Taco salad can be one of the most unhealthy dishes around when it comes to the fat content alone.

In the past, I avoided taco salads for that very reason. I have enough problems controlling my weight. Like most of the women in my family as soon as I hit the age of 25 my metabolism began slowing down and I began putting on weight. That coupled with a job that required me to park myself at a desk all day didn't help either.

It seemed like one of the only ways I could control my weight was to control what I put in my mouth. But I hated giving up my favorite foods, taco salad being one of those favorite foods. And we all know it's a fact that if we deny ourselves for too long what we truly desire eating, sooner or later we're going to binge.

So, I began learning how to take recipes that were not healthy and turning them into healthy ones, that way I didn't have to give up my favorite foods.

Here are some tips for turning your taco salad recipe healthy...

Jim absolutely loves the new way that I've been cooking baby carrots lately.

(And he's on the low-carb diet again, so it's difficult to find vegetables that he's willing to give up some carbs to! Carrots and green beans are good. For example, he can have 16 baby carrots at a cost of 6 carbs.)

These carrots are really quick and really easy. I've adapted this recipe from one I saw Alton Brown using on The Food Network.

Jim and I are fulltime RVers and we have been sitting in one place since New Year's Day, volunteering at Unicoi Sate Park in Helen, Georgia. But, we'll be leaving next week, headed out to Arizona for our summer job.

Whenever we get ready to move, I try to use up as many of the groceries as I can before we go. Tonight, I wanted to make spaghetti, but I didn't have any spaghetti sauce. I also didn't have all the things I needed to make it. So, I put together some things I did have and came up with a pretty good dinner.

It is gluten free, and low in fat and sugar, so it was good for both of us.

I like just about every style of cooking and every ethnic cuisine there is, but Mexican is my favorite.  I love it because it's so easy to prepare, and because it is very easy to adjust the recipes to be gluten free.

As a matter of fact, most things Mexican are naturally gluten free, if they start with corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas.

I learned to prepare lots of  Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes when I was living in south Texas. I also learned to love the chipotle flavor there. Chipotle is a fully ripened and smoked jalapeno pepper, so adding it to your food gives it a warm, smokey flavor.

I was surprised the other day when I found Knorr Chipotle Mini Cube Seasoning when I was in a Mexican grocery store in Gainesville, Georgia. I had never seen it before, so I bought a package to try.

I saw this in Better Homes and Gardens (July 2007). It's a list of ingredients that you can mix & match to make a variety of different fruit Smoothies.

I have to say... I am thoroughly enjoying my latest stint as a "cook". (Of course, I'm using that word loosely.)

This go-around, I've been taking tips from the "pros". Experimenting with lots of fun new easy recipes. And organizing recipes (including photos) in a recipe program I've had for years, but never fully utilized until now.

So far so good. Everything's been edible. And Jim seems to be enjoying this process, as well.

My biggest motivating factor has been The Food Network. For the past few weeks, I've been addicted to the Food channel on TV ...which before now, simply made me hungry. Now, it makes me want to try new things.

I'm at it again... my quarterly attempt to "try cooking up some fun recipes again". I consider it a personal challenge... and an attempt to overcome my lack of confidence in the kitchen.

I've decided that a large part of my frustration in the past has been threefold:

#1 ...trying to find enough quick & easy recipes that utilize ingredients that I already have on hand.

#2 ...trying to find enough tasty recipes that are quick & easy. Period.

#3 ...having enough decent cookware & tools on hand to make meals that will last more than one sitting (thus eliminating the need to cook so frequently).

My overall goal is to lessen the number of times Jim & I eat out each week. (Trust me, it's a lot!)

I'll address #2 and #3 in future articles. For me, Phase One in this process is to remove the intimidation factor by simply making the recipes adapt to my pantry (...rather than making my pantry adapt to the recipes).