Cowboy Caviar

As usual, Weight Watchers has tweaked their program again this year.    I'm a lifetime member so I picked up the latest program literature and found that they have reduced the total number of points you can have while allowing many high protein foods to the zero points list, like white meat chicken and turkey, fish, eggs, legumes, tofu, etc. along with the usual fruits and vegetables.     It reminded me of a recipe I once tasted called "Cowboy Caviar" which is loaded with a bunch of filling 0 point foods.    I adjusted the typical recipe to make it more WW friendly and more to my taste buds (less oil and sugar, more vinegar and chili powder.    Delicious and perfect for work lunch!  Since there is a lot of chopping involved, I like to use a food chopper to get all the vegetables uniformly small, one like this works well:

Cowboy Caviar

3 T olive oil
3 T  sugar
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 T chili powder
1 t salt
5 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 (15 ounce) can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (11 ounce) can super sweet corn, drained
1 red onion, diced
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1 cup chopped cilantro

In a canning jar, measure the olive oil, sugar, white wine vinegar, chili powder, and salt.  Shake to combine.  In a large bowl, add tomatoes, black-eyed peas, beans, corn, red onion, and bell peppers. Stir to combine.  Stir in cilantro.  Add dressing and stir until evenly distributed Cover and chill at least 1 hour or overnight to blend flavors. Serve chilled or at room  temperature.

Is your New Year's Resolution to try to eat more vegetables?  This recipe can help.  Happy New Year!