Taco Salad

I used to hate Taco Salad. When my mom made it, I would get so frustrated because I didn’t know how to eat it. You can’t poke a fork through corn chips! And I couldn’t scoop it up in my fork because it would fall through. I just couldn’t do it!! So so frustrating.

Then we had Taco Salad over Christmas break at Adam’s house I realized if I focused more on the salad and meat part and then added the crunched chips as extra it was more manageable. And I grew to love it. I felt like I was eating some awesome Costa Vida salad.

How did I not think of this before?!

So when I saw this recipe, I was really excited to try it because

a. I love salads in general

b. I had a new found love for taco salads

c. This was a totally different way to make it and it seemed so intriguing.

Here it is:

Taco Salad

[I didn’t feel like my picture was pretty enough, so I thought I’d share this one first. It’s look more impressive.]

1 Head of Lettuce, broken into bite size pieces

4 Tomatoes, cut in wedges

4 oz. Cheddar Cheese, coarsely grated

Toss together with Thousand Island dressing*

Add Salsa to taste

 

1 Pound of Ground Beef, browned

1 Taco Seasoning packet

1 Can of Kidney Beans (drained)

1 Onion

Simmer for 10 minutes

 

When ready to serve, add meat and bean mixture to salad with 1 sliced avocado and 1 ounce bag of Tortilla Chips, crunched. Toss gently. Serve immediately.

*Thousand Island dressing can be made with mayonnaise, salsa or chili sauce, ketchup and hot sauce. {I actually didn’t do this… explained later}

{my two cents:} So I did a couple of things differently. I don’t know if that’s against the rules, but I figured it’s my project so I can do it how I want.

I didn’t have Thousand Island dressing and mixing salsa with mayonnaise sounded good but I got too nervous to try it. Which isn’t good for this project, I know. But I figured I’d just take it slow. So instead, I mixed salsa with sour cream and used that to mix into the salad. It was good! It gave it a good zing and spice that I enjoyed.

With the meat, the original recipe actually doesn’t call to mix the meat with Taco Seasoning or brown the meat with onions. It only said to season the meat with salt and to cut the onion straight into the salad. But I’m a fan of browned onions and I think it gives lots of flavor. Also, I think Taco Seasoning is essential for Taco Salad. Which really did add a lot to it. We like spice. We love it actually. And it packed a lot of it.

Also, my avocados weren’t ripe yet so that was a bummer. We love avocados. So that would’ve been an awesome addition. And I would strongly encourage serving immediately [which is why it’s bolded, underlined, and italicized]. Adam came home from school late after I made the salad and the chips were really soggy. He said it was still really good and liked it. But I know he would’ve been more impressed with the crunchiness of the chips. So don’t forget to do that!

{here’s my picture}

 

See you can’t see the pretty green of the lettuce or the bright red of the tomatoes. I need to work on presentation…. but whatever. It was awesome!

Enjoy!