A Twist on Stupid Easy Paleo’s Holy Guacamole Salad

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! 🙂 I know we sure did! The weather was beautiful and got to enjoy some much needed time with loved ones! Helped throw my friend a bridal shower and made my first cinnamon roll wedding dress ‘cake’ (normally made with cupcakes but I like to take risks and try new things 😉 ), walked in the Leprechaun race downtown with my mom, received a super kind gift from a sweet friend, and enjoyed some much needed R&R at home.

Here are a few pics from the weekend…

and no, I did not try one of these beauties…but I was told they were delicious! I do love to bake!

Isn’t my mother adorable?? ♥

Such an extremely kind gift to receive…meant the world! 🙂

We also had an awesome bon-fire BBQ at my dad’s house Saturday evening…

(Yea…we don’t mess around! 😀 )

…and was asked to make a salad. With the incredible weather we had enjoyed that day it totally made me crave something fresh and delicious, as in something you would enjoy at a summer BBQ! I came across this awesomely scrumptious looking salad from Stupid Easy Paleo and decided to use some of the same veggies she recommends for hers and made up my own dressing.

So here is my twist on Stupid Easy Paleo’s Holy-Guacamole Salad…(and seriously, if a priest did bless an avocado, it would be a holy guacamole! Hehehehehe…I know…horribly cheesy joke…gotta love it! 😀 )

Prep time: 10 mins  Makes: 5 cups

Salad:

2-large avocados

3-organic cucumbers, skin and seeds removed

1-pint of red grape or little yellow tomatoes, halved

1-yellow bell pepper (or pepper of choice)

½ red onion

2 jalapeno peppers

1 clove of garlic

1 handful of fresh cilantro

Dressing:

¼ cup of olive oil

1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar

1 tsp pink Himalayan salt (or whichever salt you have)

½ tsp black pepper

¼ tsp dry mustard

2-crushed cloves of garlic

Dash of cayenne

To make:

Cut/dice/chop all veggies and cilantro to your liking and mix together in a large bowl.

For the dressing; add all ingredients to a small mixing bowl, whisk, pour over salad, and ENJOY! *see tip

Tip: I pre-made this salad so I decided to hold-off on adding the avocados and the dressing until I got to my dad’s house. I would almost always recommend making the dressing ahead of time to let the flavors meld together! Just prep, store in an airtight container in your fridge, and dress when ready! So, so tasty!

Luckily, we had some leftover so I finished up the last of the salad yesterday with half of a cooked turkey breast on top! Oh-my-word delicious! The flavors had even MORE time to marinate together and just made the most delicious tasting lunch ever! I was so sad when I looked down to grab another bite and my bowl was empty. 😦 Just means I will need to make another soon!

Hope you all enjoy this salad! Totally perfect for a spring picnic or summer BBQ! So fresh, crisp, and delicious! Yummm!

XO,

Val

We can persevere through anything we put our minds and our hearts to. ♥

A Few Dinner Recipes

Apologize for slacking on the recipe posts! Here are four (with a couple of sides) for you! Just click on the link to be taken to the original recipes 🙂 Enjoy!

• Mini Egg Pizza’s with kale chips (pizza’s from Paleo Parents)
• Garbage Stir-Fry (from Nom Nom Paleo)
• Mocha Rubbed Pot Roast (from Stupid Easy Paleo)
• Damn Fine Chicken with German Red Cabbage (chicken from Nom Nom Paleo, cabbage from The Domestic Man) 

Kale Chips (adapted from Practical Paleo)

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of kale, leafs removed from stem and roughly chopped
• 1-2 tbsp of olive oil or coconut oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Dash of cayenne and garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350* and bake 10-15 mins, until the edges are a bit brown. Either remove from oven and let dry or turn oven off and leave in until crispy.

These are some of our favorites! Hope you all enjoy! 😀

Compliment of the day: Woke up and made myself laugh with my crazy hair (went to sleep with it wet)! So, I decided, since I woke up laughing, I wanted to make sure to make at least one other person laugh…and I did by rocking my crazy hair at the gym this morning! Hehe!

Turkey Blueberry Patties by Summer Innanen with Steamed Broccoli & Sautéed Kale

Turkey Blueberry Patties by Summer Innanen with Steamed Broccoli & Sautéed Kale

I was a bit hesitant about having blueberries in my turkey patty but it was SO good! 🙂 Definitely recommend!!!

Turkey Blueberry Patties

Ingredients (makes 8 patties):

– 1 lb ground turkey (or chicken)
– 1/2 pack of blueberries (about 3/4 Cup)
– 3 Sage leaves – finely chopped
– 3 Thyme sprigs – leaves finely chopped
– 2 shallots (or 1/4 onion) – finely chopped
– 1 tsp minced garlic
– 1 egg yolk (omit if you cannot eat eggs)
– 1 Tbsp of coconut oil or ghee/butter

Directions:

1.  In a bowl combine all the ingredients except the coconut oil/ghee/butter. Mix together well with your hands and form 8 patties.
2.  In a non-stick skillet, heat coconut oil/ghee/butter to a medium-high heat.
3.  When it gets HOT, add the patties to the pan.
4.  Cook for 2-3 minutes per side. They are done when you press down on the middle and it feels firm. (I grilled the burgers on our George Foreman but you can cook them up however you like!)

For the sides, I sautéed a whole bunch of kale for about 15 minutes. Melted a little coconut oil, added two cloves of garlic to soften, and then added the kale, juice from half of a lemon, and couple splashes of water. I steamed the broccoli on the stove. Hope you enjoy!