Black and White Bean Salad

This is one of my new healthy go-tos.

I found the recipe in a Weight Watchers cookbook, and was excited to make it. Once I made it, I loved how easy it was, but I wasn't thrilled with it as a plain salad. Now, let me say, I didn't let it sit so the flavors can meld, which makes a huge difference!

What I did soon end up loving is that I could use it so many way! I basically turned it into a bean salsa by adding more tomatoes, and I haven't looked back!

Best of all, it is so easy! Just mix the ingredients together, and use it to make recipes go a little further and taste a little better with something completely healthy.

Ingredients:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 small white onion, diced
3 tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste


Prepare:

Mix all ingredients together, let sit for about an hour, and eat!

If you look closely at the photos, you'll notice I'm missing an ingredient or two.

First, the original recipe called for one celery stalk. I didn't have one the first time I made it and didn't miss it at all. This time, I had some in the fridge that I wanted to use up anyway, but I don't think it added a thing to the flavor. It might taste pretty fresh in the original recipe that had only one tomato and was meant to be served as a cold salad, but it didn't work when we used it to make flat bread pizzas.

Second, the original called for fresh parsley. I never have any fresh parsley on hand so I doubt I will be making a special purchase just to add some here. I did try some dried parsley mixed with the vinegar before I added the other ingredients, but I didn't notice it and may just leave it out in the future. We do have an abundance of fresh chives if I want to keep that little bit if green color in there.

Like I said, we made flat bread pizzas with it today. Yum!! I placed a Flat Out Flat Wrap in the toaster oven on non-stick foil and let it crisp up a bit before adding about a cup of the salad and 1/4 cup of cheese. It took about five minutes for it to crisp up a and for the cheese to melt. Delicious! For the kids (and for myself when I want a smaller meal), I use the Hungry Girl Sandwich Folds. They are perfect for making two tiny pizzas for the kids.

Tonight we're having tacos and I plan to fill mine up with this salad, a mix of ground turkey and lentils, a little avocado, and lettuce.

My husband and I were brainstorming about other recipes we could use this in and here's what we came up with:

• Flat bread pizzas
• Tacos
• Taco Salad
• Burritos
• Nachos
• Omlette
• Wraps

Ok, maybe we can't think much past Mexican, but I'm sure there is a lot more. Anyone else have some ideas? I'm pretty sure I'll be making this a lot and, at about 50 calories for 1/2 cup, I'd like to come up with more meals.


Ok, let's just look at that awesome picture again and brainstorm about more meals we can make with this!

By the way, I'm getting with the program and working on getting more involved in other forms of social media! Come follow me and I'll follow back!