Southwestern Chicken Salad

A few weeks ago we went to O'Charley's for dinner and I had a southwestern chicken salad. It was HUGE! and very good! So last week I decided to try to re-create it for dinner--for Daddy and I anyway (the kids had popcorn chicken and mac & cheese). It was actually really easy to make and was very good. I did take a lot of help from the store (as Rachel Ray says). I would say it was really healthy too. So here is my very own recipe.

*1 bag of salad (I chose romaine, purple cabbage, and carrots)
*2 chicken breasts (we had some leftover from grilling out; that would be the best tasting option), cut into thin strips
*Taco blend shredded cheese (amount would be your preference)
*chopped onion, red pepper, green pepper (again, according to your preference; Daddy didn't do the onion and I was very light on the peppers) I found in Wal Mart's produce section, these "pre-made" salad kits. These peppers were already diced (which was more economical for me then buying 2 whole peppers) which was really nice.
*Corn--I bought one ear of corn and "grilled" it on my George Forman. Next time I would like to grill it on the grill and would probably get more than one ear. I lightly sprayed it with cooking spray and sprinkled it with taco seasoning.
*I also added chopped tomaotes (could use cherry ones) and sliced mushrooms--not so for Daddy.
*1 can black beans, rinsed well (we had a lot of beans leftover, but I don't know if I could have bought any smaller can)
*chipotle Ranch dressing-we made this ourselves. I looked at W-M for a bottle of it and didn't find anything that was close to what we wanted. We just mixed some Ranch dressing and some Chipotle sauce (made by Tabisco) and viola' our own dressing.
*tortilla strips: this was my favorite part of making this salad! Again, I looked for these at W-M and couldn't find them. So I made my own. I bought corn tortillas and cut them into very thin strips with a pizza cutter. I then put them on a sprayed cookie sheet, sprayed them with cooking spray and sprinkled them with Taco seasoning. Then I baked them at 500 degrees until they started to brown. For just a few seconds I put them under broil (I wish I would've done that longer). They were very yummy! The kids and I snacked on them all morning. They were the prefect topper to the salad.

So there you have it. My very own recipe. It was good. I had fun making it. It was mostly healthy. And we will have it again!