Easy Southwest Salad Recipe

I've been keeping up with the Love Your Body challenge and do the workouts daily.  The cardio part was a little slack last week... so Chap and I have committed to run 40 miles during these next two weeks!  We are certainly able to do it.  In fact, I'd already planned to run my own 10K on Sunday.  So far we are 6/40 of the way done.  As a former math teacher, I do love my fractions!

This regular working out and getting in shape makes me HUNGRY.  This is all well and good until it starts making me crave things that aren't very clean!  We have a bit of a blessing and curse right outside our condo.  There is a "mall" which I like to call a glorified food court.  Today after my Love Your Arms and Abs routine and two rounds of Love Your Abs, I was really wanting Moe's.  Now Moe's is not a bad choice if you make good choices while you are there.  You can be sure I would have wanted a FULL serving of cheese today and probably would have met my daily quota for sodium with the meat on it.  I also know that tonight my mom and dad are taking the Monkey and me to.... THE VARSITY! YUM!  So breakfast and lunch needs to stay pretty clean.  It's all about balance!

So.  Lunch.  Hungry and wanting Moe's.

Here's what I decided to make!  These are all ingredients we had on hand, and of COURSE other toppings can be subbed!

Southwest Salad
Start with a bed of greens.  I used a great baby kale mix.  Top with cubed avocado, sliced grape tomatoes, shredded purple cabbage, salsa, black beans, and 1/2 ounce of cheese.  (See?  I behaved!  I used a really nice aged white cheddar)  Drizzle with a little olive oil and squeezed lemon juice.

I love that this salad was Moe's-like but had healthier greens and great toppings that made me feel great! 

I will certainly enjoy The Varsity tonight knowing that I had a clean breakfast and lunch today!

What'll ya have?  What'll ya have?