Southwestern Black Bean Salad

Yesterday marked my first official day of maternity leave! Wow, feels like just yesterday I was on maternity leave with my first baby and well, it probably feels like that because it practically was! 8 months ago that is. What bliss it was to sleep in past 5:30am and actually get to sit down for breakfast with my family and not rush out the door with my toast wrapped in a napkin. 

So now begins the waiting game for baby number 2. The official due date isn't for another 2 weeks but I really REALLY hope this baby will be a few days early at least. I feel like I deserve a break after being 14 long days overdue with my first baby. The longest 2 weeks of my life that was! 

So I spent yesterday doing some lazy cleaning and organizing, some might call it "nesting" but I don't feel like I'm really doing much other than throwing out mouldy food from the fridge and putting things aways that I should have put away weeks ago. I also laid out in the sun and started reading the much hyped about "Fifty Shades of Grey". I'm only on page 80 so I haven't formed a real opinion yet but I agree with my friend Ashley Faris that it's a "bit repetitive and tiresome at times".  But then so was the Twilight series in my opinion and apparently Fifty Shades started loosely based on that, so go figure. Have any of you read it? Thoughts?

Anyway, I also whipped up this little salad that I stumbled upon while checking out a fantastic blog called Skinnytaste which my friend Meghan mention on her cool blog here. So I guess it goes without saying that I also spent a good chunk of yesterday aimlessly blog surfing as well. Which isn't a terrible thing.

I was really happy with the results of this salad although I think next time I could beef it up even more with a chopped red pepper. I also added crumbled feta cheese as a garnish which really worked well as well as some cucumber and jalapeño which I had on hand. We served ours on the side with a grilled steak.

Southwestern Black Bean Salad
adapted from Skinnytaste

1 15.5 oz can of black bean salad, rinsed and drained
9 oz frozen corn, thawed
half a small container of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 shallot, finely chopped
juice of 1 lime
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
half a cucumber (peeled and chopped in quarters)
half a minced and deseeded jalapeño
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro (or more to taste)

Garnish with
feta cheese
chopped avocado

Mix all ingredients together and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes and then top with feta and avocado.