Taco Salad

Last week I was surprised when they ate up their salad, lettuce greens and all. They usually pick out what they like and then leave the rest. We made taco salad tonight for dinner and while it was still a little too spicy for them (I have to perfect my own recipe to make it more toddler friendly) they ate most of their dinner tonight.

1 small bottle 1000 island dressing
1 envelope reduced salt taco seasoning
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 small can drained sliced black olives
3-4 diced roma tomatoes
1 small onion diced
shredded lettuce (2-3 large hearts of romaine, 1 large butter lettuce or iceberg)
1 c. cubed cheddar cheese
1 c. pepper jack cheese
fritos corn chips

Mix dressing and taco seasoning in a small bowl.
Put all salad ingredients in a large bowl and add dressing to coat.
Top with fritos.
You can also add grilled chicken or leftover taco meat if that floats your boat.

Toddler review 12/7/11-
Toddlers ate all their salads. I meant to defrost some ground beef to add to it but I forgot. There were lots of other proteins in there so I think it was fine. Everyone sampled black olives a few days ago so I thought they would like it on their salad. M ate three little people's helpings of olives since the girls picked theirs out. We or may not put olives in there again next time. Lord knows I picked them out of my taco salad for years.

Another update 8/24/2012-
We tried a new recipe pretty similar to this with black beans instead of kidney beans, no cheese, added chicken, corn and avocado.  The dressing was the pits but the substitutions made for a great salad.  We'll have to try it out again.