Welcome back guys!! Are you all enjoying this Cinco de Mayo inspired week as much as I am?! If you guys haven’t noticed, today I am sharing my favorite healthy fajita salad.
I posted a while back on How To Build A Healthy Salad, so in honor of Cinco de Mayo coming up, I thought I would share a Cinco de Mayo version!
At Mexican food restaurants, the fajita salads can be a little….heavy to…say the least. They are usually HUGE, have a ton of cheddar cheese, tortilla chips, are covered in a fattening dressing and are high in sodium. This is all no bueno.
This salad though, is great! It’s light, delicious, and gives you an extreme amount of nutrition! I make chicken fajitas a lot in our home. To say it’s a staple still doesn’t do it justice.. Plus it’s super easy to make!
So what makes it healthy? The fact that the fajitas are cooked in avocado oil and marinated only in chili powder, which means its very low in sodium and cooked in healthy fats. The rest of the salad is filled with veggies, and topped with homemade guacamole. Then instead of drenching the salad in a fattening dressing, I use salsa as the dressing! Salsa has about 10 calories per TBSP as compared to most dressings which have 120 calories plus! So that alone is a big game changer.
Also, you’ll notice in the pictures that I have little bowls of sliced bell peppers. This is my number one tip on eating healthy when having Mexican food in general! Basically, to have as a snack, I’ll chop up bell peppers, and use them to dip in guac, queso or salsa instead of tortilla chips! Even when I eat out at restaurants, I ask them for sliced bell peppers instead of the chips. Yeah, they always look at me like I’m crazy, but it’s so worth it!
BUT LETS GET BACK TO THE SALAD!
Here’s how you’ll make it.
Ingredients (Serving 4)
Two Large Chicken Breasts
4 TBSP Chili Pepper
2 TBSP Avocado Oil
2 TBSP Water
Bag of Spinach
1 Avocado or already made guacamole
1/2 Yellow Onion
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
4 oz goat cheese
Directions
For the fajitas
Start to heat up a large skillet on medium heat. While heating, add 2 TBSP of Avocado oil & 1 TBSP of minced garlic into skillet.
Next, slice chicken breasts into long pieces and coat in chili powder. Turn skillet onto high heat and place chicken into skillet.
Once the chicken starts to brown. Add sliced onions, and bell peppers on top of the chicken. Cover the skillet and cook on low – medium for about 5-8 minutes or until the vegetables start to soften.
Remove lid from skillet. Add two TBSP of water to the skillet and cook on high until the water is almost gone and the chicken is fully cooked.
For the Salad (per salad)
Start with 1-2 cups of spinach.
Add 1/4 of the fajita mix to the top of the salad.
Add 1/4 of avocado to salad or 2 TBSP of guacamole.
Next, top with 1 ounce of goat cheese and 2-3 TBSP of fresh salsa!
Enjoy!
Be sure to tune in tomorrow for a margarita recipe!
xo,
Lauren