quick and easy taco salad

Friday night, I met a couple girlfriends at Pure Taqueria in Inman Park. I'd been to the location in Woodstock once, but had never tasted the food. So Friday night, I splurged and sampled the queso gringo, crispy taquitos, sangria and skinny margarita.

Everything was amazing. The queso...well what female doesn't like cheese?! The entrée was quite large, and I was able to take home half of it for dinner the next night. The sangria was cheap and tasty, thanks to the splash of grapefruit soda. And the skinny margarita, though pricey, was well worth the no-guilt feeling on the way home. According to the menu, it was just tequila, agave nectar and lime.

But every once in a while when you're female and struggling with a Mexican craving, you'd like the option to appease your tastebuds as well as your waist line. Enter Easy Taco Salad.

Easy Taco Salad

Ingredients

• 1 to 1.25 lbs lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup of water
• 9-ingredient taco seasoning (recipe)
• spinach
• shredded cheese
• salsa
• tomato
• avocado

1. Prepare taco seasoning according to recipe. We've tried a couple different recipes in the past, but this is the best one by far. Just make sure you have all the seasonings on hand.

2. Brown beef, then drain.

3. Add 1/2 cup of water and seasoning mix to beef.

4. Mix with spatula and return to medium high heat, allowing mixture to simmer 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Fill bowls with spinach, then top with meat mixture, shredded cheese (except for strict paleo-ers), salsa and tomatoes. I'd highly recommend sliced avocado on top; somebody just happened to eat all of ours earlier in the week.

PS--James has to use our small mixing bowl because our regular bowls aren't large enough. We don't normally eat out of metallic bowls :)

And what's so great about this meal is that it's easy to pack up the leftovers for a couple days lunches.