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!

Book Club

At the beginning of the summer two of my neighbors, my sister and I all decided we needed to start a book club where we could get together every month and talk about a book, but mainly eat and drink (not to mention gossip). Last night we gathered at my place where I played host and we talked about the book, The Time Traveler's Wife, for maaaaybe five minutes. (half of us, I won't name names, didn't finish) Last month we read The Almost Moon and had a huge discussion about it...it's pretty effed up so there was much to talk about. Plus, Lara made a delectable spread of summer salads that we filled up on. So, how did I top her? HAH! I could never top Mrs. Newman and her homemade goodies...so here's my shot at it:

I didn't have much time between my hair appointment and our 7pm start time so I decided that pre-packaged food was going to have to suffice for the majority of my spread. I took Harris Teeter Moroccan hummus and Tuscan bruschetta and plopped them into two separate bowls and served them with Stacey's whole grain pita chips. I also had a veggie platter to tide everyone over while I whipped up my salad. I will spare you photos as I'm sure you all can imagine what those things look like :)

For the salad I cut up 2 avocados, 2 tomatoes, fresh basil and a ball of mozzarella cheese. While I was chopping and throwing the pieces in a bowl I was cooking up a box of sun dried tomato couscous which is the easiest thing to make since Easy Mac.
Once the couscous was ready I threw it in with the rest of the goodness, drizzled on some olive oil and balsamic vinegar then sprinkled some salt and pepper and a few tosses later it was ready to be consumed!

NOM!

While everyone was eating I had to whip up my oh-so-easy but omghowdidyoumakethis? dessert/appetizer (it can be used as either). It tastes the best warm so timing is everything. It's so easy and delicious you will nom your face off. Grab a wedge of brie cheese, your favorite flavor of jam (I like rasperry) and a tube of Pillsbury reduced fat croissants. Cut off the rind or crust, if you will, of the brie and roll it up into the croissant dough...make the ball kind of flat so the dough cooks all the way through. Throw it in the oven for 30 mins on 350. The brie will most likely leak out. Cover a plate with the jam, place the baked brie on top and serve with crackers!

Look at that ooey, gooey cheese!

And soon this, will look like this: