Spicy Chipotle Southwest Salad

I was looking through my one food magazine and saw this amazing looking picture of a Southwest Salad with a Spicy Lime Ranch dressing. It looked absolutely amazing.....from the dressing straight to the corn chips that were on top.  I had it in my head all day that I was going to recreate something like it....and this is what I came up with.  I'm not going to do the nutrition on this, because you can top it with whatever you want. I think all around, each of my salads were about 400 cals with a nice balance of fats, proteins and carbs.   For mine, I did asparagus, avocado, roasted tomatoes, black beans, chicken and cheese.  My hubby got roasted peppers, avocado, roasated tomatoes, black beans, chicken and cheese.  When I met him he LOVED asparagus.....now he hates it.  I think I over-asparagused him last year with my over abundance of chicken and asparagus during my show training.

I didn't have corn chips or Spicy Lime Ranch....so I decided to make my own dressing and my own chipotle crisps to go on the side -- a much healthier alternative to topping with over salted and over processed corn chips.

The dressing is easy:  1/4 cup Plain Greek Yogurt, 1/4 cup Plain Almond Milk, 1 tsp Sriracha, 1 tsp Mrs Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning, 1-2 tsp of Ranch mix to taste.  It serves up as 2 servings - 25 cals each.

The chipotle crisps were easy.  I took a low carb wrap and sprayed it lightly with EVOO cooking spray. Sprinkle a little bit of Mrs Dash Southwest Chipotle and toast until lightly browned.  Then I cut into wedges and put on the side.

On Sunday, when I was meal prepping, I made my go to shredded chicken, but I also cut up tomatoes, spread them on a sprayed cookie sheet, and sprinkled with Mrs Dash Basil and Garlic seasoning and roasted.  I did the same with the peppers.  It's so easy to roast your own vegetables.  I keep tupperware containers full of them to easily grab for breakfasts, lunches or dinners.  It really cuts down on the prep time when making meals.  Get it all done in one day!  I do asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, and red potatoes every week.  In addition to my chicken and veggies, I also cook up turkey sausage for breakfasts, scramble eggs and egg whites for the hubby (I don't eat scrambled eggs in any form. Something about them makes me gag), and hard boil eggs.  Having everything available and cooked makes it easier to pick healthier alternatives.

I did 1/4 avocado on each salad.  Here's a tip on keeping the rest of your avocado...place in a container or bag and squeeze with lime juice.  It will prevent it from turning brown! I used to shy away from buying avocados because they would always turn brown before I could use them up.  This solves that!

Now my presentation wasn't as pretty as the one in the magazine, but I can say it was yummy.  It was so filling I literally had to stop and take a breather mid dinner.  It's packed with healthy fats, protein and balanced carbs -- a perfect, healthy dinner.  Enjoy!