Post Workout Salad: Cherry Tomato, Chickpea, Avocado Salad with Homemade Italian Dressing

The beautiful simplicity of fresh ingredients. Inspired by the Italian cuisine and their love for simple, fresh flavors I made this yummy and easy salad yesterday after coming back from the gym. Though chickpeas aren't very Italian, they are one of my family's favorite sources of protein.

While I haven't talked much about our workout routine, every day (except Sunday) my hubby and I break up our day and go to the gym for about an hour of exercise followed by 30 minutes of relaxing in the sauna and steam bath. As you may or may not know we get up around 5 am. Since we work at home that's also kinda the time we start working. Around 10 am we both feel it's time for a break and go to the gym, make lunch and get ready for another half day of work.

Just as eating healthy foods, our body craves movement. Though your body needs a resting day too, every Sunday we kinda miss our exercising ritual. Strange isn't it how your body turns these things into habits and misses it when you skip a day. Kinda like not having one of my green smoothies a day.

But let's get back to the salad. After going to the gym we always feel so hungry, which is a sign of our body letting us know that we need to stock up on healthy fats, protein, carbs, vitamins, and minerals to give us the energy we need to tackle the rest of the day.

Proteins are important to build and repair tissues and build musle. Healthy fats are a great source of energy and help absorb the fat soluble vitamins. Carbs are another main source of energy. And vitamin and minerals are what they call trace elements involved in some many critical functions and chemical process in our body.

And this salad has it all... making it the ideal post-workout lunch to replenish our vital nutrients.

Ingredients

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For the Italian dressing

1 tbsp mustard ( I used Dijon grain mustard)
1 tsp maple syrup or honey
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

For the salad

1 cubed avocado
1 cup halved cherry tomato halved
3/4 cup cooked chickpeas
3 cups shredded salad greens of your choice

Directions

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1. Combine all Italian dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Wish well until combined. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine salad ingredients. Toss to combine and drizzle with Italian dressing.

Have a lovely Sunday Funday!

ALL CONTENT IS MINE AND ORIGINAL!
PICTURE(s) TAKEN WITH FUJI X-M1

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