Costa Vida Salad Recreated

     Currently, only one Costa Vida restaurant exists in all of Texas.  Sadly, it is located a 3 1/2 hour drive north of where I live.  Since moving away from the western states, I have sorely missed Costa Vida salads.  Unable to fight the craving any longer, I recreated it at home.  This is the fast version, you could also do your research and make it a little bit more legit.  But, I didn't have time for that and I needed my Costa Vida fix immediately! I simply thought back to my BYU days and put myself back in the Costa Vida line, watching them pile the layers into my tinfoil bowl and gathered the necessary ingredients from my kitchen.  Here's what you need: 

Tortillas (store bought or home made - mine were store bought but homemade would make it taste much more like the restaurant)

Rice ( Costa Vida uses "cilantro lime rice", but I had left over Spanish rice to use up, so I just used that )

1 can black beans

Chili Powder

Chicken,Beef, or Pork

Salad greens

Tomato or pico de gallo 

Guacamole

Parmesan Cheese

Ranch

Tortilla strips

1.  Place your tortilla on your plate.  Scoop your choice of rice onto the tortilla.  (To make spanish rice quickly, just boil some rice and then add in salsa to taste).  

2. Drain the black beans and then empty into a bowl.  Sprinkle with chili powder, mix.  Add black beans on top of the rice.  

3. Next add your choice of meat.  I really love the sweet pork salad but didn't have time to make that so I simply boiled some chicken, shredded it, and mixed in some peach pineapple salsa to give it a sweet taste. 

4.  Pile on the salad greens. 

5.  Scoop chopped tomatoes or pico de gallo on top of the salad greens. 

6.  Add guacamole. 

7.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. 

8.  If you have tortilla strips add those too, I didn't have them. 

9.  Add the ranch.  Or whatever salad dressing you choose. 

Voila!  You have a Costa Vida salad to satisfy your craving and it only took 20 minutes!