I’m not quite sure why it’s often referred to as Cowboy Caviar. I guarantee that no cowboy on the range is preparing Cowboy Caviar!

When my doctor recommended a whole food, plant based diet to bring down my blood glucose and cholesterol numbers into a healthy range, I had to do some learning. And I pulled out my Forks Over Knives recipe books that I purchased a few years ago, thumbed through and shoved in my dresser drawer.

I'm embarrassed to admit that there was a time in my life that I scoffed at vegan diets. These Forks Over Knives magazines came highly recommended by a dear friend of mine. But I didn't do much with them. I also found a couple vegan recipe books that I had purchased by April Ashcroft, Whole Food American Favorites and Whole Food Goodness. They are worth adding to your recipe books! And, of course, I have googled recipes...then tweaked them slightly to my liking, according to how I prep food, and adding essential oils because I love using doTERRA's essential oils in the kitchen on a daily basis.

I’ve tried many recipes and, when I’m feeling creative, I browse through these books again and again to find what I might try with ingredients I know I have on hand. Cowboy Caviar is an easy one…yet it turns out differently every time I make it.

So, here’s my tips! I participate weekly in a product coop. I let the coop pick my fruits and veggies, often I choose add-ons, and I get it all at a really great price. Each week the contents are a little different.

When I’m making cowboy caviar, I chop up whatever veggies I have in my fridge, working to get every color of the rainbow in my bowl. I add a couple different cans of different kinds of legumes for variety–i.e. black beans and garbanzo beans or red kidney beans and great northern white beans (rinsed WELL!), throw in some pumpkins seeds, some sunflower seeds, season it with fresh squeezed citrus juice…whatever I have in my fridge…lemon, lime, grapefruit…along with 6-8 drops of doTERRA’s cuisine blend essential oils (my favorite is Mexican Cuisine™ blend) and some scalar salts and mix it all together. It’s ALWAYS very pleasing to the eye and the palate! I make sure I eat a bowl after my prep and then I store the leftovers in glass jars as my food prep for the week (often my sons help me eat it and it doesn't last but a couple days.