Healthy and Delicious Fiesta Salad

This recipe is fresh and full of fiesta flavor! This is a HUGE salad so you will feel nice and full with just 343 calories! It's very easy and quick to make and will give your body tons of nutrients and long lasting satiety!

Serves 1

343 calories per serving

Nutrition: 343 calories, 25 carb, 8.8 fat, 34 protein

Ready in 5 minutes

Low Calorie/High Volume so you stay fuller longer on fewer calories!

Ingredients

2 cups romaine lettuce, cut into bite sized pieces (16 cal, 3 carb, .2 fat, 1.2 protein)

1 cup baby spinach (5 cal, .5 carb, 0 fat, .5 protein)

¼ cup shredded carrots (11 cal, 3 carb, 0 fat, .2 protein)

1 tomato, diced (22 cal, 4.8 carb, .2 fat, 1.1 protein)

2 tablespoon cilantro, loosely chopped

¼ cup frozen corn (33 cal, 7 carb, .4 fat, 1.2 protein)

2/3 cup cooked taco meat (taco meat recipe here), I used 93/7 ground turkey (200 cal, 0 carb, 8 fat, 23 protein)

For the dressing:

¼ cup plan nonfat Greek yogurt (32 cal, 2.5 carb, 0 fat, 5.75 protein)

¼ cup salsa (24 cal, 5 carb, 0 fat, 1 protein)

Instructions

In a small bowl, mix the Greek yogurt and salsa for a delicious low calorie dressing.

Warm the taco meat and frozen corn in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute on high. 

Combine the ingredients with the dressing. Eat right away.

Gluten Free, Tree Nut Free, Peanut Free, Noom, Paleo, Keto

If you love coconut, lime, and cilantro flavors, you will LOVE this soup!

It comes together really quickly, which is perfect on days when you want to eat something FAST! 

Substitutions

If you don't have or don't like some of the vegetables, substitute them for other ones. The calorie count will need to be adjusted.

Vegetarian or Vegan

To make this recipe vegetarian or vegan, omit the taco meat and replace the yogurt with a plant based yogurt or sour cream. The calorie count will need to be adjusted. 

Dairy Free

To make this recipe dairy free, simply use a dairy free yogurt or sour cream substitute instead of the yogurt. 

Benefits of Using Herbs and Spices

Everyone knows that herbs and spices are a great way to add flavor to your food without adding additional calories, but did you know that they also have many health benefits? 

Cilantro/Coriander

Cilantro/Coriander is one of the world's oldest spices, and is a classic remedy for tummy troubles. Additionally, it has been documented in the Journal of Environmental Biology to be a treatment for cholesterol and has been shown to decrease "bad" LDSL, and increase "good" HDL.

Garlic

Garlic is one of the world's most potent natural medicines. The medical database of the National Institute of Health contains more than 3,200 studies on the therapeutic power of garlic. Many of those studies are about preventing, sower, and reversing cardiovascular disease-- the heart attacks and strokes that kill more Americans than any other health problem. 

Chili Pepper (Cayenne)

All chilies have healing properties, but the hotter the chili the ore therapeutic it is. Two of the many awesome effects of chilies are it's a pain killer, and can help you burn more calories. 

Capsaicin is a proven pain killer. Capsaicin creams, which are approved by the FDA, can have a dramatic and long-lasting anesthetic effect on a variety of painful conditions. Additionally, several studies show that eating chilis increases the rate at which you burn calories. The effect can last for 20 minutes to six hours. As if that wasn't reason enough to eat more chilies, dozens of studies have found that capsaicin causes death to tumor cells in test animals and human cell cultures. 

Cumin

In a study, scientists found cumin to work as well as glibenclamide (Diabeta) to reduce levels of cholesterol and triglycerides heart-damaging blood fats in animals. the animals also had a "significant reduction" in blood sugar, lowered levels of A1C and lower levels of damaging fat and inflammation in the cells of the pancreas. Additionally, it may help prevent and/or treat cancer.

Onion

Onions are rich in quercetin, a powerful antioxidant that has been shown to slow the growth of cancer cells, stow the growth of cancer  cells, stop cancer cells from migrating to other parts of the body, and force cancer cells to die in a variety of ways, such as cutting off their blood supply or activating cancer-killing genes. Additionally, the "Journal of Medicinal Food" showed that onions lower blood sugar. 

Black Pepper

Researchers in Thailand tested piperine in animals with Alzheimer's-like brain changes and found the extract "Significantly improved memory impairment and neurodegeration {the destruction of brain cells]." Additionally, the "Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology" showed that piperine lowered blood pressure in laboratory animals. Piperine is an alkaloid found in black pepper. 

I wrote a very informative blog post about the health benefits of cooking with spices, go here.

For expert level learning about healing spices, I recommend the book "Healing Spices" by Bharat B. Aggarwal, PhD. Get it on Amazon here.

Isn't this such a beautiful and flavorful salad?