Winter Salad (Beets, Pear, Goat Cheese)

I'm now in the home stretch: five more days on the Whole 30. But I'm not feeling anxious to get to the end. In fact, since I've given up sugar, my feelings about my diet are much more relaxed.

I can't say I've been one hundred percent perfect on the Whole 30, however. For example, we bought some chicken meatballs at Costco and I ate them for several meals before checking out the ingredient list. Yup, there is a very small amount of sugar in them. Oh well. They are delicious mango jalapeno meatballs and I don't even pretend to regret eating them!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love watching Food Network? I am ridiculously addicted to almost every show on there. The other day, I was watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and I saw a chef somewhere making an AWESOME salad. I wanted it. Immediately. And I realized I had every single ingredient needed to whip up that bad boy myself. (Is it just me, or did that sentence sound wrong?)

First, you should make the salad dressing. Don't buy some lame crap in a bottle. That is so lame.

But to make this salad SUPER easy, you can purchase pre-cooked organic beets! Yes! We found a large package at Costco. Inside, there are 4 vacuum-wrapped plastic pouches, each containing 5 cooked and peeled beets. All your prep work: DONE. You can also purchase a huge tub of organic baby salad greens, prewashed. What more could you ask for? I'll tell you. NOTHING.

Ingredients:

For the citrus dressing:

1 TB dijon mustard
1 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 TB freshly squeezed lime juice
1 TB freshly squeezed orange juice
1 TB rice vinegar
1 TB mirin (rice wine)
5-6 TB extra virgin olive oil
dash of sea salt
dash of pepper

Mix everything and whisk well. Taste and season again if needed.

For the salad:

5 sliced cooked beets
1 chopped fresh pear
5-6 cups fresh baby salad greens
5-6 TB goat cheese
1/2 cup roasted sunflower seeds
(I also tossed in some cut-up pork chops for protein. You could add chicken instead. Or keep your protein separate.)

Toss the beets and the pear in the salad dressing. (Just use as much dressing as you need to coat well.)
Throw salad greens on top and toss everything together. If you need more dressing, just add a little at a time. Top with dollops of goat cheese and seeds. Serves several not-too-hungry people.