Where Have You Been All My Life?

With our new healthier diet, I found myself searching for sauces, marinades, etc that were "allowed" . After examining most of the sauces that sounded appealing to me, I discovered that most of them were filled with sugar or cheese or some other component that is currently a "no, no" for our family.
Finally, I stumbled across a chimichurri recipe that only required minor tweaking to be acceptable. Preparation was a breeze and it was definitely love at first bite!!!
Not only is this recipe delicious, but it also has some great health benefits. Cilantro is a natural way to detox the body because it binds to the toxic heavy metals and removes them. (read more about this). And garlic has natural antibiotic properties. In fact, studies have shown that eating less than an ounce of garlic a week can help lower your risk of certain types of cancer and a clove per day can lower your cholesterol in as little as four weeks. (Energy Times, March 2000)

Cilantro Chimichurri
Ingredients
6 garlic cloves 

1 cup fresh cilantro
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup chopped white or yellow onion
2 tablespoons unseasoned brown rice vinegar (white wine vinegar may be substitued)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
coarsley ground black pepper to taste 
Directions 
Place garlic in food processor; pulse until finely chopped. Add cilantro, parsley, onion, vinegar, oregano and pepper flakes. Add olive oil in a thin stream and process until smooth. Add salt and pepper. Refrigerate, covered, up to 1 week. Makes 1 cup. 

I love the versatility of this sauce. I have used it as a marinade for chicken before grilling, a condiment to top steak, a base for salad dressing, a mix-in for hummus, a topping for turkey meatloaf, and a sauce to add to steamed veggies.. 
My kids even love it, although I have to omit the red pepper flakes for their taste. 

Enjoy!!!