Garbanzo & Avocado Salad

New Year's Eve was a low key night for my group of friends, so we decided to do a potluck... my fav! I was also, unfortunately, on painkillers because of a back injury so I had to take it easy. I'm just glad I didn't spend my money on this party! NYE is totally overrated anyway and it's impossible to even find a cab, so you freeze your butt off, drink too much and start the new year feeling shitty. Low key is my cup of tea.

Every time the word "potluck" is thrown around I start scouring my favorite food blogs to find the best recipe. I try to lean towards healthy, however I just love love love baking, so often times I go for the goodies. So for this party I FINALLY was able to make a decision and it was a recipe for these delicious looking cookies (more on those at a later date) however I soon came to realize that because my girlfriends and I have a trip booked to Key West in a couple weeks everyone was on a diet! Like, no carbs, no alcohol, no gluten, no sugar, no food, don't eat anything diets. (I kinda am too at the moment, don't judge) I knew my cookies would be left uneaten, so I switched gears and found this salad. I was definitely going out on a limb, but was such a hit!

I took out the ingredients I don't like (although, I kept the onion for flavor) and I tripled the recipe. Good thing my boyfriend was there to get all the juice out of the SIX oranges I had to juice... I swear my hand was sore the next day!

Garbanzo & Avocado Salad (makes 2-3 servings; total cost per serving: ~ $1.85)
- adapted from Poor Girl Eats Well

1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 small Roma tomato, diced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 small red onion, diced
1 large avocado, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
Small handful of cilantro, finely chopped (optional)

Dressing:
Juice of 2 medium oranges
1 T rice vinegar
1 t olive oil
1 T honey
1/8 t salt
Couple pinches of cayenne pepper
A very generous amount of ground black pepper

Prepare the dressing by whisking all dressing ingredients together until completely combined. Combine the beans and all the veggies in a medium bowl and toss together with the dressing. Garnish with extra black pepper if you like, serve over plenty of fresh greens or by itself, and enjoy!

Strong 'Ranga arms needed to squeeeeze the oranges.

Blurry onion shot. ick I hate onions.

Into the dressing you gooooo

Cilantro is optional, but I highly recommend it.

I need to work on noticing lighting when I'm taking pics... bad shot.

Next time I want to add more tomatoes. NOM!

Final product!

This salad was so delicious, so easy, filling and HEALTHY! Ben and I were able to eat it for lunch the next day too! I will definitely be making this again. Happy 2010!