Mexican Fiesta Salad w/ Garlic Cilantro Dressing

Hey guys! Hope you all are having a great weekend! Well, I just looked in my gmail inbox and discovered that I was featured on Jenn the Leftover Queen's Finest Foodies Friday, which is also featured on the Foodie BlogRoll!

Muchas gracias, Jenn!! I am honored :o)

Today, I want to share with you my love of big salads with LOTS of color. Yellow & red bell peppers, orange carrots, red tomatoes, dark green lettuce, bright green avocados, etc... We all know it is important to have a variety of veggies in different colors to nourish our body's daily needs. We usually eat a big salad  2 or 3 times a week, but I usually try to have a good size bowl everyday. We also like to add a big scoop of lacto-fermented veggies (usually Cortido) on top to add more benefits and help us digest the raw fibers. So refreshing!

On a healthy note... A couple weeks ago I read an article from Dr. Mercola sharing the importance of eating good fats with tomatoes, but not just tomatoes... ALL your veggies too! I learned this a couple years back and since then I've always made sure to include good fats... olive oil, coconut oil and/or flax oil... in my salads. I don't remember when was the last time I used commercially made salad dressing on my salads. I don't enjoy those anymore as they are usually rancid, pasteurized, processed, contain soy and can have unhealthy ingredients. Even the organic ones on the grocery stores aren't the greatest. I have grown to really enjoy a simple mixture of olive oil and raw apple cider vinegar with a pinch of sea salt on most of my salads, but I do enjoy making homemade dressings to have some variety. Making your own dressings is very frugal and easy... all you need is a good arm and fork OR a good blender to mix all the ingredients in 5 minutes flat!

Here I got a fun Mexican-style salad and a wonderful garlicky dressing with a kick of cilantro. The baby corn adds a sweet crunch along with the pumpkin seeds. I usually like to add dried fruit of some sort with my salads, but I didn't really have anything on hand to go with this, but the avocado did a wonderful job of filling that void. Hmm... time to dig in!!

Mexican Fiesta Salad

• Red & green lettuce, chopped


• Carrots, sliced


• Red & yellow bell peppers, sliced


• Fresh baby corn, broken into chunks


• Handful cherry tomatoes, sliced in half


• Avocado, sliced and scooped out


• Handful pumpkin seeds


• Goat cheese


• Cortido

Toss all the veggies together in a big bowl. Top it with pumpkin seeds, goat cheese and Cortido. 

  Garlic Cilantro Dressing

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil


• 3 Tbsp. fresh lime juice


• 2 Tbsp. cilantro, finely chopped


• 1/4 tsp. dried or fresh oregano


• 5-10 garlic cloves, minced or finely chopped


• Dash of chile powder


• Pinch of sea salt


• Pinch of stevia powder (optional)

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and stir strongly with a fork. Pour over the salad and enjoy!

Tell me, what kind of homemade dressings do you like? Also, don't forget to enter for the Tropical Traditions Giveaway!