Happy Insides

For our dinner tonight we made a vegetarian taco salad. Admittedly neither of use were super excited about this meal, but it turned out to be delicious! The flavors are so good together that you don't miss having meat in the meal at all.

The recipe originally called for brown rice, but we substituted it with quinoa as it cooks much quicker than brown rice and both of us just like it a lot better. It was a great swap that really complimented the salad. We also omitted the salt as the tortilla chips were plenty salty for the meal. Our final swap was to substitute spinach for regular lettuce leaves.

Vegetarian Taco Salad
adapted from Eating Well Magazine June 2010

2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 c. corn kernels
4 large tomatoes
1 1/2c. cooked quinoa.
15 ounce can of black, kidney or pinto beans rinsed
1 T. chili powder
1 1/2 t. dried oregano
1/2 c. cilantro chopped
1/3 c. prepared salsa
2 c. shredded spinach
1 c. shredded Jack Cheese
2 1/2 c. coarsley crumbled tortilla chips
lime wedges for garnish

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and corn; cook, stirring, until the onion begins to brown. Coarsely chop 1 tomato. Add it to the pan along with rice, beans, chili powder and 1 t. of oregano. Cook stirring frequently until the tomato cooks, about 5 minutes. Let cool slightly.
2. Chop the remaining 2 tomatoes and combine them with the cilantro, the salsa and the remaining oregano in a medium bowl.
3. Toss lettuce in a large bowl with the bean mixture. Add the cheese and the salsa mixture. Top each serving with a portion of the chips. Garnish with limes. Squeeze some of the lime juice on the salad at the table.

Serves 6
Per Serving: Calories 395, 17 g. of fat, 52 g. of carbs,14 g. of protein, 9 g. of fiber