Moderately Nutritious Taco Salad

I have this problem, in that I not-so-secretly love Taco Bell. It wasn't such a big deal when I was in Boston, where people think it's a good idea to mix Mexican food and Cajun food, but when I moved to the southwest it became kind of a point of embarrassment. My only problem with Taco Bell food was that the ground "beef" was so greasy that I could rub a taco on the wall and create a stained glass window. Since lately I've had to hide my love of the 'Bell lest I risk being shunned by the local population, I cobbled together my own ghetto approximation of a Taco Supreme and was delighted to discover that this version won't melt my taco shells with grease.

Ingredients:

0.5 lb ground turkey (or 2 turkey-burger patties if you are super-ghetto like me)

1 tomato

2-3 giant handfuls of lettuce from a premade "salad in a bag" 1 stick lowfat string cheese

1 tbsp nonfat plain Greek-style yogurt

1 tsp cooking oil

1 packet McCormick "Chicken Taco Seasoning"

0.25 cup water

0.25 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

4 small burrito skins (YES ZAHNNIE, I SAID BURRITO SKIN AND NOT TORTILLA)

I actually wrote this recipe just so I could say "burrito skin" because it really pisses Zahnnie off. I won't lie.

First, heat up the oil in a pan, then dump in the ground turkey. Fry it up until it's not raw (turkey is extra great because it tastes a lot like beef when it's all fried up, but doesn't lard up your pan or intestines). Dump half the pack of Chicken Taco Seasoning into the pan (and save the other half for next time), along with the water and swirl about (dump in the cilantro too, if you have some). Bring the concoction to a boil (shouldn't take long) and let the sauce reduce until you have a nice pile of cooked taco filling (you know what that looks like - basically, "not soup"). Once that's done, hack up the lettuce, dice the tomato, and shred the cheese. Smear a bit of the Greek-style yogurt in each burrito skin, then assemble your tacos the way you've seen them done at Taco Bell. Bonus points if you make some guacamole and apply it to your tacos with a caulking gun.

I don't know if it's because I eat tiny servings of food now, or if it's because homemade tacos are a whole lot more satisfying, but I've found this recipe makes 4 servings. You can stretch the turkey filling farther by ditching the burrito skins and making taco salad by adding more lettuce and tomato. Just slop all the ingredients into a bowl and stir.