Baja - Ahhh.....

You know I try to cook for myself whenever possible, and when I'm unable to I aim for the freshest, healthiest restaurant fare available. However, there are those occasions when for whatever reason that's not possible. Last night was a perfect example. We were in the car headed to Ormond, already late in our departure. It was dinnertime, there was nothing portable at home to tote along, and I was hungry. Oh, and we had a wolfdog in the car, thereby limiting our dining out options considerably. Beren grabbed a bologna sandwich (ewww!) and some potato chips (groan) but I wasn't going to settle for that so I waited, and pondered. After about an hour on the road I asked him to pull into Wendy's. I'd seen ads for a new line of salads and wanted to give them a try. Perusing the drive-thru menu while holding back an overly-friendly dog who wanted nothing more than to greet the terrified attendant, I settled on the Baja Salad.



Looks pretty good, right? Until you check out the nutritional content: 740 calories and 47 grams of fat! Whoa, Baby! That's quite a bit of calories & fat for a "healthy" salad, don't you agree? Fortunately I was able to make some alterations. Since they forgot to include the packet of tortilla strips (maybe Loki had something to do with that) I didn't add those, nor did I eat the chili. I'm not a big meat-eater anyway, and honestly couldn't imagine dumping a bowl of hot chili on top of the cool crispness. By eliminating those items and only using half of the dressing, I brought the calories down to only about 450 calories. Still a bit high but avocado is good fat and I thoroughly enjoyed this salad, would definitely purchase it again should I find myself in a similar predicament.

Now, what I'd prefer to do is make my own (similar) version after a tiny bit of research I've found that I'm able to do just that! Thanks to Cooking Light, they never let me down!



Southwestern Cobb Salad


Other Time: 20 minutes minutes
Yield: 4 servings


Vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil

Salad:
3 slices center-cut bacon
Cooking spray
8 ounces skinless, boneless turkey breast, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 cups torn romaine lettuce
1/2 cup refrigerated fresh pico de gallo
1/2 cup diced avocado
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled queso fresco
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 (15-ounce) can low-sodium black beans, rinsed and drained

1. To prepare vinaigrette, combine first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add oil, stirring constantly with a whisk; set aside.

2. To prepare salad, cook bacon in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan; crumble. Wipe pan clean with paper towels. Increase heat to medium-high. Coat pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle turkey with salt. Add turkey to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until done.

3. Arrange 2 cups lettuce on each of 4 plates. Top each serving with about 2 teaspoons bacon, 5 tablespoons turkey, 2 tablespoons pico de gallo, 2 tablespoons avocado, 2 tablespoons queso fresco, 1 tablespoon onions, and about 1/3 cup beans. Drizzle vinaigrette evenly over salads.


CALORIES 293 ; FAT 13.6g (sat 2.5g,mono 7.2g,poly 3g); CHOLESTEROL 44mg; CALCIUM 117mg; CARBOHYDRATE 19.9g; SODIUM 455mg; PROTEIN 22.4g; FIBER 6.6g; IRON 3.1mg

Cooking Light, JULY 2010


With all of those calories I saved, I'll be able to enjoy a low-cal margarita for Happy Hour! Olé!!





Have a Beauty-Full Day,