After a relaxing weekend, it was time to get back to cooking delicious meals. Last night, we tried a variation on one of my favorite meals, with this Layered Chicken Taco Salad. I mainly used the recipe to get an idea of what ingredients to use and how to put it together. As often, I made my own changes to make it more appealing to us. I started by marinating my chicken breasts for about 4-5 hours in the fridge before grilling them. I used 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 TBSP lime juice, and 1 tsp garlic powder. I mixed it together and put it on my chicken. When it came time to eat dinner, I heated up my grill pan and cooked the chicken for about 7 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, I rinsed and prepared spinach and romaine lettuce. I topped that with a can of corn that had been drained. Mike chopped up some Roma tomatoes and a red pepper. After the chicken was done grilling, I let it set a few minutes and we sliced it and added it to the salad. We garnished our salad with cilantro, scallions, cheese, tortilla strips, and some spicy ranch dressing. The salad was yummy! It was the perfect meal to end a weekend of relaxation and didn't overstuff us. I've made several variations of this meal before and I will definitely make it again soon.

The New Austonian