Super easy GF side salads

I thought I would share some of my easy, flavorful side salads.  Some are actual lettuce types of salads with some homemade dressing ideas, others are more veggie salads.

This first one is super duper simple.  It is beautiful and the flavors just pop in your mouth.

Slice avocados, sprinkle with salt, drizzle with lime juice and top with cilantro.  Be sure to make a lot, because everyone loved this one.

For the next one, quarter Roma tomatoes, chop fresh basil, cube fresh mozzarella, dress with 1 part olive oil, 3 parts red wine vinegar & salt & pepper. Very fresh

Another visually beautiful salad to share is this asparagus salad. 1 lb thin stalk asparagus cut into 1" pieces. Steam for 5 minutes until tender-crisp. Let cool and place in bowl with 1 cup chopped fresh basil and 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved. For the dressing, combine olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. I personally used 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp Dijon mustard and 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar, but I prefer dressings on the vinegar side.

Super easy taco salad! Family pleaser!

This is SOOOO easy and a family favorite.  I used to throw everything together in a giant bowl, but now I just let everyone build their own....even easier for me!

Today I used seasoned lean ground meat (we actually use elk, which is super lean), bag of iceberg salad, low fat shredded cheese, sliced olives, a can of kidney beans (drained and rinsed) and of course my secret dressing.  Are you ready for it? Light sour cream mixed with salsa.  I do about 50/50, but you can use less salsa for a milder dressing.  We also crumble baked cheddar flavored chips over the top (check label for GF!)

On other occasions we have used onions, jalapenos, guac, tomatoes...whatever.  This is also a good, easy way to do a taco night!

As a time saver, once a month or so, I cook up about 4 lbs of ground meat that I season with taco seasoning.  I divide by the pound into zip bags and freeze.  So this time, I stuck it in the fridge to thaw overnight.  No need to heat it, as it is a salad.

The chips we used tonight are the Baked Cheddar and Sour Cream Ruffles.  Frito Lay's website has these listed as gluten free.

I can not stress the importance of checking your ingredients for gluten.  The taco seasoning we safely use is McCormick.

This took me about 5 minutes to throw together (mostly just open packages) and mix the dressing.  Doing the build your own feeds more people also.  I've easily fed 7-9 people with this amount of food.