Healthier Taco Salad

There’s no reason a Taco Salad should be 2,000 calories. Supposedly the taco salad at Chipotle comes in around 2,140 calories. Holy cow! For one meal? I was craving a taco salad and wanted to make a healthier version so Michael took over with his culinary skills and created something pretty great.

First, he sauteed lean ground turkey meat with chopped onions and jalapenos, using cumin and cayenne seasoning. I prepared the “salad” portion. I filled the bowls with lots of shredded green leaf lettuce and topped it with some shredded cabbage.

I put pinto beans (they came in a chili sauce) on mine, and used plain black beans for Michael’s:

Next I chopped a tomato and added that along with some shredded Colby Jack cheese.

The turkey was done so Michael poured it onto the top of the salad.

A few dollops of Light sour cream, salsa, and homemade guacamole went on top of the turkey. We realized that we were out of black olives. 🙁 Sad! I LOVE black olives. So that was the only thing the salad was lacking, in my book.

Taco Salad

Piled high! It looks worse than it was, trust me! It was just the right amount of food. I crunched up some tortilla chips on top and dinner was served.

We did the math and decided that dinner was between 600-800 calories. I err on the side of 800 just in case and logged the higher number in the Myfitnesspal App where I log all my food/exercise. It was delicious!

Dessert was a piece of chocolate a coworker gave me.

Moonstruck Chocolate

I generously let Michael have a few bites of the chocolate before I devoured it. 😉

Dessert

I had had a decent swim at the pool Friday night. I tried out my new goggles and LOVED them. I finally found a pair that fit my face correctly. The pool was strangely cold, however, so the swim wasn’t as great as I’d like.

QUESTION: Is there a “lighter” version of a dish that you make? What’s the trick?