Mean green salads!

Happy Friday Peeps! 

Salads are such a refreshing meal to have for lunch or dinner, don't you think?  Especially on a hot and humid day.  I like it different, not too plain or traditional.  The hubster loves when I make a good, fulfilling salad.

This salad was a light one, having baby spinach, baby kale, cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots, and some pine nuts. (I put some kind of nut in every salad.) The carrots took on the color of the beets that I used in the dressing.  It had a nice soft sweetness to it.  This dressing is called Magenta Goddess Dressing (beet dressing).  Again, I took the recipe from my Beauty Detox Recipes book.

Here are the ingredients of the dressing:

2/3  c water
  1   very small clove garlic
  2   Tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2  tsp sea salt
  1   tsp low sodium tamari*
1/2  tsp powdered stevia  (to sweeten, if desired)
3/4  chopped raw beets
1/3  c almond butter (raw or un-roasted)

Use any combination of dark and light leafy greens for your salad.
Yields about 1 3/4 cups

Directions:
Place all the ingredients, except for the almond butter, in a blender.  Blend until smooth.  Then add the almond butter and blend again.

* For those of you that do not know what tamari is, it is very similar to soy sauce.  Both are made from fermented soybeans, only tamari doesn't contain the wheat that soy sauce would.  Tamari is also less salty and gluten free.

This next very yummy salad, is made up of different greens and veggies with a healthy store bought dressing.  No measurements, just toss it all in to your desired amount and enjoy!

These were my ingredients:
2 small cooked beets, cubed
1 medium avocado, cubed
1 small red pepper
1 small orange pepper
1 handful of pin nuts
1 handful of walnuts, broken to smaller pieces

Baby Kale
Baby Spinach
Romaine

This is the dressing:

One of my favorites.  All natural, no sugar, no MSG.  Personally, I don't like putting too much dressing on.  I prefer a light coat with just a hint of dressing.

The avocado added a nice texture to the salad once you put the dressing on and tossed.  A big dish of this, and you have a nice filling salad to enjoy alone, or perhaps with a glass of wine :)

Try one of these salads and let me know what you think.  Or, if you tweaked it with your own special ingredients.  Tweaking always turns out best!

What ingredients are in your favorite salad?