Southwest Chopped Salad

This salad is full of flavors and bright colors!  I love all the colors throughout; it definitely reminds me of summer.  I found the original recipe on Pinterest and I adapted it slightly by adding in some avocado.  The recipe calls for a homemade cilantro-lime dressing found here.  It sounded DELICIOUS, but I had to opt for a store-bought dressing for a few reasons. 

1. I’m moving soon and have already packed up my blender. 

2. Although the recipe says to make the dressing in either a blender or food processor, I really think it would work best in a food processor and unfortunately I don’t have one.  Hopefully sometime soon I will have this kitchen tool since it’s on my wedding registry :)

Servings: 6

Size:   1/6 of the salad

Points Plus: 5pp
Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time:  n/a

Rating: 3 stars - Good

Ingredient List:

Large head of romaine lettuce

1 large orange bell pepper

5 green onions

1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

15 oz. can of corn, drained

1 medium avocado, diced

Directions:

Wash and finely chop the romaine, bell pepper and green onions.  Wash and quarter the cherry tomatoes.  Open the cans of black beans and corn, drain and rinse. Dice the avocado.  Add all ingredients into a large bowl, stir to combine.  Toss salad with your desired dressing and enjoy!

Tip:

Don’t underestimate the size of the bowl you need to mix up this salad!  There are lots of veggies in this recipe and you will want a bowl big enough that you can really fully mix all the ingredients in.  Also, a little tip for really brining out the flavor or your avocado. Sprinkle some salt on top of your salad with fresh avocado - the salt will really heighten the taste of the avocado - yum!

XOXO Megan

Veggie Cajun Pasta

Have you every heard of a SLURRY??!?!?!  It is a way to thicken up stuff (soup, sauces, exc.) without adding heavy cream, massive amounts of flour or cornstarch.  Slurry's are the bomb!  Anyways, this recipe calls for a slurry made with a just 1 Tablespoon of flour, cream cheese and milk.  It makes for a really creamy pasta sauce.  I altered Skinnytaste's recipe by omitting the meat and kicking up the veggies.  This is a great dish when you are craving spicy pasta!

Servings: 2
Size: about 1 1/2 cups
Point Plus: 8pp
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Rating: 4 stars - Very Good

Ingredient List:
3 ounces uncooked whole wheat pasta
2 tsp Cajun seasoning (more or less to taste)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium red bell pepper
8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium tomato, diced
1 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon flour
3 tablespoon light cream cheese
2 shallots
Salt and pepper to taste
Garlic powder

Directions:
Prep all veggies. In your small food processor make slurry by combine milk, flour and cream cheese. Set aside.  Prepare pasta in water according to package directions.  Add olive oil to a large skillet and sautee bell pepper, onions and garlic, about five minutes on low heat.  Add mushrooms and tomato and suatee 3-4 more minutes.  Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Add stock and pour in slurry.  Stir and let boil, about 3 minutes.  Sauce should thicken slightly.  Add Cajun seasoning.  When pasta is cooked add to veggie slurry mixture and mix together.  Let simmer until the sauce reaches your desired thickness.  I added a sprinkle of parm (see photo) but I don't think you need to.  The flavor of this is so GOOD!

Tip: 
If you don't have a blender, food processor or anything that you can mix the slurry in, I would suggest using room temp cream cheese and putting three slurry ingredients into a dish with a lid.  Mix with a fork and then shake so that the slurry gets a little bubbly.  Then, go buy a food processor, blender or other mixing item.  I have a food processor obsession, and I would highly recommend this tiny four cuper for dishes such as this!

XOXO Katie