When I was a kid I was a pretty picky eater and the most difficult meal for me (and my poor mom) was breakfast. I hated breakfast. So time and time again my mom would work with me to find some sort of breakfast that I would be willing to eat. Once she found one, then I would go on a major food jag and would only eat that one kind of breakfast day after day after day, until I would get sick of it (I would literally gag at the sight of the food) and refuse to ever eat it again. She must have wanted to kill me some days…

As I got older I began to realize that obsessively eating certain foods was slowly ruining them for me (I still have trouble with Canadian bacon, for instance), so I pushed myself to alternate foods so this wouldn’t happen. As a parent, I have also worked very hard to encourage variety in my boys’ diets so that they don’t grow sick of any one food.

But the recipe that I am going to share with you today is actually what I eat almost every single day for lunch. How is that possible? Because it is incredibly flexible, I just use whatever I have in the house that day, so every day is different!

Another reason I love this dish is that you can make one or you can make 10 in about the same amount of time, so it is a great family dinner option when you only have 5-10 minutes to get something on the table. And bonus perk: everyone gets to add the toppings they like, so it gives little ones a nice sense of control over their meal.

Tostada Salad

 

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Prep time

3 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

8 mins

 

Author: Jessica Braider

Recipe type: Dinner, Lunch

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• Corn tortillas (2-3 per person)
• Cheese (shredded cheddar or mozzarella, feta, goat, really any cheese that melts well)
• Vegetable toppings (lettuce, kale, tomatoes, bell peppers, leftover roasted vegetables, avocado, cucumber, etc.)
• Salsa
• Optional protein toppings: leftover beans, chickpeas, meat, or tofu

Instructions

1. If you are using the oven, preheat to 400. If you are making 1 or 2, then the toaster oven works perfectly.
2. Lay your tortillas out on baking sheets and spread a small amount of the cheese.
3. Top with any vegetables you would like to heat up (peppers, tomatoes, and leftover roasted vegetables would all be good here) as well as any of the optional protein toppings you are using.
4. Place the tray in the oven or toaster oven and heat until the tortillas start to crisp around the edges and the cheese is melted.
5. Remove from oven and top with any other vegetables you want to add and salsa.

Notes

1) The trick here is to add lots of the vegetables, so that it really looks like salad on top of a tortilla and then the salsa is your dressing.
2) The benefit of using salsa as your dressing is that it has lots of flavor, so you don’t need to drown the vegetables.
3) If you are using kale, I recommend tearing up the kale and mixing it with a little salsa while the tortillas heat up. The acidity in the salsa will break down the kale a bit, making it more tender.

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