black bean and corn salad.

i'm not much of a low carber. i've tried repeatedly to eliminate carbs from my life but after too many carb-free days, the familiar and all encompassing carbocide takes over with much warning. like every "diet," eliminating an entire food group or resticting yourself will always come back and make you take too many bites, thus making your ass bigger. nobody wants that. however, in this day and age i know it's better to eat less processed carbs and more healthy grains; basically putting the veggies and fruits first is still the golden rule.

with this rule in mind, i went to the grocery store to buy some ingredients for a side dish to bring to a bbq that my lovely friends mere and jeff were hosting yesterday afternoon. walking around the store i chanted veggies, veggies, veggies as my mantra and made it home and started chopping..

first combine 2 cans of corn with 1 can of black beans (rinse the liquid off of the black beans).

*and sorry this picture turned out so blurry, i continue to spaz at all times.

then seed and chop 2 roma tomatoes, 1 orange pepper, 1/4 red onion:

i added all these veggies, a big handful of roughly chopped cilantro, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

next came the dressing (which i forget to photograph, sorry!) ----
juice and zest of 2 limes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flake
3 tablespoons olive oil

but wait, slow down! before you add the dressing, dice up two soft and rich avocados and add to the veggies:

the reason i had the dressing all prepared and ready to add is because avocados can be a bit finicky. but if you dress them with some sort of acid (here it was lime of course) then they stay nice and green. so i mixed in the avocado and immediately added the dressing before putting the whole salad in the fridge. the flavors really meld together after and hour or so.

and even more delicious the next day when eaten with triscuts as dippping vehicles. enjoy!