I adore pot-luck style dining, especially the side items. I make a meal of those. I love the wide variety of casseroles and salads people bring. Unfortunately, most include either a) a lot of mayonnaise or b) a lot of sugar in vinegar-based dressings.

Looking for a way to lighten things up and brighten up the flavors at my get-togethers, I recreated a three bean salad I once fell in love with at a party. Filled with protein and bursting with flavor (not half a cup of sugar), this Three Bean and Feta Salad makes a wonderful side dish to add to any group gathering. Or to have as a meal at home if you wish to pump it up with either some added vegetables, pasta, quinoa, or protein.

Versatile, light, and delicious.

Sugar-Free Three Bean and Feta Salad

Servings: Makes 6 cups, 12 1/2 cup servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Chill Time: 2 hours or longer

Ingredients

• 1 15 oz can no-salt-added canned, cut green beans
• 1 15 oz can kidney beans
• 1 15 oz can white cannellini beans
• 1 small red onion
• 1 small bunch fresh flat leaf parsley, yields about 1/2 cup finely chopped
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• sweetener to taste (I used 5-6 drops of NuNaturals Alcohol Free Liquid Stevia)
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Step-By-Step

Drain and rinse all three cans of beans in a colander. Add to a large bowl. Finely chop the red onion and parsley. Add both to the beans. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and liquid stevia. Pour over the bean and onion mixture. Toss to coat. Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Toss the mixture again and top with crumbled feta before serving.

Don’t you love a Sunday afternoon/evening where you know you don’t have the typical Monday business ahead of you? Long live the three day weekend! And I hope you are having a good one so far!

While I certainly don’t have any plans to write home about going on tomorrow, I did have quite the good day yesterday.Remember that feat of accomplishment I shared with you yesterday morning?

Well, I wasn’t about to let that milestone pass me by without a formal celebration. Psshaw! I wanted to party and do it up right! And if you know me at all by now, then you know that means some good eating, don’t ya?  

You better believe it.

I had one thing on my mind to commemorate my first venture into double digit mileage territory: The Flying Biscuit. AKA some of the best breakfast grub around.

I fell in love with their well-known grits, biscuits, chicken sausages, and more a little over a year ago. Most of the locations aren’t convenient (kind of like paying to eat breakfast out), but certain times call for going out of the way and doing the unusual. Especially when it includes 50% off savings thanks to Scoutmob. For the record – you need to see if you can use Scoutmob deals in your area if you don’t know about them already. You don’t have to pre-purchase the deal like other group discount sites. Use what you want, when you want. Thanks so much to Lee for cluing me in!

After going back and forth over the menu, I finally settled on a decision that would get me a little bit of everything that I pine after at The Flying Biscuit.

The Egg-stravaganza!!! And an extravaganza it was! Check it out….

The infamous fluffy, creamy, want-to-know-how-they-make-them-so-dang-good grits.

A giant, soft, warm, homemade buttermilk biscuit – with fresh apple butter!!!

Spicy, full-of-flavor, chicken sausage and turkey bacon alongside two perfectly scrambled eggs.

Two slices thick-sliced, whole wheat french toast topped with a fresh raspberry compote and a honey cream glaze (heaven in my mouth).

I wanted to try a bit of everything and planned to share my dish with Makenzie. Turns out, ten miles will make a monster of my hunger.

Total and complete domination! I ended up fighting lovingly giving Makenzie bites of my food. Oh, come on. Let’s be for real, here. I gave the kid the bare minimum and then told Peter to cough up his food. He wasn’t the one who ran ten miles. Girl’s gotta eat!

And you know what I did after that? Went straight home and crashed with a three hour nap. It was pure heaven and the absolute best way to celebrate reaching ten miles. It couldn’t possibly have been better. Well, besides that little thing we call DQ that made a special appearance later that night to ease watching the UGA loss.

Told ya. A very good day indeed. Who needs big holiday plans after a day like that?!

• What have you been up to this weekend?
• Does a challenging workout make you more ravenous than normal?