My Yummy Taco Salad

I made my yummy taco salad for Memorial Day and it was, as always, a huge hit. Generally I add all the toppings to the salad and I get all artsy-fartsy with it, but with finicky ass eaters I put the toppings on the side...chopped onion, tomato and minced black olives (and I even stuffed one the the whole olives with tomato for presentation...LOL). I don't allow people to put Catalina dressing on my taco salad. Taco salad is to be served with sour cream and salsa or some sort of hot sauce.

The recipe will depend on your crowd size...this is the recipe I use for parties and such.

Ingredients

2 lbs ground round (you can use turkey or a higher end ground beef if you like)

2 packages Ortega taco seasoning (or seasoning of your choice)

1 head lettuce

1 head leaf lettuce

1 head romaine lettuce

1 (8)oz. bag of mild cheddar cheese (shredded)

4-5 roma tomatoes, chopped

1/2 large vidalia onion, chopped

Black olives (however many you like)

Sour cream

Salsa (jar of any type store bought salsa)

1 bag tortilla chips

Directions

Brown the ground beef on medium heat, drain grease (also use paper towel to soak up grease that didn't drain, making sure the beef is somewhat dry). Add taco seasoning following directions on the back of the package. Simmer for about 10 minutes and let stand to room temperature. Put into Tupperware, seal and put it into the refrigerator.

Chop up all the lettuce and put into bowl. When ground beef is cold, spread over the top of the lettuce, do the same with the cheese and chopped veggies. Serve with sour cream and salsa (a Tbsp. of each on top of each serving), and crushed tortilla chips on top (do not mix the chips into the salad...nothing worse than soggy tortilla chips).

Side note:

This is also really good to put inside of a taco salad bowl, which you can buy at the grocery store...its like the old taco salad "bowls" Taco Bell used...the flour tortillas shaped into a bowl and you put your salad in it.