Recipe: Healthy Taco Salad

by Heidi on October 31, 2012

So we’re having a pot luck today at work. I was originally going to make a pasta salad until I decided that that was too much work for me. I didn’t want to chop all the veggies.

So instead, I did a little research, thought about making my famous Four Layer Dip (Lexi knows this dish…) but instead, I did a bit of googling around for a taco salad. A cousin of mine (well second cousin) makes this amazing taco salad that she always brings to my family’s annual reunion in Vermont (that I haven’t been to in like four years…) and I was looking for that recipe, or something similar.

Instead, I found this gem – which turned out to be super easy despite my cooks errors (i.e. I added too much taco sauce and didn’t add olives because I don’t like them or guacamole because well…I couldn’t find any).

Disappearing Taco Salad
Recipe via Healthy Jalapeno

Ingredients
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 jar Taco Sauce
One 15-ounce can refried beans
1 cup guacamole
1/2 med. head lettuce, chopped
1 med. onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped and patted dry
1 (6 oz.) can pitted ripe olives, sliced
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
Tortilla chips
Directions
In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese and the taco sauce until smooth with a pinkish tint to it. Make sure cream cheese is softened. Or use a hand mixer to save time. (lesson learned the hard way…see first picture versus second picture).
Kitchen Aid hand mixer is a life saver. Unfortunately I added WAYY too much taco sauce. Whoops. If it wasn’t still raining I’d have ran over to the Wawa to grab another brick of cream cheese.
Next cook and spread the beans evenly over cream cheese mixture. I had a problem with this because I’ve never found that beans spread easily. I kind of ended up mixing them. Also, don’t buy store brand refried beans. They don’t cook or spread well at all.
Finally, spread guacamole (if you use it), then the lettuce, tomato and olives. Top with cheese and voila!
I bought organic corn tortilla chips – here’s hoping it’s a hit tomorrow despite my amateur hour cooking skillz.

What’s your go to potluck dish to share?

{Credit where credit is due…recipe source A Healthy Jalapeno}
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Tagged as: eats, healthy living, life, potluck, recipes

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