The other night, my friends and I wanted to get together for dinner. Instead of going out, we decided to cook a meal ourselves. For less than $50, we bought enough food to feed 8 people, which comes to around $6 a piece (not counting the alcohol we bought to make sangria).

Medium

Prep Time: 8 minutes
Cook Time: 14 minutes
Total Time: 22 minutes

Servings: 8

Taco salad

Photo by Meghan Walsh

Ingredients:

1 bag of romaine lettuce
1 cup of pre-chopped green peppers and onions
1 red pepper
4-5 avocados
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (Mexican blend)
1  container of sour cream
1 jar of chunky medium salsa
1 packet of taco seasoning
Blue corn tortilla chips
2 packages of lean ground turkey (or lean ground beef)
1/2 a lime
2 cloves of garlic
Coarse salt (to taste)

Directions:

Cooking the ground turkey (or ground beef):

1. Spray a frying pan with pam, then turn the stove to medium-high heat and let the pan warm up. While the pan is heating, chop up half of the red pepper, add the red pepper and chopped onion and green pepper mix to the pan.

2. Sauté the vegetables until they are slightly brown, then added the ground turkey. With a wooden spatula, break up the turkey in the pan, mixing it with the vegetables until the turkey is browned on all sides.

3. When the turkey is mostly cooked, you can add the taco seasoning and some of the medium salsa, about half the jar.

4. Continue to mix and chop the turkey until it is completely cooked through (aka no pink or red is showing).

Prepare the guacamole:

1. Chop up the garlic and sauté them in a pan.

2. While the garlic is sautéing, mash up the avocados in a large bowl.

3. Squeeze the lime  into the avocado.

4. Add some of the salsa and a pinch or two of coarse salt.

5. When the garlic is browned, add it to the bowl and mix everything together.

Putting it all together:

1. Chop up the lettuce and have everyone make their own salad by filling a plate with lettuce

2. Add the turkey, medium salsa, shredded cheese, sour cream, guacamole and some blue corn tortilla chips.

Enjoy Your Meal!