Southwestern Turkey Spinach Salad

I was at the Austin Barefoot Running Meetup Group and happened to overhear my friend Mo say he wanted to find recipes for Paleo salad dressing. If you look at salad dressings in the store, you'll find that even the ones that say "olive oil dressing" are made with canola or soybean oil.

I was at work and came up with the salad above. Please note that the real salad I ate was about three times that size. What you're seeing is the last bit of my meal arranged to look nice on a plate.

To make this into a Zone meal (to give it a 40-30-30 ratio of carbs, protein, and fat), eat the entire salad with an apple or other piece of fruit. Your meal will contain about 350 calories.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup cooked ground turkey
2 to 4 cups baby spinach
1/4 large avocado
1 to 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (start with 1 Tbsp and add more to taste)
2 to 3 Tbsp pico de gallo or fresh salsa (salsa from the jar won't taste as good)
salt and pepper (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a cup or small bowl, mash together the turkey and avocado.

2. In a large salad bowl, toss together the spinach, lemon juice, and pico de gallo.

3. Add the turkey, avocado, salt, and pepper to the spinach. Mix well so that some of the oil from the avocado coats the spinach.

Primal Holiday Party

A while back, a bunch of us in the Austin Primal Living Meetup Group enjoyed a Primal Holiday Party potluck at Elexia's fabulous house. Some of the food we ate is pictured below.

I think the make-your-own salad fixings that Bryan and Tracy brought were a great idea. The chicken was cooked perfectly, and boy, were those raspberries good!

Some people on the Paleo/Caveman Diet eat cheese and some eat dark chocolate. I don't personally usually eat these things, but everyone follows the diet differently. The cheese is raw cheese and the chocolate is 85% dark.

I think most of the other dishes are self explanatory. Oh, and there were two varieties of cooked mushrooms.

Not pictured but consumed later on:

- Large, delicious shrimp (yum - thanks, Elexia)
- Stir-fried beef heart (uh, interesting - thanks, Elexia)
- Cantaloupe
- Pomegranate seeds
- My caveman cupcakes


What a fun night! If you're in Austin, feel free to join the Austin Primal Living Meetup Group or the Austin Natural Movement Meetup Group for fascinating events like these with laid-back, nice people.