Sunday, March 29, 2009

Ole, Ole

Tonight I was craving my favorite Mexican chopped salad, but thinking I would probably be the only one to eat it (dad is MIA in tax season) I wasn't very motivated to cook & chop. We've mostly be eating Ikea meatballs, Trader Joe's Pizza, and spaghetti for the past month or so without Dave around. Then...I came up with a brilliant plan.

I told the kids it was Mexican night. I had Emma go put on her Mexican skirt and I printed off Mexican flags to use as place mats. I wrote Ole on our napkins and then I put all the ingredients that I would normally mix together to make the salad on the table in individual little bowls so the kids could put on their own toppings. They actually tried jicama, bell peppers, green onions, and black beans - all of which I know would have created a big "ewwwww" had they been mixed in their salad on any normal dinner night. I actually couldn't believe how much of everything they ate. It was one of those nights that I gave myself a brownie point!

Anyway, it's a delicious Mexican chopped salad. Here is the recipe if you're interested in trying it. I love it! I used only Bell Peppers as I didn't have the others on hand. Honestly you can put whatever you want in it...what makes the salad is the dressing! Yum Yum. Also, I found these fun tortilla salad topping chips (the red, blue, and yellow slim ones like you would get at a restaurant) and the grocery store and they were a big hit! Ole!

Ingredients:
Canned corn
Green onions
Red, yellow, orange peppers
jicama
Black Beans (drained)
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Avocado
Tortilla chips
chicken or beef optional

Cook the chicken in Lawry's seasoned black pepper (if you don't have the seasoned just use a little salt and pepper, I've done it both ways). Chop all ingredients into small pieces. For dressing mix one cup of Ranch dressing with 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce. Mix and done.

3 comments:

Clarkson said...

Only 17 more days until April 15th!

Qwendykay said...

We aren't cooking much either these days. Thank goodness for Organic Arthur Loops (like Spaghetti-O's) they save me at dinner time.

One night I had to hit Sprouts, and told the kids to pick 3 things out to eat for dinner. I was shocked that they picked out cottage cheese, kiwi's, and applesauce. They thought it was awesome to "buy whatever they wanted" I was stoked not to have to make dinner.

Alyson said...

This is one of my very favorite types of salad. Anytime we go to CPK or Cheesecake Factory, this is what I have. Yum...thanks for sharing the recipe! I think this will be a staple for us this spring/summer...