Southern Girl's Southwest Chicken Salad

I found this recipe on Pinterest a couple months back, but never got the chance to try it out because it got lost in the mix. Sunday, while scanning my Skinny Girl Food board, I decided to give it a try. I also saw my new BFF (best fit friend) Megan had tried this recipe before. She gave it to thumbs up, so all the ingredients were purchased. I altered it a bit so I am calling it Southern Girl's Southwest Chicken Salad:

1 can rinsed and drained black beans (low sodium is best)
1 can rinsed and drained yellow corn
1 diced green bell pepper
2 diced roma tomatoes
1 head chopped iceberg lettuce
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
¼ cup chopped green onion
2 cups diced chicken breasts (ours were leftover grilled from the night before)

Dressing:

¾ cup plain greek yogurt
½ light mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning powder
1 tablespoon taco seasoning (I used Taco Bell brand)

Prepare all diced veggies and add to a huge bowl (make sure this bowl is huge—I had to transfer everything half way through because my bowl was too small) Add diced chicken and mix everything well. ***(EDIT: After eating my salad for lunch the lettuce was way wilted. Next time I'd mix everything and package separate from lettuce, adding lettuce in right before eating)***
 

 

(this was taken before mixing. To see what the finished salad looks like, click on the link above with the original recipe--I forgot to snap a picture when it was done!)

 

 

Mix all dressing ingredients in a smaller, separate bowl. Add a little bit at a time, mixing in between adding. Do not add all the dressing at one time because you probably won’t use it all. I had about ¼ of the mixture left. Serve chilled.

The recipe I used also included crushed tortilla chips and two diced avocados. I wanted to eat this throughout the week so I didn’t want the avocados to turn brown and ruin the rest of it. I also didn’t want the added calories so left tortillas out. I had to leave out green onions because it started raining and I planned to pull these from our garden! I took a little taste before packing my lunch and oh my word it was delicious. My salad yielded 13 cups (yes I measured into another bowl to calculate) and I served myself two cups for lunch today. Two cups—a huge serving will only set you back 231 calories!

This is the perfect "take to work" lunch as it requires no reheating. Sounds good to me! It does take a little while to prep so don't try to do it before you leave in the morning like I did. Oops!