
• Sliced Purple Onion
• Candied or Plain Walnuts

Method:

Preparing the Beets:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• You can bake as many as you want at a time. Pull off greens from the beet and cut off the bottom pointy part. 
• No need to peel- just scrub the outer part of the beet then coat with a little EVOO. Wrap each beet in tin foil and place on baking sheet. 
• Bake for about 50 min or until beet is soft when you poke it with a fork. Let cool then the peel will come off easily (or you can slice it off).  Cut into bite size chunks. It's that easy!

Preparing the Honey Balsamic:

• Two parts Balsamic Vinaigrette and one part honey. Sprinkle in some pepper and whisk together.

Preparing the Salad:

• Throw all ingredients together. Drizzle with Honey Balsamic and toss!

I always pair my afternoon salads with some low-fat cottage cheese on the side.

Yummmmm!