Marinated Veggie Salad

Since starting Weight Watchers a few weeks ago, I've been spending a lot of time focusing on my own food and Joe has been a good sport.  He's been a really good sport about it and for the most part he's been eating the same things that I prepare for myself, just adding cheese or non-WW-Friendly tortillas or sauces or whatever else to his portions.  

Veggies have been the main component to most of the meals I've been preparing lately and I've really been trying to find new ways to use them up.  When I saw a recipe for a tomato salad, I knew that was something that Joe would enjoy a lot but I also knew we had other vegetables that needed to be eaten, so I switched things up a bit.  Since this recipe contains fresh tomatoes and more oil than I allow myself each day, this salad was all for Joe.  He was pretty pleased with the result.  

Marinated Veggie Salad
     adapted from pocket change gourmet

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes
• 1 Tbs. Kosher Salt
• 1 cucumber
• 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
• 3 mini sweet peppers, sliced into rings
• 2 tsp. garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 
• 1 Tbs. Balsamic Vinegar 
• 1 Tbs. fresh basil, torn or chopped
• 1 tsp. dried thyme 
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

Directions: 

• Slice cherry tomatoes in half and place in a bowl.  Sprinkle with salt.  Set aside for half an hour.  
• Peel and slice a cucumber in half lengthwise.  Then cut each half into thin slices. Place into large bowl.
• In a small amount of oil (or even a couple tablespoons of water), cook red onion, sweet peppers and garlic until tender.  Cool completely before combining with the cucumbers.    
• In a small bowl or dressing cruet, combine the remaining ingredients to create the dressing.  Shake well.  
• After the tomatoes and salt combined for a half an hour, add them to the other vegetables.  
• Pour the dressing over the veggie mixture and toss to combine.  
• Place into an airtight container and refrigerate overnight. 

Notes:  

• This recipe is so versatile!  This can be served as a salad as it is or toss with some pasta to create a delicious pasta salad side dish.  Add a garden salad and some crusty bread and you have a complete meal!  
• We don't use a lot of salt and although we cut the salt in half from the original recipe, this still seemed a bit too salty for our tastes.  So next time we will cut the salt back much more.