Delicious Reading: “Emily Bites” and Doritos Taco Salad

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Is anyone else’s air conditioning having trouble keeping up with the heat and humidity of this Missouri summer? I try to do everything I can to not add any extra warmth to the house during the day: we draw the shades, I don’t run the dryer and I try to use the stove as little as possible. See you in September, Oven.

Brooke Clubbs

It was when I was looking for a main dish salad that would require little preparation that I discovered the blog “Emily Bites.”

This blog highlights “lightened-up comfort food” and was created out of the author’s attempts to follow the Weight Watchers’ maxim, “If you bite it, write it.” In her quest to eat healthier, she began cooking more, and then started documenting it. She is very up-front about how she is a cook, not a chef, and just tries to makes things she likes to eat that she can feel good about eating. A fun feature of her blog: in addition to being able to look up recipes by type (such as salads, sandwiches, side dishes), you can also look them up by craving (such as “Buffalo flavor”) and number of Weight Watchers’ points.

This Doritos Taco Salad is a great main dish salad that provides just enough snack chip flavor to satisfy cravings and enough lean protein and veggies to be a nutritious choice, at just 4 Weight Watchers’ points per serving. It was amazing how the addition of “Doritos” to the title got even the members of my family who aren’t salad fans to the table, where they cleaned their plates.

Doritos Taco Salad

Yield: 14 Cups

Ingredients:

1 pound 95 percent lean ground beef or ground turkey

1, 1.25-ounce packet reduced-sodium taco seasoning

1 medium-large head of iceberg lettuce, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 medium-large tomato, diced

4 ounces 50 percent less fat or 2 percent sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

4 ounces Nacho Cheese Doritos, broken into bite-sized pieces

1 cup light Catalina or French dressing (such as Kraft Lite Catalina)

DIRECTIONS:

Brown the ground beef or turkey in a skillet over medium heat, breaking it up into pieces with a wooden spoon. Add the packet of taco seasoning and stir until well coated. Set aside.

In a large serving bowl, combine the lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and ground beef. When ready to serve, add the Doritos and dressing, and toss to coat.

Note: I also added a can of drained and rinsed black beans with the meat.