1st Recipe!!! Pasta Taco Salad

Delicious dinner and my attempt to convert you from sour cream to Greek yogurt!





Today's Activity was 1 hour with my Trainer, whole body and 40 mins cardio.



Tonight's Delicious Dinner was Pasta Taco Salad. Here ya go!





Ok, I will try to remember what I did!





Ingredients: 1 package Wacky Mac noodles (They are multicolored, fun shapes)


-OR- 1 box Tri color Rotini


1/2 lb. Ground Beef (lean, 93/7)


1 pkg Low Sodium Taco Seasoning


4 "stalks" (?) Green Onions


1 single serving of plain Greek Yogurt (about 4 Tbsp or the whole 4 oz container)


4 Tbsp of Salsa (any heat level you like)


1 Avocado


Head of Romaine


Several sprigs of cilantro


4 Tbsp Low-fat shredded cheese (whatever you like, I used the Mexican blend)





Cook 2/3 of the package of noodles per directions. Brown the beef, then toss in the green onions. I just ripped them into small sections with my hands. Then add package of Taco seasoning with 1/2 cup of water. Allow water to cook out mostly. In a medium size serving bowl, add Greek Yogurt and Salsa. When noodles are finished, drain well and then throw them in the bowl on top of the salsa/yogurt. Then throw in the beef mixture. Halve and pit the avocado and score into diced-size sections with knife and scoop out of the peel into the bowl with the other ingredients. Toss everything gently, but mix the sauces well. Take your Romaine and break with hands into bite-size pieces and fill your personal bowl halfway or more. Spoon Pasta Taco mixture onto the top, maybe about 1/2 to 2/3 a cup? For each serving, top with 1 Tbsp shredded cheese and several leaves of cilantro, again torn with your hands or cut up to release flavor.

Really good! Really healthy! NO ONE will know its Yogurt and not sour cream and lots of yummy veggies! And I can almost promise your kids wont detect the avocado or green onions if they are picky eaters, which was my reason for tossing everything with the salsa and yogurt instead of putting it very beautifully on top, in layers. If you are serving to adults, you may want to layer instead, which is really pretty (I did this with my Bestie yesterday for lunch with the leftovers). In this case, the first layer is big chinks of hand-torn romaine, then pasta, then beef mixture, then salsa and yogurt in dollops (about a 2 tsp each), then diced avocados, and last shredded cheese. This looked much more appetizing and pretty, but does not serve to hide anything from picky eaters. Yesterday, I also spritzed the top with a couple of sprays of the Fat-Free Ranch Dressing Spritzer. You can share, but give me credit so I can publish my cookbook someday haha!

P.S. Bestie's description was, "This is REALLY decadent!" Gosh, don't I love to hear and taste "decadence" while KNOWING how good a meal is for my body???

Now, check out this chart I made on Low-fat Sour Cream vs. Greek Yogurt. Make the switch!!!!