I should first say that I didn’t have much faith in this experiment when I started out. I had been missing my old school taco salads in the taco bowl but…baking tortillas has never really worked that well for me.

Then I got inspired to play with my food by two women who I admire: one on television and one in the online forums I frequent.

First, Melissa D’Arabian baked up a tortilla as a part of one of her $10 Dinners. Then my friend Denise from OH shared a tip on baking tortillas that helped bring it closer to the consistency I wanted for this endeavor.

With that, I’m happy to present this with a caveat: if you are a newbie, this recipe is probably one to file away until you’re a year out or so. I know, I know…bummer…but patience! You have the whole rest of your lives to eat this stuff. And your patience will be RICHLY rewarded!

Nik’s Taco Bowl Salad

Ingredients

1 whole wheat/low-carb tortilla (I use La Tortilla Factory. This time I used the large size but if you have a smaller capacity you can certainly do the taco sized)
A few sprays of low-calorie butter spray
1 c. salad mix of your choice
1/2 – 1 c. prepared taco meat
2 tbsp unflavored Greek yogurt
2 tbsp your favorite salsa

Equipment needed:

4 oz. ramekin (or if you are using the smaller tortilla, a cupcake pan)
A baking pan (if you are using the ramekin)
Aluminum foil

Directions:



If you are using the ramekin (for the larger sized tortilla), place a large rectangle of aluminum foil in your pan.

Place the ramekin in the center of the pan and spray it with nonstick cooking spray.

Lay your tortilla over the ramekin and press it into a bowl shape (this requires some “pleating”)

Spray the outside of the tortilla with butter spray (thanks Denise for this tip!)

Fold the aluminum foil over the edges of the tortilla to cover them.

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes with the foil around the edges of the tortilla. Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes with the aluminum foil off.

Remove the shell from the oven, remove the ramekin from the shell and allow it to cool a few minutes before handling.

Fill with your salad, taco meat and fillings and enjoy!

This is a good one to serve the family as well. I did not as I made the divas their once monthly “I’ll cook you whatever you want” dinner (which was fried chicken, mac ‘n cheese and sauerkraut…what up with my kids and sauerkraut???) but they were intrigued enough to request their own taco bowls for dinner later in the week.

The stats on the La Tortilla Factory tortillas are great. The one I used had 80 calories, 18g of carbs, 12g of fiber and 8g of protein. So if you’re gonna eat a tortilla, this is one to eat!

And the answer to the inevitable question I will get…I took a close-up pic of this thing so it looks a lot bigger than it actually is…but just the same, yes, at 3 years post-op I was able to eat the whole thing, was satisfied, and didn’t need a thing else all night. My pouch is pretty forgiving when it comes to good, healthy food!

Nik's Taco Bowl

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