Taco Salad

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, tomorrow I'm going to whip up a quick taco salad that is really healthy.  I know, healthy isn't the most appetizing adjective to use for a dinner but during the weekends, we're always on the go, so a light, filling meal that we can eat quickly is always good for us.  When I used to think of a taco salad, I would think of that delicious deep-fried taco-chip bowl that restaurants serve, not to mention lots of sour cream and other sauces that I mix around and saturate the salad with.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE those kinds of taco salads.  However, my husband would be asking to lay off the sauce on his salad so I had to come up with a better solution.  This idea came partly from a friend years ago and I also added some of my own favorites in there, too.

Chopped Lettuce (regular ice berg or romaine works the best)
1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained (again, you can use ground chicken for this, too)
diced tomato
diced avacado
sliced black olives

Toss it all together in a big bowl with Italian dressing.  ***Don't saturate it!!***  Just start with a couple of drizzles and go from there.  You don't want too much of the Italian flavor but you want to get the salad to blend together a bit.

Now, I like to eat it just the way it is, with a little cheese sprinkled on top, some spicy salsa and a little dollop of 0% fat Greek yogurt (because I'm crazy like that).  My hubby likes to crush up tortilla chips over his and add spicy salsa and taco sauce.  This is like the fajitas, and the taco soup---everyone has their own favorites when it comes to toppings on a taco.  Go wild with it!

One last thing: you'll notice that there's something missing from the ingredient list, and that's taco seasoning.  If I were making actual tacos, I'm sure I'd throw in some seasoning while browning the meat.  With this salad, it's so much lighter without it and the Italian dressing proves to be enough.  This makes a great summer meal so enjoy!