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Mexican Taco Salad

Mexican Taco Salad

First I just want to apologize for our bad photography. We have some of the worst energy saver lights in our apartment and we didn’t have enough room to fit the nice camera anyways and the battery charger for my camera got damaged, so phone cameras and poor light it is. But anyways, you get the idea.

So anyways, Tyler and I love Mexican food! Southern California kids and all so we were craving some taco salad action not too long ago. We had also found a really nice and ripe avocado so we figured there was no better time to make some taco salad.

What You Need:

Lettuce
Avocado
Tortillas (or chips)
Grated Cheese
Ground Beef
Dices Onions
Spices –
cumin (called guerra in Grenada), chili powder, garlic, salt and pepper are my recommendations
Kidney Beans
Sliced Sweet Peppers (the tasty small Grenadian bell peppers, bell peppers could be substituted though)
Salsa
and anything else you want to add in really – it’s a salad, anything goes.

First, saute the onions for a few minutes until soft, then add in the ground beef and spices. I cooked it until almost done (no longer pink) and then added in my kidney beans. I also added in some hot sauce (which is optional) to make it spicier. Since corn chips are not available here, I just microwaved some corn tortillas for about 3 minutes until crispy and golden brown and broke them up into the salad instead. As an added benefit, it is way healthier too. Then I assembled the salad by mixing all my freshly washed and chopped lettuce and veggies and topping it with salsa, using it like a dressing. Then top with the tortilla chips, meat mixture, cheese, sliced avocado. Simple as that. So yummy! Tyler calls this the manly salad since it is savory and hearty, he doesn’t do fruit and vinaigrette salads.
 

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Veggie and Bean Salad

Veggie and Bean SaladSo one thing we have noticed is that meat is not always a sure find. We have noticed a few too many times that the quality of meat is not exactly what we would like to eat – especially not as a major player in a meal. So, we have found that turning to other high protein vegetarian options can be a good alternative when good meat is not available.

So meet my first salad experiment: Veggie and Bean Salad. There is an abundance of local produce available that is all really, really affordable. It is a great meal staple and we buy fresh produce at least 2 times a week.

What you Need:

kidney Beans
chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
lettuce
carrots
sweet peppers (these are a local mini version of bell peppers, so delicious)
green onions
parmesan cheese
ranch dressing

You can add pretty much anything you can think of to this salad. We were of course trying to keep it to local produce that is nice and inexpensive. One thing you can add that is also local is cucumbers. They are everywhere and so fresh. Hubby is not so much a fan so I left them out.

Salad plus Eggs

Tyler added some hard-boiled eggs.

But as you can imagine, prep is a cinch. Chop up veggies and lettuce and toss in a bowl. Add kidney beans and chickpeas and cheese and toss with some dressing. Beans have enough protein for lunch or dinner. And the hubby added a hard-boiled egg to his (I don’t like them) which helped him embrace the idea of salad for dinner and make it a little more filling. Besides, if you eat something like this for dinner then you feel less guilty when you have a chocolate oatmeal cookie for dessert.

I am a sucker for a good salad and nothing like something that requires no time to make (hello – med student here) and is healthy and delicious. Sometimes heavy food plus Caribbean heat leaves me too tired.

Enjoy!